I NOTE with interest Moira Cherrie's letter (August 29) regarding Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Berwick is an anomaly. The River Tweed is a wholly Scottish river and Berwick stands on the northerly (Scottish) side. The County of Berwickshire in Scotland is the only county in Britain to have its county town in another country. Until the Reform Act of 1855, Berwick was a Free Borough, meaning it had to be included separately in Acts of Parliament. The Crimean war was declared in the name of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed. At the end of the war Berwick was omitted from the treaty and was thus technically at war with Russia till the 1960s, when Russian delegates visited the town and signed a "tongue-in-cheek" document. The then Mayor Robert Knox famously said that Russians could now sleep easily in their beds.
In 2008 MSP Christine Grahame called in the Scottish Parliament for Berwick to become part of Scotland again. This was backed by Borders MSP Jeremy Purvis by the then Liberal Democrat council leader in Berwick. However, Alan Beith, the town's then MP opined that it would be too great a legal upheaval and was not realistic.
Today, there is a significant groundswell in the town for it to rejoin Scotland. Those in favour point out that the town is almost completely disregarded by the county council 30 miles away in Morpeth and is so unimportant to the Westminster Government that it recently promised, after years of campaigning by the town, to dual the A1 merely to within 25 miles of Berwick.
Townsfolk cast envious eyes at free prescriptions, free personal care (albeit less than perfect) and free university places over the Border, which is but three miles away. Due to lack of funding, they have watched their once-thriving town fall into disrepair and reduced to a High Street of charity shops. They wonder, correctly, why such a beautiful, completely walled gem can be so neglected by government.
As one elderly gentleman, very much in favour of Berwick rejoining Scotland, pointed out, Edinburgh and the Scottish Parliament is only 50 miles from Berwick, Westminster is 400 miles away. Which would you choose?
Mrs Y Sim,
3 Mac Nicol Court, East Kilbride.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel