The second issue of Wessex Citizen, edited by Keith Southwell and Rick Heyse, is now online. Many thanks to all who contributed. Earlier this month we mentioned the current – seventy-second – issue of MK’s equivalent, Cornish Nation, which this time gave us a brief mention. Joanie Willett, reporting back on the General Assembly ofContinueContinue reading “An Empty Space?”
Tag Archives: Northumbria
History is Sunk
“My Lords, a nation gets awarded the character that it deserves. By neglecting to promote some aspect of this character, that aspect becomes increasingly insignificant within the image which other nations regard as our worth. And this might also hold true for the way future generations of our own nation come to regard what weContinueContinue reading “History is Sunk”
Gearing Up
Surveyoris the magazine for highways and transport professionals. This month’s issue is headlined ‘Return of the Regions’ and opens to reveal an editorial by Dominic Browne, and more besides. The editorial starts as follows:“In January of this year the Department for Transport (DfT) launched a small (by government standards) pilot competition for local authorities toContinueContinue reading “Gearing Up”
The Founding Fixers
Avon Local History & Archæology – ALHA – does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s an organisation for local history and archæology in the Avon area, serving some 80 affiliated societies, with a collective membership of about 10,000. Founded in 1976, it has outlived Avon County Council, recognising the economic and social –ContinueContinue reading “The Founding Fixers”
Zombie Zones
Last Saturday, a ‘Northern Citizens’ Convention’ was held in the West Riding town of Huddersfield. Those attending shared a determination that the new politics now saturating Scotland should not stop at the border. Our Northumbrian friends have good reason to see themselves as having more in common – politically, economically and culturally – with ScotlandContinueContinue reading “Zombie Zones”
Only the Desperate
Today in 1320 the Scottish nobility issued the Declaration of Arbroath, with its ringing line about fighting not for glory, nor riches, nor honours, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself. And the contemporary response is Frenchgate. Nicola Sturgeon says she didn’t say it. TheContinueContinue reading “Only the Desperate”
Here We Go Again
The regions are being rebuilt, even under the Coalition. Last week a consultation began on the formation of a ‘combined authority’ for Durham, Northumberland and Tyne & Wear. It will take over transport, economic development and regeneration powers from the seven member councils. It’s almost the regional assembly all over again, and will be ifContinueContinue reading “Here We Go Again”
Anchoring the Future
Popular history has it that the Royal Navy was founded by King Ælfred the Great. It’s not quite accurate – his father, King Æthelwulf also had a fleet of some sort – but the idea of England’s first sailor-king has maintained its powerful hold on the imagination. So if naval shipbuilding in England began inContinueContinue reading “Anchoring the Future”
The Quintarchy
“[The accepted code of behaviour in politics] may be stated as follows: Talk about problems. Never mention a solution. Solutions make people mad as hell… Never excite a minority. Therefore all solutions should be anodyne, even if public affairs need bold and imaginative solutions. Never tell the truth. The people are too weak to acceptContinueContinue reading “The Quintarchy”
Our Friends in the North
For successful autonomist movements, politics is a spiral. There are achievements. There are also setbacks. But campaigners learn from them and when the debate begins again they have already moved it up to a higher level than it occupied before. We can see that process at work in all the Celtic nationalist movements. None isContinueContinue reading “Our Friends in the North”
Wessex Regionalists 