Would HS2 made any difference, for better or worse, to what Brum is like to
Brummies who don't use HS2? Two contradictory articles:


1) Our 2nd city is 3rd rate and its children are paying the price
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/heal...the-price.html


2) My love affair with Birmingham
By Derek Bishton

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/p...irmingham.html

The new HS2 rail link has thrust Britain’s second city firmly back into the spotlight. One of the first comments I heard was: “I suppose that means we’ll be overrun with escaping Brummies.”

It rarely occurs that some people might actually choose to live in Birmingham, rather than London. That it could be a lifestyle choice. I am one of this misunderstood number. All week, I work in the heart of London. But as soon as the weekend arrives, I return to my other home, 120 miles north west, in Birmingham.

This has always been a source of amusement for my sophisticated London friends and colleagues, who consider me at best eccentric and at worst downright odd.