How Just One Mistake Destroyed Birmingham

Read the first chapter of How Britain Stopped Making Things free: https://mettlehistory.co.uk ——— At its peak, no city in Britain stood for industrial excellence the way Birmingham did. The workshop of the world. On its factory floors, three names that every household knew. Austin — the firm whose little Seven put Britain on wheels. Dunlop — whose tyres rolled under half the vehicles on the road. BSA — building one in four motorcycles made anywhere on earth. But fast forward to today, and Birmingham is widely recognised as one of the most deprived cities in the nation. In September 2023, the city council declared itself effectively bankrupt — the biggest council collapse in British history. So how does a city like this collapse? To really understand what went wrong, you need to understand three things. Five Prime Ministers, one document written in 1948, and a young man who arrives in Birmingham one century before. ——— Watch the full series:    • British Industry Vanished: The Big Picture      • Britain's Industrial Villains: The Men Who...