If Jenkins thinks Leeds is the North’s best preserved Victorian town then either he hasn’t been looking very hard at the others or the post-war redevelopment craze went much deeper than I imagined. Maybe he’s referring to the thousands of back-to-backs that are still standing?
The ridiculousness of Jenkins’ argument is in that Yorkshire might have a vague identity that is held by a lot of its citizens, but it lacks discrete borders. Middlesbrough and East Cleveland are historically part of Yorkshire, but many people would describe them as part of the North East. Hull is basically its own world, Halifax and Huddersfield have many characteristics of Lancashire towns like Oldham and Rochdale, and Sheffield and Rotherham look toward north Derbyshire and Notts. And you can imagine the fracas if Yorkshire had to try and pick a capital….
Awesome. We could name our daughters Irredenta and stage futurist demos demanding the return of Redcar and the defence of Tadcaster to the last drop of our sacred blood. And as for the Occupied Zone, volunteers will flock to support the Barnoldswick Republic.
Guano
…. leaving north-east England as a kind of South Ossetia.
Strangely enough Guano, that image comes out of this piece too (at least economically):
Geography does not help. “The north-east is at the far corner of the country, but it is separated by more than just miles,” writes Harry Pearson, born near Middlesbrough, in his 1994 book The Far Corner. “There is the wilderness of the Pennines to the west, the emptiness of the North York Moors to the south, and to the north, the Scottish border… Sometimes the north-east [seems] more like an island than a region.” It is an island that the HS2 rail project is not currently intended to reach. Meanwhile, the prospect of Scottish independence and the near-certainty of more Scottish devolution threatens to marginalise the region further. “Scotland can already do more to attract inward investment than we can,” says Chi Onwurah, Labour MP for Newcastle Central. “More power for Scotland, in that sense, would not be a benefit for us.”
Haven’t been through the agenda yet – but it seems obligatory to mention Simon Jenkins’ call for Yorkshire Independence…
?
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/08/mighty-yorkshire-minority-cornwall-london-payback
If Jenkins thinks Leeds is the North’s best preserved Victorian town then either he hasn’t been looking very hard at the others or the post-war redevelopment craze went much deeper than I imagined. Maybe he’s referring to the thousands of back-to-backs that are still standing?
The ridiculousness of Jenkins’ argument is in that Yorkshire might have a vague identity that is held by a lot of its citizens, but it lacks discrete borders. Middlesbrough and East Cleveland are historically part of Yorkshire, but many people would describe them as part of the North East. Hull is basically its own world, Halifax and Huddersfield have many characteristics of Lancashire towns like Oldham and Rochdale, and Sheffield and Rotherham look toward north Derbyshire and Notts. And you can imagine the fracas if Yorkshire had to try and pick a capital….
Awesome. We could name our daughters Irredenta and stage futurist demos demanding the return of Redcar and the defence of Tadcaster to the last drop of our sacred blood. And as for the Occupied Zone, volunteers will flock to support the Barnoldswick Republic.
…. leaving north-east England as a kind of South Ossetia.
There’s a dystopian novel in there somewhere…
Strangely enough Guano, that image comes out of this piece too (at least economically):
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/may/10/north-east-avoid-becoming-britains-detroit
I suppose Redcar and Donetsk are similar, they both have steelworks….
Don’t know if it’s important, but I think the 50 years of BASIC would strike a chord with many of your readers…
Another vote for JW Mason – Disgorge the Cash…
I’m always up for more analysis of UKIP, but maybe that’s too Sisyphean.