It's Yorkshire Day today. The poster above suggests a pleasant rural region with beautiful green river valleys overshadowed by brooding moors. Such scenes do exist in Yorkshire but it is worth noting that within the ancient boundaries of our wonderful county there are great towns and cities including Bradford, Hull, Middlesborough, Leeds, Wakefield, York and Sheffield.
Yorkshire is home to some 5.5 million people making it bigger than Norway, The Republic of Ireland, Croatia, Lithuania, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Scotland or the American state of South Carolina.
Whereas Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have enjoyed the fruits of devolution with preferential economic benefits, Yorkshire has often been sidelined. Our disgraced former prime-minister Mr Johnson sought to win seats from Labour with vague and ultimately cynical promises about "levelling up" the country but this was all just hot air without substance.
Like most British people of my generation, I love the BBC - both television and radio. However, it is my strong perception that you don't hear many Yorkshire voices through the national organs of the BBC. Plenty of Scots, Welsh and Irish but not many northerners or specifically Yorkshire people.
No wonder that a serious new political party sprung up a few years back - The Yorkshire Party. It is not a joke. It's about winning money, investment and control for our people and re-establishing our ancient boundaries.
Like my parents, all my great grandparents and all my grandparents I was born and raised in Yorkshire. I am far more proud of Yorkshire than I am of England. It is a big part of my identity and so as midnight approaches here in the old West Riding of Yorkshire, I echo the poster's sentiment:
HAPPY YORKSHIRE DAY!
'Your area' is part of your identity. It is familiar to you and you know its ways. You don't have to think much about what your normal trivial day involves. My partner ridicules my thoughts about this, saying you can live anywhere, and he has changed locations a lot in his life. I get attached to my home and my area. Danger of me going on too long. I love the poster, even if there aren't chimneys belching out industrial fumes.
ReplyDeleteYour blog suggests that you have got Melbourne in your soul and that's good in my view.
DeleteHey, happy Yorkshire day to you. Great to support an area and it's people.
ReplyDeleteAlberta Day is on September 1st.
DeleteAt first I thought this was a Special Day for YOU and I was here for it! But this:
ReplyDelete"Yorkshire is home to some 5.5 million people making it bigger than ... the American state of South Carolina."
As a resident of South Carolina, I bow down!
I give you permission to stand up adopted son of The Carolinas.
DeleteBorn and raised in Yorkshire as were your ancestors, no wonder you feel some pride. I was born in one country, raised in another, but never for long in the same town or even the same house. Is it any wonder I never feel "at home"? I've lived in my current rented "home" for eleven years now, but still wish for a house with a small yard that I can own and call mine.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like an achievable dream...or it should be. It's not a lot to ask is it?
DeleteIt's a dream very much out of reach.
DeleteAnother Hadrian's wall? Devolution from the South sounds like a good option ;)
ReplyDeleteWe also don't want any Lancastrians creeping in. Razor wire and machine gun turrets may be required.
DeleteHappy Yorkshire Day YP. Billy Pearce, Brian Clough, Biff Byford and the Grumbleweeds are a few of my favourite Yorkshire folk.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Captain Cook and Keith Emerson?
DeleteOr Barry Hines and Sir Geoffrey Boycott. How could I forget Keith?
DeleteI trust that you enjoyed your special day?
ReplyDeletePlenty of ale, parkin, Pontefract cakes and of course the ubiquitous puddings.
You would have needed a walk through the Dales though if you had celebrated with all the different specialities that abound up there.
Clog dancing, whippet racing and chasing southerners made for a happy day JayCee.
DeleteHappy Yorkshire Day! When Greg was applying to mainstream BBC as a young man, they rejected him because he had a Midlands accent. They only wanted plum Oxford English in those days. Nowadays anything goes. I am sure I have heard Yorkshire accents on the BBC - what about the girl who was a sports reporter and now does business news?
ReplyDeleteThere's Chris Mason the BBC political editor but the proportion of Yorkshire people at the BBC is small in comparison with Scots and Irish. I can't picture the woman you are referring to.
DeleteThis year, my sister and I missed Yorkshire Day by two days and St. Wilfrid's Parade in Ripon by a few hours - we left the morning of St. Wilfrid's Day. As you know from my own blog, I celebrated Yorkshire Day in my own small way, as was possible on my first day back at work.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the inconsistend use of the terms county and country bothers me a bit. Yorkshire is a county, and in many similar posters, postcards or on websites etc. the sentence goes "God's Own County". On others, you see "God's Own Country". Actually, it is really all God's Own Planet - or even His universe, I like to think. (I know you do not agree, but that's fine - we are all entiteld to believe what we wish, right?)
Sorry for the typos in my above comment. Blame the heat here!
DeleteI have many ancestors of Yorkshire. Although I don't know the subtleties of English politics, I will celebrate Yorkshire Day with you anyway!
ReplyDeleteHappy Yorkshire Day to you, Mr. P! Obviously you were born and raised in the correct place for your soul.
ReplyDeleteHappy Yorkshire Day, Neil!
ReplyDelete