h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

West Midlands??!! Birmingham???? Solihull is in Warwickshire and don't you forget it. Always has been. Always will be.

Hi Bellman,

I dunno whether you're right or not, as I'm no UK citizen and I don't have a map of England handy at the moment. But I've alerted the Editors about this, so they could check this.

Thanks for your input.
SchrEck Inc.

The West Mids includes Coventry too, which sticks out of the county like a jigsaw plug into Warwickshire.

Like the residents of Southport and Wirral, who insist they are not in Merseyside, Solihull is a part of the West Midlands, and has been ever since the great county reshuffle of the early 1970s. Not that the reshuffle ever stopped Wirralites claiming they were part of Cheshire...

Jimster is right, and Solihull is indeed in the West Midlands county. I know, I live almost on the border...

Whoami?

Solihull is definitely West Midlands! I should know, I live here...

Really? What did you think of the entry then?

I agree with all of the above except Bellman. I've also lived here all my life and can say categorically that Solihull is in the West Midlands.

Solihull may be in West Midlands for administrative purposes but the posh folk of Solihull would never admit to being associated with anything as common as Birmingham.

Local joke fell flat. Sorry to send you all checking your atlases.

But on a serious note, the county is "West Midlands" not "The West Midlands". Stupid name.

Joke? I thought they were meant to be funny?

And if it's a local joke, how come I've never heard it? I've lived here for over twenty years now...

Perhaps you're not associating with the posh folk.

I know it's 'West Midlands' - if it was 'The West Midlands' I'd have said that. I said 'the West Midlands' not 'The West Midlands'. Now you're just being picky!

Whoami?

Not meaning to be picky against yourself - just against the name.

Even then I realise I'm on sticky ground. Everyone says "the" West Midlands, but then everyone also says "the" Isle of Wight. I suppose it's to avoid confusion with "an" Isle of Wight.

I was joking - note the !

Sorry to " bug" into this very interesting conversation. For me as an alien almost everywhere in my wonderings on Earth, it is nice to see, that there are stable people living on this Globe.

I am looking for Whoami?, because we lost contact. I don't know how to clear out my page, there is no more room to post. I figured he will go back to his home page for new mail and send me a note to my Personal Space since Homer is filled up ????

By the way: I was in England a few times, but got only to London, Bath, Cambridge, Oxford and Windsor. There was a time I paid $99.00 from JFK for the plane trip to Heathrow. Yeah, before sept.11.01. Sad.Jung Wing

P.S. I live in America, but was not born here. BBC was always the source of info. for me. So that is the link if I ever will learn the ML for h2g2. That would let you know more Who i am? J.W.

to Whoami? here is Jung Wing again: my E-mail is: [email protected]
This is my registration at BBC. Plse contact if you want. Thanks. J.W.

Why do you assume that everyone in Solihull is a snob? I live in the south of Solihull, which is supposed to be better off, and I've never met anyone who has a problem with Birmingham. Or was that another "joke"?

J.W. I'll just explain a little about conversations to you. Some conversations on h2g2 are 5000+ posts long! What's happened is that the conversation has continued over the page. If you go to the conversation, you'll see some white and orange dots have appeared in a black bar near the top. Click the orange ones to skip to other groups of 20 postings. The link to the postings that you've not seen yet is F55607?thread=251774&skip=20&show=20 and I will reply there tonight, I promise. Unless the internet stops working or something!

Ah well Elentari, you're opening a whole new basket of aquatic creatures there. And a messy one, too. The North - South divide in Solihull. North=Poor and South=Rich, is basically the stereotype. But no one really finds it to be a problem. (I think.)

And the thing about Silhillians being posh and snobs, etc. Anyone familiar with the work of Jasper Carrott will know all about this. The adults, maybe, but the kids - not really. But I guess that's just teenagers. And I am one, I should know. The majority of people from Solihull are quite well off, but not snobs.

Yes, saying everyone in Solihull is a snob is a massive generalisation.