It's not about willy waving.
Just a case of showing your support for the city. Birmingham's economy is struggling and way one to inject some money into the area is through tourism. London doesn't throw much to the regions and what it does is the scraps. Lets fight for ourselves for one.
Birmingham and Manchester are both two different cities with different offerings. Manchester has the support of the media, while Birmingham has to fight for itself. I'm not blaming Manchester for this, they are just far superior at marketing what they have.
Vote now.