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!
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/V0cI219
