Borders and Troubles

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

excellent two part documentary tracing the history of the Middleland

Rory Stewart has written an excellent programme, presents well and can nip up and down the hills and turrets like a mountain goat on amphetamine ...pretty indispensable history given the coming ballot

[Barbirollians]

I seems as if the BBC regards it as their role to supplement the income of past and present Tory MPs .

What next - managing your personal finances with Maria Miller ?

[gurnemanz]

excellent two part documentary tracing the history of the Middleland

Rory Stewart has written an excellent programme, presents well and can nip up and down the hills and turrets like a mountain goat on amphetamine ...pretty indispensable history given the coming ballot

Wot did the Romans ever do for us? .... Give us us Scotland. Fair point.

[aeolium]

excellent two part documentary tracing the history of the Middleland

Rory Stewart has written an excellent programme, presents well and can nip up and down the hills and turrets like a mountain goat on amphetamine ...pretty indispensable history given the coming ballot

Yes, it was good, though I thought he overstressed the importance of what he called the Middle Land - in certain periods, maybe, but not in general. And the point he was trying to make about borders being essentially permeable and arbitrary could be made about most national land borders - even mountainous ones. His final argument for having a fluid border - or no real border at all - disregards political reality, that an autonomous political identity will eventually affect cultural identity. Just as the obliteration of the border through the Act of Union was followed by military and political subjugation of Scotland which affected its character, so the restoration of the border for political purposes if Scotland votes for independence will change it again. It was noticeable that Stewart spent almost no time discussing the history of the Middle Land after the Act of Union.