Normally the prerogative of the left wing white middle class to squander time and energy on misguided crusades on the grounds of political correctness with no acknowledgment of historical context, it seems that Birmingham's bungling right wing leaders have nothing better to do with their remaining months in power than rewrite the city's once proud industrial working class history.
Cabinet member for regeneration, Councillor Tim Huxtable has objected to the term 'gun' and approved an official name change for the small area of back-streets around St Chad's Cathedral traditionally known as the gun or gunsmith quarter after the small artisan gun makers who flourished in the area some hundred to two hundred years ago.
What do you think?
Is the term gun quarter the wrong message for our city and will visitors to Birmingham really believe that we Brummies are a town of aggressive and militarised pistol toters? Or will they display the same level of insight and intelligence as the rest of us and assume that the name may just have something to do with it being just one of the city's legendary 1000 trades, many of which just happened to be localised?
1 comments:
When I heard that the decision to change the name of the Gun Quarter to St George's and St Chads Quarter I had a sneaky feeling that there was more to this than just a PC change. In this day and age to name something after religious saints is to say the least peculiar. Some investigation shows that the Cllr behind this nonsense Tim Huxtable is a member of the Society for the protection of the Unborn Child.
So the reality is that Huxtables promotion of this idea has more to do with pushing the religious agenda and less to do with not wanting Birmingham associated with guns.
I wouldn't mind betting that these 50 signatures come from Huxtables personal religious contacts.
There is now a petition not to change the name which has 4500 signatures.
http://www.savethebirminghamgunquarter.co.uk/
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