Should Carlisle return to Scottish rule?
Last updated 19:21, Thursday, 21 February 2008
If the people of Berwick-upon-Tweed have their way, the Northumberland town will soon be returning to Scotland after an absence of more than 600 years. HealthEducationFootball Television Language Politicians An Englishman abroad Bank Holidays
Sixty per cent of respondents to an ITV poll said they want Berwick to become part of Scotland again. South of Scotland MSP Christine Grahame has lodged a motion at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh urging people in Berwick to “return to the fold”.
To judge the feeling at the western end of the border, an online poll was held this week by our sister paper the News & Star.
A third of respondents replied positively to the question “Should Carlisle return to Scottish rule?”
Have shortbread and tartan acquired a powerful new attraction? Possibly, but more money for Scottish health care and education are the main reasons for the country’s allure.
Every person in Scotland receives £1,500 a year more from the state than those in England.
This is thanks to a subsidy from Westminster known as the Barnett Formula, introduced in the 1970s to deal with differing levels of poverty and population across Britain.
Since the Scottish Parliament first sat in 1999 it has used this extra money to subsidise the country’s education and health services.
The results have left the English envious. Here in Cumbria we see our neighbours’ public services blossom as we stand with our faces pressed to the glass.
But if Berwick can consider returning to Scotland, why not the city at the other end of the border? Carlisle was in Scottish hands as recently as 1745, when Bonnie Prince Charlie briefly took the city. Carlisle’s northern fringes are just six miles from the border.
Carlisle is 300 miles from London but only 96 miles from Glasgow and 98 miles from Edinburgh.
At the last census the proportion of Scottish-born people living in Cumbria (3.41 per cent) was more than double the average for the whole of England.
So should Carlisle be returned to Scotland, and how would life for the city’s people be different?
Does the land of the deep-fried Mars Bar, above, really have anything to teach the rest of the world about good health? Actually, yes.
Scots have access to some expensive state-of-the-art drugs for illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and cancer, which are not available to NHS patients in England.
Scottish pensioners receive free personal care. This includes help with personal hygiene (such as bathing, shaving, oral hygiene and nail care), and things like food preparation, counselling, medication and dressing.
More than £700m has been spent on this policy since it was introduced in 2002.
Everyone in Scotland is entitled to free eye tests and free dental check-ups. By 2011 the governing Scottish National Party wants to abolish prescription charges.
There are questions about whether Scotland can sustain such spending but health care provision there appears much better than that of its southerly neighbour – and perhaps it needs to be. Scotland has the lowest life expectancy in the UK. Men north of the border live an average 74.2 years and women 79.3 years. The UK average is 76.6 years for men and 81 years for women.
Smoking, drinking, diet and lack of exercise are thought to be the main factors.
University tuition fees for Scottish students in Scotland have been abolished.
But students who come to Scotland from other countries, including England, have to pay fees of £3,000 per year.
There are plans to introduce free school meals for all children in some areas of Scotland.
Alan Rutter, the National Union of Teachers’ divisional secretary for Cumbria, thinks that Scotland’s education system is better than England’s for parents, teachers and pupils.
“I think most teachers in Carlisle would welcome the Scottish system which doesn’t have Sats [National Curriculum assessments]. That means Scotland doesn’t have school league tables.”
As the father of two grown-up children who are still paying off debts from university, Rutter thinks the Scots are right about tuition fees. “If we believe education is important for everyone then they shouldn’t be charged for it.”
To the English, Scottish football is widely regarded as a joke. The ideal environment, then, for Carlisle United to become a major force.
Carlisle are enjoying their best season for 22 years. There is the possibility of promotion to the Championship but a club of Carlisle’s size might well struggle to survive in England’s second-highest division.
There is an answer – move up the road and overnight become Scotland’s seventh-largest football club.
Carlisle’s average attendance of 7,500 is higher than six of the 12 teams in this season’s Scottish Premier League (SPL). On Wednesday night Motherwell consolidated third place in the SPL in front of just 4,526 fans.
Only Rangers, Celtic, Hibernian, Hearts, Aberdeen and Dundee United regularly attract bigger crowds than Carlisle.
Neil Forsyth, an author and Dundee United fan, told The Cumberland News: “A lot of SPL teams are struggling with debt and many clubs are recruiting players from Leagues One and Two, which suggests Carlisle would do OK. If you’re in the English system you’d be used to playing in a competitive league. I think Carlisle would be one of those clubs who could reach an occasional cup final or try and get third place and qualify for Europe. That, unfortunately, is all most Scottish clubs can hope for.”
An occasional cup final and European football? Many Carlisle fans would gladly settle for that.
And it’s not as if the English can mock Scotland’s national team any more. Both sides failed to qualify for this year’s European Championships but Scotland’s was a glorious failure while England’s was just embarrassing. Current world rankings: England 11; Scotland 14.
ITV Border viewers are used to watching Scottish news but the BBC produces a range of programmes exclusively for Scottish viewers. The most popular is River City, a twice-weekly soap set in the fictional Glasgow suburb of Shieldinch. It’s a bit like EastEnders but with more Irn Bru; a kind of Take the High Road for the Asbo generation.
BBC2 viewers in Scotland have their own version of Newsnight which replaces the last 20 minutes of the English version.
BBC2 Scotland also screens several programmes for Gaelic speakers. Currently showing are De A-Nis, a children’s programme, and Rapal, a music show which features new bands.
To many English people the language gap between England and Scotland is nothing when compared with the cultural chasm.
ITV Border viewers of a certain age will recall the dismay on New Year’s Eve when coverage switched to Scotland and New Year became Hogmanay, complete with “celebrities” many viewers had never heard of. If Carlisle became Scottish there would be much more of that. Forget Bruce Forsyth and Des O’Connor: say hello to Andy Cameron and Kenneth McKellar.
Bilingual road signs in both Gaelic and English are being introduced in the Highlands and elsewhere across Scotland. This is despite the fact that the last census in 2001 found only 58,650 Gaelic speakers in Scotland, all of whom also spoke English. The Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2005 is the first piece of legislation to give formal recognition to the Scottish Gaelic language.
The constituency of Dumfries MSP Elaine Murray borders Cumbria. Murray was non-committal on the question of whether she would welcome an expansion of her constituency to take in Carlisle.
“I don’t see why people in Carlisle would want to be Scottish,” she told The Cumberland News. “People in the north of England are proud to come from there. There might be a perception that Scotland gets more but really it’s different administrations having different policies and priorities. In England money has been invested in making waiting times shorter. It’s very difficult to make direct comparisons.”
Ray Bloxham is Carlisle city councillor for Longtown and Rockcliffe ward, which extends to the Scottish border. “I believe that the majority of Carlisle residents would be supportive of the education and health benefits that Scottish residents enjoy but am not convinced that they would want to sacrifice their place within England to allow this to happen. Generations have fought to be part of England and Carlisle’s long and turbulent history has moulded it into what it is today – a great border city.”
Gareth Moore, 44, above, moved to Scotland from Carlisle three years ago and now works as a journalist in Edinburgh.
He reflects on the differences, and similarities, between England and Scotland.
“So, what do I get for your cash? I get an NHS dentist, and I didn’t have to go on a waiting list or queue overnight.
“My GP operates out of a well-equipped surgery though, as was the case in Carlisle, I have to wait a couple of days for an appointment unless it’s an emergency.
“One problem is ethnic food. Stovies are a hugely overrated food consisting primarily of potato and tasting as near to perfect blandness as it’s possible to get.
“The Carlisle chip shop pattie is pretty much the same thing, so maybe Cumbrians wouldn’t have such a culture shock.
“It’s possible that, because Carlisle would be the fifth biggest city in Scotland – a long way behind Dundee but well ahead of Inverness – it would get more attention than at Westminster.
“But don’t bet on it; Scottish politics is dominated by Glasgow and Edinburgh and will continue to be so.
“What else does your money give us? Not very good roads – or even very many. No lovely, wide, quiet M6 for us. Go north of Perth and A-roads are the best you’ll find. And our trains are no cheaper or more reliable than England’s.
“Our drunks, of course, are famous the world over, and start young. Would Carlisle’s teeny tipplers fancy the change from White Lightning to the sickly sweet Buckfast?
“And if you think we are getting better public services than you, stop giving us your money – and we’ll stop giving you our oil.”
It’s a depressing fact that England has fewer Bank Holidays than any other country in Europe – a paltry eight. Scots have an extra two – January 2 and the first Monday in August.
But not every employer recognises these and some who do will take away another Bank Holiday in exchange. Last year the Scottish National Party introduced legislation allowing Scots to swap one of their Bank Holidays for November 30; St Andrew’s Day.
