Your Monday Briefing is out now, ft: 🌞Birmingham🤝Barcelona: why we should mimic the Spanish second city, according to lead commissioner 🐈‍⬛The cat saved in time for Christmas 🚮 Bin strikes won't hurt investment, claims mayor 📽️Things to do 📸Photo of the week + more

West End actor Andy premiered his take on Santa in the Noughties, at a Birmingham leisure complex famous for its stabbings. 20 years later and he's still donning the red suit, having witnessed tears, tantrums and even the odd Christmas miracle!

The McDonalds ramp is an unexpectedly iconic spot in the city centre, beloved by frazzled shoppers, teenagers and bemused passers-by. But what do we know about its grand history as the Exchange building?

Your Monday Briefing is out NOW: 🤔Why has Sandwell cllr Sukhbir Singh Gill changed parties TWICE in quick succession? 🚨The bogus accountant jailed for visa scam 👮Craig Guildford hauled back to parliament on Maccabi fan ban row 📸Photo of the week 📰Our media picks +more.

The CBSO's audiences are on the mature side. In 30 years, most of the current attendees (to put it as politely as possible) will have bowed out of life. Can the historic orchestra persuade young ppl that classical music is for them - and keep the show going?

'Dirty' games and scathing letters - Birmingham City Council faces backlash for its approach to selling off parks.

Monday Briefing out now: 👮 West Midlands police to be grilled by parliamentary home affairs commitee over Maccabi Tel Aviv 🏗️ Smithfield archaeological work starts 🐕 Ayoub Khan MP recounts fatal run in with aggressive dog + more

Eric spoke to Samuel McIlhagga at @birminghamdispatch.bsky.social for this brilliant article on the seminal Penda's Fen and its impact today. www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/pendas-fen-r... #pendasfen #birminghamdispatch #penda #pinfin #pinvin #worcestershire #midlands #midlandshorror #folkhorror

Our Christmas quiz is fast approaching! Make a team, test your general knowledge and ring in the festive season with The Dispatch. £100 prize up for grabs 💰

Monday Briefing out now: ⁉️AWOL cllr in Hall Green 🚨West Mids Police 'false intelligence' on Maccabi claims 🎲Cluedo comeback +more

'Good leaders don't have to be good people.' In today's story, Ed King sits down with Birmingham Labour's chief whip cllr Ray Goodwin.

A cluster of Birmingham academics have made a Birmingham university a leading institution for porn studies in the UK. Who knew BCU was home to such a spicy discipline?

Who knew, it wasn’t patriotism, it was money. And maybe a choice slot on GB News. These amateurs learning that if you lie to a good journalist, they’ll just fact check you. Nice work @birminghamdispatch.bsky.social www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/the-men-who-...

The men who raised the flags Nigel Farage says this summer’s movement was led by ‘ordinary people’ expressing their patriotism. That’s not what we found Brilliant work from @birminghamdispatch.bsky.social and @manchestermill.bsky.social www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/the-men-who-...

Once again, @birminghamdispatch.bsky.social are getting to the bottom of the people behind the flags. Go and subscribe if you haven't already www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/the-men-who-...

Data acquired by The Dispatch under freedom of information laws lays bare which assets have been sold since the council went bankrupt in September 2023. 💸 Over the last two years, a whopping 1,000 assets have been flogged for a total of nearly £230m. 🔨

Earlier this year, The Telegraph slammed Erdington with one local labelling it as 'on the verge of civil war'. What's the area really like?

Absolutely fantastic story - highly recommend it

Great article on Jonathan Meades writing/ films about the West Midlands in @birminghamdispatch.bsky.social www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/email/d4f083...

Au Pairs were one of Birmingham's most iconic bands - beloved by the likes of Kurt Cobain. 42 years after they split, a bitter row has broken out among the members.

Recently released council accounts show Birmingham had hundreds of millions it could have used instead of going bankrupt & issuing extreme cuts, say 35 accountant researchers. They're demanding an inquiry. Read the full story, in The Dispatch.

Monday Briefing out now, incl: ⚽️Will Starmer overturn Maaccabi fan ban? 🇬🇧Flagger challenges local to boxing match in Stirchley at weekend demo 🎭The return of Margaret Thatcher - on stage

In 1806, a judge sentenced Philip Matsell to 'hang by the neck, until your body be dead, dead, dead'. Matsell has gone down in history for murdering nightwatchman Robert Twyford. He is also known as the only man in Birmingham to face public execution. But neither claim is true.

The battle for Moseley is on! Will the south Birmingham suburb's byelection be a bellweather for the breakdown of the two-party system, or a flash-in-the-pan? Find out in our lastest politics' edition 👇 www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/let-the-batt...

Why doesn't Birmingham have a publishing sector? And what would it take to get one? The tiny Emma Press, which is run from the Jewellery Quarter might show us the way. "We say ‘small press, big dreams," says the director James Trevelyan.

Last year, there were violent riots in Amsterdam when Maccabi Tel Aviv played Ajax. Next month, the Israeli team is set to play Aston Villa. There is widespread concern. Read more, below 👇 www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/a-notorious-...

Monday Briefing, out now incl: 🚗Small JLR suppliers on brink of collapse 🛍️Selfridges suffering 👋Corbyn's Your Party launches in Brum - + Labour cllrs jump ship + more

Wish I could say it comes as a massive surprise that there's an overlap between the flag people and suspected fraudsters, but this is great work by the @birminghamdispatch.bsky.social. 'It's 100% legitimate' www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/red-flags-th...

Ryan Bridge has become a familiar face in Stirchley lately. He's one of two "company directors" of raisetheflags.org, where he collects donations from £10-£500 for flags.

You asked, The Dispatch explained: What's going on with the big crater in the centre of town? 🤔

Glad to see our Monday scoop get picked up by the Daily Mail www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

In 1960, 18-year-old Oswald Augustus Grey set out from his home in Bog Walk, Jamaica for Birmingham. Two years later, he would become the last man ever to be hanged in Bham, for killing a shopkeeper. Did he do it?

Raddlebarn Primary in Selly Oak has money troubles. Big ones. It's gone from being in a £34,000 deficit in 2018 to more than £400,000 today. 💰

our Monday Briefing is out now, incl: 🥊'Your Party' fall out 🧑‍💻Tory campaigner locked out of FB 💰£30k rewards for info on Oldbury sex attack

@birminghamdispatch.bsky.social getting a mention here as an "innovative new outlet" 😊

During the past week, residents in Smethwick have rallied around a young Sikh woman who was the victim of a racially aggravated rape. But support came in the form of two very different gatherings, with one side urging people to 'boycott' the other.

Your Monday Briefing is out now, incl: 🚨Latest on racially motivated Oldbury attack ⚽️Great Barr United's celeb backers 🗳️Reform win in Walsall council byelection +much more

I kick things off with a softball question. What is Richard Parker’s favourite restaurant? 🍛 I do not expect him to reply: “the one where the meal finishes as quickly as possible.” 🕦

📢DON'T FORGET📢 The Dispatch is hiring! If you're a brilliant Brum writer with a knack for finding stories and experience reporting, we want to meet you. Apply by 5 October. www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/the-dispatch...

As a teenager, pop-artist Peter Phillips spent evenings and weekends cruising from Selly Oak Road, through the suburbs and towards the city centre. "I sat in the front seat… until we picked up girls — which was the whole gesture of it. That’s what you do when you have a car.”

Is Birmingham still the UK's second city? Many of the statistics are grim: 🏚️Second highest rate of economic inactivity (25% of the working age population). 🎒 The worst performing region for GCSEs in the country. 🎓The lowest graduate employment share (30%) of any large UK city.

🚨I'm absolutely delighted to announce that the brilliant Cameron Barr, the former Snr Managing Editor of the @washingtonpost.com, has joined @millmedia.bsky.social as our first Investigations Editor. It's a huge win for us and for local journalism in this country. pressgazette.co.uk/the-wire/med...

Another excellent feature from @birminghamdispatch.bsky.social Now a walking route, the city's first dedicated commuter line has a huge legacy www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/how-harborne...

Your Monday Briefing is out now, ft: 📈Does Brum have an 'out of work' crisis? 🥊The big growth debate: WMCA vs Centre for Cities 💰2 x Brum National Lottery winners yet to claim prize + lots more

Far-right extremists have been linked to the organising of Operation Raise the Flag - but ordinary people in South West Brum have joined in the frenzy. What do they think about it all?

In the West Midlands, dozens of architecturally valuable buildings stand derelict, seemingly awaiting their fates. From the monumental brutalism of the Smallbrook Queensway Ringway Centre to the grandeur of Methodist Central Hall.

Your Monday Briefing is out now, ft: 📨An invitation to our Dispatch event! 🏠 Children's homes close after shocking report 🇬🇧 Flag fury + more

This weekend’s @birminghamdispatch.bsky.social feature is a treat: a ride along with Sutton Park’s head ranger, doing a drive by on the park’s history, stewardship and future. www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/danny-champi...

This weekend, we are going on a ride through the 500 year old woodlands of Sutton Park. By Dan Cave.

“I’d put my head in a noose,” says Jane Jones. “I knew I was likely to be deselected and had an inkling of who would be replacing me […] but the decision to leave the party has, I’ll be honest, been traumatic.”