Revived Black Country bid is exciting, so show us the money

The wish list of projects includes work by junction 10 of the M6, a revamp of the Grand Theatre and Civic Halls in Wolverhampton, a new railway station for the city and training centres in Halesowen, Dudley and Stourbridge.

The problem these four boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton have had for decades is one of perception, of being seen as the poor relation to Birmingham.

Talk of merging them into Greater Birmingham just puts people's backs up further.

While Birmingham is a city transformed, Wolverhampton is a field of broken dreams. The Prime Minister seemed to understand that when he visited Birmingham Airport and acknowledged that areas like the Black Country had missed out under the old Regional Development Agencies.

People have seen artists' impressions and heard talk of multi-million pound shopping centres, urban villages, canalside quarters and brand, spanking new railway stations and get fed up when little happens.

Out of a long-awaited £176 million bus, rail and Metro 'interchange' planned for Wolverhampton, the city got a new bus station and a Sainsbury's Local.

The plans are still alive; the begging bowl keeps going out to central government.

Meanwhile Birmingham gets its £600 million refurbishment for New Street and its new £190 million library while the Public Arts Centre in West Bromwich gets shut down.

Of course Birmingham deserves the investment. It's the second city.

But isn't it our turn yet?

The bid for funding for the Black Country is one that paints the picture of a bright and prosperous area, making things the world wants to buy and providing homes for a skilled and cultured workforce. The government wants a recovery led by manufacturing and exports. This is right up the Black Country's street.

But if we're all in this together, it's time to give it a share of the seed money.

The problem is people in the Black Country will only believe it when they see it.

Former mayor was always independent before joining party of independence

Former Wolverhampton mayor Malcolm Gwinnett has never really struck me as a party politician.

So I doubt his departure from the Liberal Democrats to join Ukip will cause Nick Clegg much more grief than the opinion polls already do.

Although it was a well-timed announcement from the Eurosceptics to bring over a prominent city councillor to their ranks on the same day their leader Nigel Farage went head to head with Mr Clegg in a TV debate.

The Liberal Democrats in Wolverhampton have just three seats, all of them in the same ward, Spring Vale.

Yet the past few years have been a troubled time for them. Another of their councillors, Richard Whitehouse, left them in 2012 following a falling out and then re-joined the following year.

Councillor Gwinnett underwent a heart transplant and there's a dispute over whether or not he was 'de-selected' because he wanted to wait for the all clear before declaring his candidacy. He says the party wouldn't wait for him. The party says he didn't apply.

None of this detracts from Councillor Gwinnett's record as a councillor who has always been prepared to speak his mind.

His former colleagues think he has thrown away everything he once believed in to join a party that stands against it on virtually everything.

But what you never got from Councillor Gwinnett was any talk about proportional representation, making the House of Lords an elected chamber, or the imposition of a mansion tax. He was far more bothered about getting the old Sunbeam factory re-developed or expressing his concerns about the council spending money on the civic centre or a new office block at a time of multi-million pound cuts.

Meanwhile Councillor Gwinnett has already caught the eye of the party leadership with Mr Farage having personally commented on his defection.

The party's newest recruit in Wolverhampton will need to remember that he's now working with a completely different set of policies and world view.

After all, it's the UK Independence Party, not the UK independents party.