Iron Angle: Power games in Birmingham just like Dad's Army
One of the most amusing sub-plots of the long-running television comedy series Dad’s Army involves the absurd pomposity and egotism displayed by almost everyone in any position of power or influence at the fictional south coast town of Walmington-on-Sea.
Captain Mainwaring, self-appointed head of the Home Guard, detests the ARP Warden Hodges because he is a greengrocer and therefore in trade. Hodges equally dislikes the officious Mainwaring, although he is also a little frightened of him, because he is the local bank manager and therefore someone to be looked up to.
The vicar, meanwhile, who in terms of early-1940s society ought to have been a pillar of the community, despises Hodges and Mainwaring equally and is engaged in a constant battle to preserve his right to meet with the sea scouts in the church hall at any time of day or night. (Right, we won’t go into the vicar’s relationship with the sea scouts. His Reverence wouldn’t like it, you know).
What, I hear you asking, has this got to do with Birmingham politics in 2010? Has Dale finally gone completely mad rather than just a little eccentric, you might wonder.
Bear with me and I will attempt to explain why Walmington-on-Sea with all of its petty vendettas and jealousies bears more than a passing resemblance to Birmingham, the supposed global city with a local heart.
In the midst of deciding what to do about the greatest onslaught of public spending cuts in modern times, you might think that the city’s Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition would have more than enough to sharpen minds.
On the contrary, a spat so deliciously small-town that it would not look out of place at the General Purposes Committee of the Walmington-on-Sea Town Council, the city has got itself into a tizzy over the relationship between the leader of the council and the Lord Mayor.
For Captain Mainwaring, substitute Mike Whitby, for the Vicar, substitute Lord Mayor Len Gregory. Although, that’s not really fair on Gregory since the strained relations between Whitby and the Mayor’s office date back two Lord Mayor’s at least.
