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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Time for Britain’s greatest county to stand up
The folk of God’s Own County tend to be a reticent bunch, not much given to singing their own praises (or indeed, anyone else’s), but as cycling’s greatest race speeds spectacularly over the Broad Acres this weekend – an event the locals have greeted with characteristic enthusiasm and humour – it’s a good occasion to ask whether it should be the next nation within the UK to gain devolved…
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First.. ner ner Peter!
Well said David. My wife and I are in Yorkshire especially for this great event We staying in Ilkley where on Monday night there will be a PB gathering. The atmosphere is electric and we are being reminded that that when both Edinburgh and Yorkshire were fighting over who should get this David Cameron backed the former. Not good given the number of CON-held marginals here. <b>The PB gathering on Monday is at Flying Duck pub at 16 Church Street, Ilkley LS29 9DS, from 6.30pm</b> This is on today's routeIt might help though if some kind person were to post a map of Great Britain pointing out the location of this Yorkshire place.
Is it to the North?
Enjoy the day. I'm heading off very shortly to get my spot too.
Labour tried to design regions from the top down, but that's not the only way to do it. Give the counties financial incentives to merge with each other, along with the option of devolved powers once the merged counties are big enough, then leave them to reorganize themselves at their own pace.
Leaving aside, for now, the disquieting suggestion that the newly elected President of the European Commission slurps cognac with his breakfast, one shudders to think what might become of us when the continent’s wallet falls into his nicotine-stained hands.
Visiting Jean-Claude Juncker’s Luxembourg fiefdom this week, I was momentarily reassured to discover that David Cameron’s least favourite Eurocrat lives in a modest house, pootles about the suburbs with his blue-rinsed wife in a Volvo estate, and dresses like a low-grade bank clerk.
He also enjoys some decidedly plebeian pastimes, such as playing on pinball machines. Yet we fall for his cultivated man-of-the-people image at our peril.
During his 18-year prime ministership of Luxembourg, this louche little man with the rheumy eyes, rumpled blue mac and skewiff tie developed some worryingly expensive habits...
The article then accuses the former PM of overspending on the renovation of Findel, Luxembourg's airport and in redeveloping what was once the world's largest steelworks (a smoke-belching powerhouse upon which the country’s modern-day banking wealth).
It goes on to out Juncker's father in law as one of Hitler’s so-called Propaganda Commissars, [who] was among those responsible for the Germanification of his home country of Luxembourg. He also helped enforce the Nuremburg Laws that stripped Jews of their rights, and were a precursor to the Holocaust.
And still not done, it alludes to a unsourced story which explored the possibility that [Juncker] may have fathered a love-child by an unnamed Brussels adviser.
The article questions Juncker's academic prowess and even pillories his love of sports:
his left leg was badly damaged and his injuries stopped him playing football, volleyball and handball. Now, his summer sport is table-tennis, and ‘for the rest of the year I’m perversely fanatical about pinball’.
The Daily Mail at its very best. See for the full article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2681298/Cognac-breakfast-Daves-EU-nemesis-FAR-worse-skeletons-closet-including-Nazi-father-law-rumours-love-child.html#ixzz36ZGzq056
I have only listed a few of the more scandalous bits.
@david_herdson I'm insulted that you should even think that you could be censored. Everything you have ever written for PB has been published.
Even though I am a Lancastrian I like Yorkshire and in the early days of PB lived in the centre of York when I was working at the University & loved the place. My book, The Political Punter, was written here. There is a sense of nationalism in Yorkshire that you don't find anywhere else in England outside Cornwall. If anywhere in the UK was going to do the Grand Depart Yorkshire would do it best.
Only hassle this morning is that it looks as though there will be heavy rain. Let's hope there are not the devastating crashes that we've seen on the first stages of several recent Tours.
But the reason for commenting is not to bore you with my life story but to ask if anyone else remembers a Yorkshire Nationalist standing for CUSU (Cambridge University Student Union) elections in the mid-80s? It was an STV election and I distinctly recall putting him/her as 1st choice. It may have been the first time I ever voted for anyone anywhere...! I can't recall whether they won but maybe someone else was there at the time...
So there's a history of Yorkshire Nationalism stretching back around 30 years -- or maybe it was just a student prank to get a bit of attention...
FL
Primus inter pares in England is Rutland.
Primus inter pares in Great Britain is Inverness-shire
God was bored and went missing for six days. The Archangel Gabriel found him resting on the seventh day.
"What have You been up to?" he said.
"I've created the planet Earth and it will be a place of great balance."
"Balance?" said Gabriel.
God explained.
North America would be wealthy and South America would be poor.
"Over there I've placed a continent of white people, and over there a continent of black people."
God talked of different countries.
"That one will be hot and that one will be covered with ice."
Gabriel was impressed and pointed to an area in England and said:
"What's that?"
"Ah," said God.
"That is Yorkshire, the most glorious place on Earth. There will be beautiful lakes, streams, rivers and hills, great music, architecture, and sporting giants. The people from Yorkshire will be modest, intelligent and witty. They will be sociable, hardworking and high achievers. They will be known throughout the world as diplomats and peace-makers."
Gabriel gasped in admiration, thought for a moment, and said: "But what about balance, God? You said there will be balance."
"Ah," said God, nodding sagely, "let me tell you about Lancashire..."
An American photographer on vacation was inside a church in Oldham taking photographs when he noticed a golden telephone mounted on the wall with a sign that read '£10,000 per call'.
The American, being intrigued, asked a priest who was strolling by what the telephone was used for. The priest replied that it was a direct line to heaven and that for £10,000 you could talk to God. The American thanked the priest and went along his way.
Next stop was in Manchester... There, at a very large cathedral, he saw the same golden telephone with the same sign under it. He wondered if this was the same kind of telephone he saw in Oldham and he asked a nearby nun what its purpose was. She told him that it was a direct line to heaven and that for £10,000 he could talk to God.
'O.K., thank you,' said the American.
He then travelled to Blackburn, Darwen, Burnley, Rochdale and Littleborough. In every church he saw the same golden telephone with the same '£10,000 per call' sign under it. The American, upon leaving Lancashire decided to travel to Yorkshire to see if Yorkshiremen had the same phone.
He arrived in Todmorden, and again, in the first church he entered, there was the same golden telephone, but this time the sign under it read '50 pence per call.'
The American was surprised so he asked the priest about the sign. 'Father, I've travelled all over Lancashire and I've seen this same golden telephone in many churches. I'm told that it is a direct line to heaven, but in Lancashire the price was £10,000 per call. Why is it so cheap here?'
The priest smiled and answered, 'You're in Yorkshire now, son. It's a local call.'
Despite this, Nate Silver's lot at 538.com rate Brazil as having a 55% chance of lifting the trophy, compared with Germany's 14% chance ......... hmm.
I often wonder whether the affluent folks of North Yorkshire feel they have that much in common with those from the former coalfields in the Peoples' Republic of South Yorkshire! Throughout history as a county it does seem to have consistently chosen the losing side. From Richard III to the Roman Catholic gentry who opposed Henry VIII, Yorkshire was regularly on the receiving end of military correction from the south and of course for many centuries we Scots saw it as plunder land from the north, though often getting a hammering from those Yorkshire folks in the process.
If UK PLC sails onwards after 18th September, more and more I see the once laughed at Liberal plan for a federal UK being the way ahead.
I have to correct Jack on one thing, while Inverness-shire is indeed a beautiful county, I prefer Moray, Nairn or my own home Ross-shire but arguably the pre-eminent Scottish county has to be Perthshire which was of course the seat of Scottish Jacobins, the Drummonds and the Murrays who were the financial power and brains behind each of the Risings. Noble ancestors of among others David Cameron and Hugh Grant and the odd PBer too. Talking of whom, I haven't seen Charles on duty here for a few days. I trust he is well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPjJFv1NDBg&feature=kp
I am though a Leicester lad by adoption, I was born in the winning county of Lancashire...
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Neymar is out for the rest of the tournament, without him, Brazil are a bit rubbish.
That said, the only thing that could make my bet a loser is, well the shocking performance of the refs favouring Brazil this tournament.
Brazil effectively tried to hack Hames Rodriguez of the pitch, and the ref was like, meh, I think Rodriguez had to lose a leg, before the ref would book a Brazilian.
This could be a stepping stone for my plan to become this country's first Directly Elected Dictator.
That's mostly because, as a Sheffield lad, I spent six years working in Leeds (though I lived in North Yorkshire for most of those six years)
As an aside, up to 1974, Sheffield, was in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
West Ham, of course, won a World Cup!
A Yorkshire Parliament would also challenge the national political narrative that the Tories aren't relevant in the north. With a sensible voting system they would be competitive in Yorkshire as a whole.
We stack up mahoosive majorities in mostly North Yorkshire, where it doesn't count, but in marginal seats....
One local farmer has raked in thousands, through turning two big fields adjacent to the route into a temporary camp-site. Unfortunately he has since received a call from his landlord, who pointed out the under the terms of the tenancy agreement, and such non-farming income belongs to him, and not his tenant. Ah well, easy come...
And for all the doom in advance the Brazillians have put on a great tournament. Not like Qatar...
Ah, that would explain then why you refer to the East Midlands' second best football club (after Derby County) as "Notts" Forest.
Neymar is a loss for sure though but I think they are favourites now.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/10946782/Labour-criticised-for-cash-for-access-Gala-dinner.html
Incidentally, cheers to Mr. Hayfield for his recent local election coverage. Unusually, I was away when both were put up.
Mr. Herdson, the article began very well but I absolutely disagree with your conclusion.
It is not in England's interest to slice up the country (England) into little pieces. Yes, Yorkshire is the most magnificent place in not only the UK, but the world, to whom Christendom owes its billion and more adherents and to whom the Enterprise owes her finest captain, but to give it a parliament would be to set course for the icebergs.
If Yorkshire got one, then so would other areas. We would soon have parliaments at loggerheads over spending. London would feel it contributes a lot and its money is sent north, at the same time, other areas would feel that they were getting less per head than London (both these things would be true).
Scottish devolution has led to the rise of the SNP, a referendum on permanent separation and increased division. What you propose would be similar but far worse, as it would risk cutting up a country that has existed for over a thousand years.
Essex, Sussex and Kent were Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and the isle of Wight was independent for a while until taken over by Wessex. Cornwall of course (although I'm not sure if we know if it was a single kingdom or not). Yorkshire is pretty much the territory of the Norse Kingdom of York under Eric Bloodaxe. Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire are territories of three of the five viking armies (the other two were the Lincolnshire parts of Lindsey, itself a former Anglo-Saxon kingdom) and Kesteven, based on Lincoln and Stamford respectively). When you mess with our counties, you mess with some old territorial boundaries indeed.
Stage 1 TdF (Choice)
1 Cavendish /2 Kittel /3 Greipel
Stage 2 TdF
1 Gerrans /2 Costa /3 Sagan
Overall
1 Froome/2 Contador
Points Jersey:
1 Sagan
British Grand Prix
1 Hamilton 2 Rosberg 3 Ricciardo
Wimbledon
Bouchard/Djokovic (Though I'd love to see Federer get another !)
World Cup (Today)
Belgium/Netherlands
Yes, I am trying to make England ungovernable - it is my definition of democracy ;-)
if Scotland and Wales are allowed a national identity, so must England.
King Cole, there was a Kingdom of York (well, Jorvik) under the Vikings. Erik Bloodaxe was the last king.
Mr. Rog, not heard those before. They're rather good.
That is really a load of Balls.
I know better than to mess with the Cornish, and what I've described is opt-in by the counties in question, albeit with potential budgetary sweetners.
Obviously you _can_ do radical decentralization to very small areas, but it ends up either being inefficient or getting undone on the ground when they club together to deliver the actual services, which is the same as if they were merged only less accountable.
http://up.metropol247.co.uk/samwsmith1/Screen Shot 2012-08-07 at 23_32_48 (Yorkshire On Olympic Medal Table).png
David is right that the appeal of the old counties is an untapped political force. He has clearly overlooked Sussex as the greatest county though.
I take it the Landlord was a Yorkshireman too then.
I wish the Tour de France well in its foray into God's Own County. It must be said however that if Yorkshire is to host this or indeed its own "tour" in future then it needs to seriously sort out the traffic implications for towns such as Holmfirth, where I found myself totally gridlocked for 3 solid hours yesterday afternoon. Small towns such as this are totally incapable of coping with the huge surge in traffic volumes without very meticulous planning of which there was clearly none. Even two or three bobbies directing things might have helped to ease the congestion somewhat, but of course the Boys in Blue were conspicuous by their absence. Then again it was POETS day.
Firstly, there are different costs associated with London vs Yorkshire: you are building in a urban area, with higher property prices (and hence purchase and compensation costs) and with (AIUI) difficult earth to be working with (I think it is very variable, and unpredictably so).
What you probably need instead is some measure of passenger utility.
For instance, google tells me there are 24 million passenger journeys on the Tube each day. For Network Rail, there are only 192,000 passenger journeys per day in the Yorkshire/Humberside region (NB: these are 2006 figures, so let's arbitrarily increase that to 240,000 per day to take account of increased passenger usage.
On that basis, the Tube would deserve 100x the spending on Yorkshire. Clearly the Yorkshire trips are longer - no idea what the average length would be. In London (this is a guess), I'd say that the average length is around 5-7 miles. Let's assume (again a guess) the average trip length in Yorkshire is 25-35 miles or 5x as long as London.
On that basis you could justify that London deserves 20x the spending of Yorkshire.
Actually, what you need to do is look at (a) the total budget available (b) what is critical spend and (c) after critical spend accounted for what optional spend will add the most value. But that's probably too technocratic.
I'm not sure what to do about Netherlands v Costa Rica. I did back Costa Rica to win the tournament when they were something like 500/1.
and oh so very, very, flat and dare one say it, just a mite boring compared with Yorkshire.
I feel some affection towards Costa Rica, having backed them at 12/1 to qualify from Group D and at an incredible 80/1 to win the Group which of course they did (thank you Sportingbet!) ..... I can't remember whether I suggested one or other these bets on PB.com at the time.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/matt/
Wessex remains silent, confident in its own superiority.
Stand up Wessex! The True England!
Nope, no sign of a county called Wessex, didn't think there was and there never has been.
So, Mr Charles, are you really an Edmundite, arguing for regionalisation in the name of efficiency and accountability? Maybe, you are just leading a land grab by Hampshire in which the counties of the South West will be cast down under the iron heel of the Winchester Jackboot.
I can perhaps support localism - greater powers being devolved to historic English counties - but not this Balkanisation delivered through a plethora of contrived (and plenty will be contrived) regional parliaments.
And finally, Isaac Newton, Lord Tennyson and Margaret Thatcher.
Err ... two out of three isn't bad.
MPs or peers from all three main political parties are on the list, which includes former ministers and household names.
Several, including Cyril Smith and Sir Peter Morrison, are no longer alive, but others are still active in Parliament.
Yesterday The Daily Telegraph disclosed that a senior Tory who is being investigated as part of Operation Fernbridge was allegedly stopped by a customs officer with child pornography in the 1980s.
The customs officer who made the seizure can now be named as Maganlal Solanki, 76, who said at his home in Leicester yesterday: “I don't want to go over it all. It's very disturbing for me. I've been told not to say anything by my department."
Asked about the senior Tory, who was never arrested over the alleged child pornography seizure, Mr Solanki said: “Well, that is just a matter for him.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10947561/More-than-10-politicians-on-list-held-by-police-investigating-Westminster-paedophile-ring.html
(As for efficiency, the merger of TVPA and the Hampshire Constabulary has cost money and resulted in worse service for the long-suffering people of Hampshire. What we had was perfectly good, thank you very much.)
Cameron, apparently, called Offa's Dyke 'a line between life and death'
Strong stuff.
The point made by David in his article about the transport spend in London and Yorkshire is just one example of the consequences. It is all very well to say London pays the bills, and it does, but if money simply flows to money no one else gets a look in.
The idea of a mega city in the north west recently supported by Osborne seems to me an excellent place to start. Once such a structure is in place a proper focus can be given to improving transport and infrastructure over an area large enough to obtain the critical mass required for the breakthrough for innovation and enterprise.
But other areas also need to think carefully about how they create viable economies going forward and the appropriate level needed to provide the engines of growth. History, cultural links and tradition are only useful up to a point in such a judgment. We need to be thinking about the next 100 years not the last millennium.
So what do we need? I think the priorities for a viable economy are transport, broadband, universities of international standard, a degree of specialism to create that critical innovative mass, a coordination of colleges and other educational establishments to support the successes in the areas and a focus on international links, not just supplying the rest of the UK. I think it is very difficult to achieve most or any of that for less than 5m people and suggest that once you get over 10m the objectives are likely to be too diverse to have coherence. So suggestions for an appropriate level should look to tick these boxes and no doubt some more I have not thought of. Does Yorkshire?
The thing about counties and, most, cities is that they are human in scale and, in the main, deeply embedded in our notions of who we are and where we come from. Mucking about with them in some search for efficiency seldom works. Mind you, that's not to say some technocrat doesn't come up with a scheme every decade or so despite the lessons of past failures.
There are also long term forces at work, the Home Office has been trying to get a national police force under its direction for nearly a century and has an institutional memory of the return to local constabularies after WW2 as being an act of near treason.
The name that surprised me for an exit was Eric Pickles who I always think is one of the Tories better performers. Unless he is going back to being party chairman again for the election which would make some sense.
As for Wessex. Pah. Wessex will get what has been coming to it since ca 600AD
I think you are putting the cart before the horse: you have identified what a city needs to be successful but you haven't answered the fundamental question: why?
Liverpool and Bristol grew on the Atlantic shipping trade, Manchester (I believe) from weaving, Sheffield from steel and coal, Hartlepool and Newcastle from wool and coal, etc.
It's not enough to say "we need a northern city to balance London" - what we need is a reason why a city will grow naturally and be self-sustaining. Once we have that: absolutely, invest in the infrastructure and support systems needed to make it flourish. But to do the latter without the former will end up as a money sink and folie grandeur
Yorkshire's got blue skies at the moment, though.
Some heavily-devolved states are quite successful with small populations, but arguably a lot of that is based on enabling regulatory arbitrage at the expense of their neighbours. Realistically the choice in the UK is between large areas with devolved control and small areas with centralized control from Westminster, or wherever you put the English tier if you decide to throw in an English government covering 85% of the people the UK government already covers.
I am human, European, British, English - why not add Wessex? Further to that I am a father, a mathematician, a scientist, a knitter, a baker, etc.
The country of England can survive a sensible subdivision: Yorkshire, Thames, Wessex, Cornwall, Mercia, East Anglia, Lancashire, Sussex and Northumbria. Yorkshire would be about average-szied, with Cornwall at the small extreme and Thames (incorporating London and the Thames and Medway rwatersheds) would be the largest.
Some teams aren't doing much running at all, because there are limited numbers of wet and intermediate tyres available. If the race and qualifying are wet it is possible to run out, which would not necessarily be conducive to victory.
Forth Wuffingas! And claim your birthright
Surely Sean has not had a sex change?
I'm a little surprised Pickles might be in the frame for an exit, as I think he has made his mark, but perhaps that is the reason in his case for his exit. He's despised by a lot of local authorities, maybe it's felt a new face will be needed to smooth things out a bit, even though things will continue to get harder to the LAs.
Equally - Hartlepool, County Durham? Hmmm.
Bring back County Cleveland.
To take the example of IT, there is an increasing risk that this is going to be yet another London speciality. Surely a regional level authority based in Cambridge could try to do something about that?
A city or a region needs to focus on existing strengths and then focus policy at an appropriate level to build on those strengths. Most of England's current authorities are simply too small to achieve this.
Oops, no, sorry. That's Alfred the Great, King of *Wessex*. It must be Raedwald the Forgotton.
More mildly amusing than hilarious I thought but still.