Letter: Worries south of the border as Scots vote

Stafford Higginbottom
Thursday 11 September 1997 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Sir: The current focus on the Scottish and Welsh devolution debates highlights the ambivalent feelings many of us in the North have towards our "Englishness".

From the times of the initial Anglo-Saxon settlements, through the Danelaw and onwards, the people of northern England have often had more in common with the Scots than with their southern compatriots. More important than historical variations of dialect, place-names and so on, are the profound differences in the type of society we wish to live in.

As in Scotland, throughout the 1980s people here overwhelmingly rejected the selfish, individualist ethos of Thatcherism. The political colour map clearly showed the very different concerns of these two, separate Britains. Trades unionism and friendly societies are hardly the natural bedfellows of "Essex man". Many of us will be hoping our turn will come.

STAFFORD HIGGINBOTTOM

School of Biological Sciences

Manchester University

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in