Everywhere you look, you seem to find glossy, full coloured material promoting Andy Street for West Midlands Metro Mayor. Strangely enough, you often have to look quite hard to see that he’s the Conservative candidate (are they ashamed?). The prevalence of the colour green would leave someone not looking too closely thinking he’s the Green Party candidate rather than a Tory!

The other thing that comes across strongly from this literature is how vehemently anti-Labour it is. It makes you wonder, if Mr Street were elected, how well he would be able to work with the six Labour local authority leaders that would form the majority of his cabinet. Would he be able to deliver on the many popularist promises he is making?

I would have preferred it if this position had been apolitical. The best this region can hope for is a Mayor who can work well with people of other political persuasions to bring investment and business opportunities to the West Midlands. If Mr Street’s election material is anything to go by, he is not the right person to do this job.

In contrast, Beverley Nielsen has proven she can work with different people to deliver success in her former job of CBI West Midlands Director – look her up on Wikipedia – so she is exactly the right person for the job. And don’t dismiss her chances of winning because she is a Liberal Democrat. The Richmond Park by-election showed that the political landscape is changing fast. Lib Dems have won more local by-elections this year than any other party, and are the fastest growing party in terms of membership. Add to this the fact that Beverley is the only female candidate, and she starts to look on paper like the only person capable of beating the Tories.

Just the other side of the Atlantic, we have a working example of someone buying electoral victory who hasn’t got the right personality for the job, a divisive character who one might say ‘has more money than sense’.

I, for one, sincerely hope people here in the West Midlands don’t make the same mistake this May that people made last year in the USA.