Gisela Stuart MPWorking hard for Bartley Green, Edgbaston, Harborne and Quinton

What Gisela thinks of Birmingham // October 12th, 2009 // Speeches, Articles and Interviews

Gisela Stuart, 53, was born and grew up in Velden , Bavaria . The only German born-and-bred member of parliament in the UK House of Commons, the mother-of-two lives in Birmingham in the English Midlands and has been the Labour representative for the city’s Edgbaston constituency since 1997.

I moved to England in the early 1970s because I couldn’t speak English. I put an advert in a trade journal appealing for work in the UK , Canada or Australia and I was offered a job working in the university bookshop [in Manchester ]. So I was lucky to learn English in an environment where even the packer in the despatch department had a PhD in philosophy.

My initial reactions to the UK were mixed. It was the height of the three-day-week [January 1974], when there were nightly power cuts, while Germany was at the zenith of its postwar economic prosperity. But after a few weeks someone gave me some good advice, telling me: “Instead of thinking ‘Oh my God, what a terrible place,’ try thinking ‘How different things are here’.” At that time both Manchester [where I first lived] and Birmingham were, in a way, a living museum of the Industrial Revolution and its shadow still loomed large. In short, my impression of the UK was of a fascinating place but one that was in incredibly scruffy packaging.

Life in a big city such as Birmingham, where I have lived since the early 1990s, is extraordinarily cosmopolitan compared with the small-town Bavaria of my youth. In Bavaria, until not long ago, the appearance of a black face could turn a room silent.

I arrived in the depths of winter and the weather was ghastly. It was so different to Bavaria, which has crisp, cold winters and hot, almost Mediterranean summers. I suppose the most striking difference was the absence of what I regarded as “proper winters”. On the other hand, I’m still here after all these years.

I didn’t think a lot of the food when I first arrived. In the 1970s salami was thought exotic. The only way you could get anything other than that dreadful white bread was to go to a Polish bakery. And the notion of a fancy wine was Liebfraumilch. Things have improved enormously in the intervening years and Birmingham has given the world the balti - the curry dish created by immigrants from the Indian subcontinent. I can even get pretzels these days without too much difficulty, while I grow bierradi, the big white radishes, in my back garden. (Gardening is my way of relaxing.) For curry at its best, head for the Ladypool Road in Sparkbrook [ Birmingham ], which is crammed full of decent, competitively priced curry houses. On the beer front, I can do no better than recommend a pint of Bathams bitter - brewed just across the way in Brierley Hill. It’s difficult to walk home after a couple, though.

Birmingham has changed a lot in the past 30 years. Back then it was going through a period of industrial decline, factories were closing and the outlook seemed bleak. But the city has done much to reinvent itself over the past couple of decades, the canals have been cleaned up and, despite today’s economic difficulties, the revitalised city centre is epitomised by the new Bullring Centre with its iconic Selfridges building. The International Convention Centre and Symphony Hall host international events and the city’s nightlife can compare with any other European city.

I live in my Edgbaston constituency, which is pretty mixed. One part has US-style high-rises, while another has among the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the country. In general, though, it is a pretty well-heeled area, with a Capability Brown-designed golf course as well as an academic quarter. In a way, it’s a microcosm of Middle England.

Being an MP is a fascinating job. When parliament is sitting, I spend Sunday to Thursday nights in London , then go back to Birmingham to deal with constituency matters. The British and German political styles are very different and reflect differing views of politics. Continental politicians believe that there is such a thing as a “right answer”, which can be found by consensus-seeking debate. But in the Anglo-Saxon world it’s a battle of ideas and the strongest prevails. On balance, I prefer the British system, which forces one to take sides and face up to things. It’s not as wishy-washy.

Contrary to what some people might think, Birmingham has a rich cultural life. The arrival of Simon Rattle as chief conductor helped give the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra an international reputation. Rattle is now in Berlin but his successors have built on his achievement and the current conductor, Andris Nelsons, is simply electrifying. The city also has the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Hippodrome. What’s more, it’s arguably the birthplace of heavy rock and has given the world acts such as Black Sabbath, as well as pop groups such as Duran Duran. The reggae band UB40 live in my constituency.

I frequently travel back to Germany and in my opinion the cost of living in the two countries is broadly comparable. The one thing that always shocks my German family whenever they visit is the cost of eating out in the UK . Furthermore, to this day the Germans can’t quite understand the British obsession with home ownership and the fact that a home is regarded as an asset, not just somewhere that you live.

I didn’t really suffer any great culture shock on moving to the UK and never ceased to be amazed at how extraordinarily open a society England is compared with so many places. However, I think the salary span between the richest and poorest is considerably narrower in Germany .

As for being German, that has never really been much of an issue either. One of the few times it was used against me was when a local politician attacked my selection as a PPC [parliamentary political candidate], calling for Edgbaston to be “kept British”. But whenever anyone has tried to use my nationality against me it has backfired on them. Indeed, in a city such as Birmingham , most people are foreigners of some kind or another and 20 per cent of the inhabitants think of themselves as Irish.

The thing I love about Birmingham is that it is so multifaceted and has something for everyone.As for Britain in general, I have a sneaking admiration for the eccentricity of thinking and ability to chuck things up in the air and see what happens. I think that’s where a lot of the country’s dynamism stems from. In contrast, Germany has a tendency to try to over-plan for every eventuality in life.

As to where I’ll be in 10 or 20 years, I really don’t know. Although I’m pretty sure I’ll be staying put in Birmingham for the foreseeable future. I haven’t thought of moving.

Source: Financial Times, 10th October 2009
Copyright 2009 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved.

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