The road north out of Berwick-upon-Tweed (Bearaig a Deas) the A1167, is very heavily travelled, and it soon rejoins the Great North Road, the A1, which left London nearly 340 miles to the south. Two and a half miles later, you see the flagpoles, three of them, the Cross of St Andrew fluttering bravely in the breeze.
I pulled into the neat lay-by, with its commemorative carved boundary marker - 'Scotland', it says. A large, attractively-designed bilingual road sign with the welcoming words - 'Welcome to Scotland - Fàilte gu Alba' is just ahead. At this point, Scotland's capital city, Edinburgh, is only 54 miles away; London is 343 miles south of here, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the nearest large English city is 65 miles away - and you can tell. The Borders area on the English side has a slightly neglected look about it. If Westminster politicians don't care much about what happens in the North of England around Salford and Sheffield, imagine how much they care about road traffic problems and job creation in Berwick-upon-Tweed!
Berwick, as the locals call it, has been the site of conflict and pitched battles between the thrones of England and Scotland for centuries; being strategically placed at the mouth of the River Tweed, and surrounded by rich barley fields (which gave it its name), it has changed hands no less than 13 times! Sometimes it has been ceded, as a political chess piece, sometimes bought, but mostly conquered and reconquered - again and again. The last - and up to this moment, final time - was in 1482, when a soldier/prince who was to become very famous, indeed - one Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later to become King Richard III, and be killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field - marched north and successfully took the town.
From that moment on, the English Crown spent large sums of money on Berwick, not for the benefit of its citizens, but towards building an ever-increasingly more complex series of fortifications. Queen Elizabeth I completed a huge series of defensive walls and miltary barracks that exist to this day, and made Berwick practically impregnable.
The Acts of Union of 1707, rushed through the Scottish Parliament of the day, fused England and Scotland together. It was rather like turkeys voting for Thanksgiving, only THIS time there would be no equivalent of a Presidential pardon! However, since a devolved, if somewhat limited, Scottish Parliament (Pàrlamaid na h-Alba) was granted to the people of Scotland under the Scotland Act 1998, there has been a steady push, particularly by the Scottish National Party, for complete independence; that will be subject to a referendum vote involving the whole of Scotland in the near future.
Already, voices have been raised in the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, regarding the reversion of Berwick to Scotland; some SNP sources cite the preferences of various Liberal Democrat councillors in Berwick who think that governance from 54 miles away makes a great deal more sense than the present style of austerity government emanating from London, 345 miles away. Scottish politicians also mention that fact that there is free University education north of the border, and far greater social benefits. I dare say, that following the recent savage cuts by the so-called Coalition Government in Westminster to all the social programmes, a referendum in Berwick would yield a VERY close result!
I spent a few minutes under the flags of St Andrews, took this photograph, then headed north across the border, into the land of my forefathers, and my clansmen.
It wasn't until I made the return journey, and saw the corresponding lay-by on the opposite, English, side of the road that I burst out laughing. A beaten-up old trailer, converted as a snack bar, with a small, nondescript roadside sign that just said, 'England'. No flags, no commemorative stone....nothing. Oh, and the hand-lettered sign on the snack bar was bigger than the official sign - it just said, 'Tea'; it was accompanied by a small plastic flag of St George!
http://peoplesmosquito.org.uk
http://shortfinals.wordpress.com