Samuel McIlhagga

Brighton

Freelance Journalist and Editor at Freelance

Staff Writer @brumdispatch, @millmediauk & occasional contributor elsewhere.

Articles

Did Birmingham have to go bankrupt?

1 week ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

A few weeks ago I was standing in front of my window with a cup of coffee, watching the world go by. A tiny woman walked past, hauling around five massive black bin bags behind her. As she reached the gate of the adjoining property, she quickly glanced around, making sure there were no witnesses and, one-by-one, threw each bin bag over the fence. My fence. As she turned around, I caught her eye and she sprinted off.
Lost Tamworth cottages and why Birmingham should twin with L.A

2 weeks ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

A quick reminder that right now, we're running a special 50% Spring discount. If you're yet to sign up to a full Dispatch membership — that's access to all our editions, events and exclusives in your inbox and online — now you can, for just £1 a week. Back local journalism now, for less than the price of a morning coffee. Where I’m from: As some of you might have gauged, horrifyingly — I’m not from Birmingham. However, my life is full of distant Birmingham and West Midlands connections.
Fireworks, fraud accusations and fallouts at the Westside BID

3 weeks ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

In the heady summer of 2022, while Birmingham was hosting the Commonwealth Games, two leaders of the Westside Business Improvement District (BID) were compering a comedic parallel, the ‘Commonman Games,’ in the Walkabout Bar.
Samuel McIlhagga

3 weeks ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

Gerald Manton and Mike Olley were firm friends until they weren’t. What happened?
With Rembrandt, a bid for relevance?

1 month ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

A selection of magnifying glasses are fanned out across a tiny table placed at the entrance. A gallery attendant kindly explains, in excruciating detail, that the prints I’m about to see are very small. I notice few visitors employing these props. Instead, almost everybody uses their eyes, crouching next to the prints we’re all here to see.
At Reform's Birmingham bonanza, set design is the real winner

1 month ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

At the press entrance to Birmingham’s Utilita Arena, I am greeted by a large blonde American. “What’s ya name, buddy?” he asks earnestly. This should have been an early warning sign that I was leaving England’s Midlands and entering another realm: somewhere equidistant between the fever dream of Donald Trump’s White House and a stagnant Westminster.
Richard Gamble had a vision. Now he's building a 51-metre wall of prayer by a motorway

1 month ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

Dear Patchers — today’s story is about a 51 metre tall Möbius strip in honour of God planned for the outskirts of Birmingham. Don’t know what a Möbius strip is? (read on). If completed it will be taller than both the Angel of the North and Rio’s Christ the Redeemer. What, you may ask, is this gargantuan monument? A ploy by the mayor Richard Parker to win the esteem of the architectural community? Some kind of Brummie gathering point to replace the Spaghetti Junction?
Why Donald Trump Has Turned on Europe

2 months ago | jacobin.com | Samuel McIlhagga

Less than a fortnight after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Vice President J. D. Vance read Europe the riot act at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February, Donald Trump followed up with a performance that would not have been out of place on an episode of The Apprentice.
On Shrove Tuesday in Atherstone: ‘bollocks is all that matters’

2 months ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

On Shrove Tuesday in Atherstone: ‘bollocks is all that matters’ The first throw of the ball, Atherstone, 2025. (Photo Christian Cross). While the rest of the country enjoys its pancakes, one small Midlands town goes to war over a ball
Investigation: Raja Khan’s empire of dirt

2 months ago | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

Dear readers — Over the past few weeks The Dispatch has been looking into a major Birmingham-based social housing company which has received widespread support from local politicians.