Leave us be!

I posted the other week about how the Black Country and Birmingham see themselves as fundamentally different from each other.  And now, shock horror, there is this idea of bundling the two together - and even including Solihull and Coventry - and calling the whole thing "Greater Birmingham".  Can't see that going down well. And to what end?  We already have the West Midlands which covers much the same area.  The argument seems to be that when you're dealing with people abroad, the Black Country means nothing to them, whereas they know about Birmingham.  But is that worth losing our identity for?  Surely what matters is the quality of what is produced, rather than where it is produced?