26th July 2012

Grey, overcast, a vague threat of rain.

Apparently in the South it is now summer but here in the far North summer still has to arrive.

The North - South divide is with is for some time yet.

Soon we are heading even further North into another country altogether.

We are heading up to Scotland into big tree country, aka Perthshire.

There is, in our experience, a very real difference in the quality of life in Scotland, Samuel Johnson notwithstanding, it is both more human in scale and more cultured.

Politically of course it is pretty much always ahead of the English game with only one Conservative MP.

Universal benefits, prescriptions, free travel for the elderly, no fishing licence and in most place free fishing for seniors make Scotland an easier place to be an old fisherman.

Free University Education for both Scottish and European Union students leave the English University system exposed and aspiring graduates indebted although if English students choose to study in Scotland fees will be charged.

The social, economic and political success of the Scottish National Party offers clues to a political way for wards for politics in Britain as a whole.

As smaller nations have emerged in Europe, think Czech Republic and Slovenia, their is increasing evidence that the desperate holding onto power evidenced by the coalition government is equally a clinging to an imperial past.

Regionalism and a more federal structure did not start with New Labour who simply appropriated and built onto ideas that had been around since before the First World war.

There is a lot more to be gained than lost by regionalising into a federal structure would offer more autonomy and independence to the regions created.

It would be easier for those elected to respond to the aspirations of their electorate than is possible with the current London centric system, inward investment, think Hitachi and Nissan in the North East, would benefit the regions proportionately.

A smaller State, with a smaller legislature, would offer co-ordination of regional activity without legislating in ways that benefit some parts of the UK and especially London to a greater degree.

The greatest benefit would be to see local economies and local communities developing in different ways and sharing their local accents that much more positively.

London, of course, is a separate thing altogether, either it becomes an exception which proves the rule or it has to be challenged politically and economically.

Why build the Olympic Park in London? Why the massive investment in Cross Rail? Why Hi Speed Rail Links with London? Why a new or expanded National Airport?

I always wondered why when I lived in Milton Keynes if I wanted to fly to Edinburgh or into Europe I had to fly from London Luton?

The effect of the London focus is to skew National development, investment and infrastructure.

At a recent meeting in Newcastle a participant in the meeting, who had travelled up from London, commented that s/he needed to 'get back to reality', although what is 'real' about the price of everything from Beer, to Commuting to Restaurant Prices in London I am not sure, especially given that wages and housing costs are generally disproportionate.

I have always been proud to be a Northerner, my accent, my heritage, my culture, the environment I grew up and the City in which I was born.

Now I live even further North and everything apart from the weather is fine and no amount of regionalising, legislating or praying will ever change that ...........