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Wednesday April 9, 2008

Dumb Brummies


No doubt the Midlands will be in uproar over new findings showing Brummies to be regarded as the least trusted and intelligent of citizens in the UK. A study reveals that people with traditional Brummie accents are considered to be intellectually poor, given to criminal tendencies and lacking in imagination. I’m no Brummie but I take great exception to this research. One of my very best chums at university was a Brummie, a bright and creative man who was also a brilliant mimic and comic.

In fact I’ve rubbed shoulders with many of those from the Birmingham area during my career and I’ve always found them to be quick-witted and canny in business. Accents of course do influence, often unfairly.

Advertisers for example like to use the Scottish for adverts about finance and those from Yorkshire for insurance, home appliance and building society adverts. Apparently Yorkshire and Scots accents are most reassuring and trustworthy when it comes to fiscal matters and assessing products’ value for money.

So what’s the answer? Do Brummies all go to elocution lessons to learn how to develop a Yorkshire or Scots lilt? I hope not. The great thing about the UK is that each region has its own identity and accent. It may be the last bastion of what it is to be truly British.



Please feel free to comment on this article. All comments are moderated, so it will appear after I have checked it. Thanks!


  1. Thank you Anna, I’m a Brummie in my 60’s and all my life I’ve found that my home or my accent have made me second class, inferior, unintelligent, & excluded from the media (except for negative reporting) that includes home or away.

    * by GPM | Oct 1, 07:34 pm