Siôn Simon: Make me mayor and I'll fight for the West Midlands

In May, we have a chance to take back control of our region from London. And it's about time, isn't it?

The election for the first West Midlands Mayor will see us making our own decisions about the place we live in – not politicians in London, writes Siôn Simon.

But it's more than just that. It's about restoring our pride. Because the gaps between where we think we are as a region, where we really are and where we can be in 10 years time are huge.

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Go out now into the street - be it in Wolverhampton, Walsall, Sandwell or Dudley - stop the first person you see, and ask them what they think of the West Midlands.

Do you think they'll tell you this is one of the most extraordinary places on earth? A place of genius stretching right across the spectrum of human endeavour, for centuries, right up till today?

Will they be boasting that this is where we built the first steam engines that powered the industrial revolution, completely changing the course of human history?

That we're the region that built the spitfires that won the war? Or that in the West Midlands we still produce big numbers of some of the world's most iconic motor vehicles?

I doubt they will. And yet that's all true, and barely scratches the surface of our incredible story.

For too long, though, London politicians have put the West Midlands at the back of the national queue and not given us the powers to make our own plans for housing, infrastructure, jobs and apprenticeships.

Decisions about our unacceptable public transport made by people who never have to use it. Never getting our fair share of the national pie.

In Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and London, public expenditure per head last year was £10,000 or more.

In England as a whole it was £8,871. In the West Midlands, it was even less than that.

Why should we put up with so much less than our fair share? Why should the great English regions be second-class members of the United Kingdom? Are our citizens second class? No. We have a right to a better deal.

Those four parts of the UK which have already got the kind of devolution that we want and have better public services than us, although they pay the same tax.

Scottish hospitals are better than ours. London schools are better than ours. Funded partly with the taxes our citizens pay. Well now it's time that we got the same as them.

That's only fair. And I doubt the people of the three smaller nations even want any more than their fair share.

Because that's not the British way. Above all else, we're a nation of fairness. And that's all that I'm asking for us: our fair share of the national pie, as of right, and the powers and the tools to run our own place.

It's important that we stand up for England's great regions, as I will if I'm elected as West Midlands Mayor. I'm not ashamed to fly the English flag in the West Midlands.

I'm a West Midlands patriot. I love this place. I love our country. I'm proud of our people. I just think we deserve a fairer deal.

That's what this election is all about. It's about the brilliant people of the West Midlands finally taking back control of our own place.

It's about us using the same talent and ingenuity that made us into the extraordinary place we are – to fix the problems which have been heaped on us, partly by huge global forces, but also, greatly more than people realise, by a crushing, constricting centralisation which for 40 years has sucked the magic from this place.

It's a long way from Whitehall to Willenhall, and what gets lost along the road is respect.

We need to put the pride back in our great region. Our people deserve it. And it will never be done from outside.