"I am the one in ten,

A number on a list,

I am the one in ten,

Even though I don't exist,

Nobody knows me,

But I'm always there,

Statistical reminder of a world that doesn't care..."

Like Coventry, Birmingham was a giant of the midlands commercial boom from the industrial revolution until the 60s and into the 70s. When UB40 wrote One in Ten in 1981, Birmingham, like the rest of the midlands, was in trouble; the unemployment rate was up at 9.6%, and a once-great city was staring into the abyss.

This was in large part thanks to Conservative - and, ideologically libertarian - economic policy.

Things have eased somewhat now. Birmingham is now a city of over a million and hosts a thriving social scene, and remains famous for its music, its sport and, of course, its curry.

But there are two other candidates in this area who would happily sacrifice Birmingham on the altar on which its dying body rested in the 80s. LPUK wanted to cancel HS2, despite the fact it's near complete. This would have been a disaster for Birmingham; the synergies that could be realised by a high-speed connection and much higher capacity railway lines between London and the midlands, and the midlands and the North West, are enormous.

The UK is already a fundamentally unbalanced country, with London taking far too large a proportion of economic activity when compared to other countries, and the Liberal Democrats what to address this balance and make this great city great again. There is only one candidate in Birmingham who can do that, and that is JD for the Liberal Democrats!