FOR many years now, it has been a standing joke that Yorkshire really is a wee country on its own, probably republican, definitely socialist or at least left-leaning.
For the past three years, Yorkshire has had its own political party advocating all things Yorkshire, and they are doing surprisingly well for such a young party, though all 21 candidates – a fifth of them LGBTI – at the June General Election lost their deposit.
It could not really be called a nationalist party, but it is most definitely a “regionalist” movement and is recognised as such by the European Free Alliance of which it is a member.
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Party leader Stewart Arnold recently explained what the party is all about: “Set up in 2014 to fight the European Parliament elections, the Yorkshire Party is tapping into a sense of grievance that while other parts of the United Kingdom are making the most of the various devolution deals granted over the past 20 years, Yorkshire with its enormous potential, is being left behind.
“It took 10 months from her installation in office and the calling of a General Election to make the Prime Minister set foot in Yorkshire. Even then it was to a closed meeting of the party faithful in Leeds.
“But that disregard for Yorkshire by Westminster-based parties is not uncommon. Successive governments have chosen to simply leave Yorkshire behind, ignoring the value of the Yorkshire people in favour of centralising power and funds in London.
“The Yorkshire economy has had to totally re-engineer itself in less than a generation, but has continued to struggle without the appropriate support for education and skills, and infrastructure.
“Rural areas are equally neglected: villages now lack schools and other public services on which their contribution to the wider economy was founded.
“The important farming sector has been left in doubt about its future following the vote to leave the EU and little has been said to ease its fears.
“The nations, regions and cities that make up the rest of the UK are forging their own futures as powers (albeit limited in some cases) are decentralised. Yet Yorkshire with its five million people, its hugely significant economy and its sense of identity and community going back 1500 years, is unable to unleash the undoubted potential that exists here.”
That is an authentic Yorkshire voice speaking, and it is a reminder, as if any were needed, that England has its own regions that, like so many parts of Scotland, cannot abide Westminster rule.
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