Samuel McIlhagga

London, Marsh

Freelance Journalist and Editor at Freelance

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

Articles

With Rembrandt, a bid for relevance?

2 weeks 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

3 weeks 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

1 month 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’

1 month 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

1 month 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.
The unstoppable rise of the Desi pub

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

By Samuel McIlhaggaIf London has the long stretch of Bangladeshi Brick Lane, Manchester a series of ‘Rice and Three’ Thali cafés tucked into corners, then Birmingham has always been famed for its resplendent Kashmiri-origin Balti Triangle. However, with the relative decline of the Balti, another West Midlands gastronomic speciality is rising to national attention: the Punjabi-influenced Desi pub.
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.
The unstoppable rise of the Desi pub

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

By Samuel McIlhaggaIf London has the long stretch of Bangladeshi Brick Lane, Manchester a series of ‘Rice and Three’ Thali cafés tucked into corners, then Birmingham has always been famed for its resplendent Kashmiri-origin Balti Triangle. However, with the relative decline of the Balti, another West Midlands gastronomic speciality is rising to national attention: the Punjabi-influenced Desi pub.
After 859 years, the future of the Bullring’s markets is hanging in the balance

Jan 25, 2025 | birminghamdispatch.co.uk | Samuel McIlhagga

By Samuel McIlhaggaIn 1066, a wet and tired Norman knight named Ansculf stepped off a boat and onto the misty shores of Sussex. Exactly a hundred years later, in 1166, his probable descendant, Peter de Birmingham, applied for a royal charter from Henry II: requesting permission to hold a weekly market on his lands in rural Warwickshire.