"You can always get away with being rude about the Midlands"

On Twitter today, Brynley Heaven, who once wrote a guest post for this blog about three unlikely heroes from Grantham, mentioned the Blair government's long-forgotten proposal for eco-towns.

This reminded me that I had written an article for the Guardian website opposing the idea that one of them should be built just to the east of Leicester.

It began:

These days, there are few prejudices people feel comfortable displaying in public, but you can always get away with being rude about the Midlands.

This dismissive attitude goes back a long way. Hilaire Belloc described the Midlands as "sodden and unkind", and when Leicester council engaged a London advertising agency to boost the city's image, it was naturally offered an achingly ironic campaign with the slogan "Boring, boring Leicester". 

As with all prejudices, the most insidious effect of "Midlandsism" is the way its victims internalise it.

On his blog Unmitigated England, the writer and photographer Peter Ashley describes one of his favourite Midlands locations, the lane that circles Cranoe church in a hairpin bend as it drops into the Welland valley: "I once used to say to companions on this road 'Look at this. You could be in Dorset. Or Devon. You'd never think you were in Leicestershire.'"

But he has managed to raise his consciousness: "I have now realised what a fatuous remark this is. This is Leicestershire, and in fact very typical of the eastern side of the county."

And Midlandsism has actual detrimental effects on people who live here. In particular, it is hard to believe the Pennbury site in Leicestershire would have got anywhere near Caroline Flint's eco-towns shortlist if it were in the south east.

Read on to learn why Pennbury was not the place to build a new town: thrill as I absolve myself of the charge of Nimbyism.

These days you will find Peter Ashley on Instagram.