Birmingham International Dance Festival

1st. to 24th. June, and backed by the Hippodrome and DanceXchange there are lots of interesting, and mind blowing events taking place this year. Type in for a list of all the fantastic shows, and come into the city to enjoy them!

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RAF Cosford

Granting of the freedom of the City to the RAF at Cosford. We have a great relationship with these professionals, who also oversee our Air Cadets at the various locations of the ATC around the city, including the University Air Squadron. I lectured the students at Sutton Coldfield many years ago on weather and aircraft theory, never imagining that being on Birmingham Airport Board would give me the opportunity to put this into practice. It was a pity that the Lord Mayor was unable to attend, but as usual, a superb job was done by Mike Leddy stepping in at the last moment!

Countryfile Advice

Advice from Countryfile this Saturday is to be careful with your dog in the beautiful fields of bluebells such as this on Clent. Apparently dogs can suffer in this environment so it is best to keep them off the patches. I think this is good advice too as these are areas of natural beauty and need to be conserved. It is the finest sight of Spring/summer that we have unless you think better!

Meghan and I

Super show by the staff at Victoria School. Everyone encouraged to take part in the Royal Wedding preview at Shenley Lane. The QUEEN was there too, an extraordinary and brilliant performance by one of our members of staff who came to work for a week, and ended up next Friday having done 40 years! This was dedication, and I hope there will have a Thankyou celebration. The Children were magnificent. We (Victoria and I) did not win a prize, but the fun was taking part, and having our pictures taken. I was especially pleased to see the Scout, Cubs, and Beaver groups all there.

British Sikh Report

The launch of the British Sikh Report in the Birmingham City Council Chamber was a  timely reminder that although we all acknowledge and admire the success of many many Sikhs in this country, there is also another side to the story. A hidden downside is the pressure to succeed and outcomes that include Mental Health issues. This affects all sectors of the community both BME and indigenous. A good speech was made by Paul Uppal, the previous MP for Wolverhampton South West, who also took the chance to point out that many members of the BME community were suffering from lack of organ donations. He, like many of us, carries a donor card in his wallet. We need to carefully encourage minorities to look at this problem. Paul, and his wife, Kashmir, sat next to me during the talks by academics, and the authors of the report. My congratulations to the two organisers, Jasvir Singh OBE, and Jagdev Singh Virdee.

Emmanuel Church Sutton Coldfield

We put on a show with two other choirs for the Lord Mayor’s fund raising. One member of the congregation thought it was the best he had ever heard.

Faith Encounter Programme

Presenting a thank you to Ruth Tetlow for her magnificent efforts over ten years in the Faith Endounter Programme. This aims to get youngsters to mix with people of other religions, and is a magnificent way to get positive results from the Prevent Programme. New organiser on left is Mrs Henna Rai – a real live wire for the organisation!