T'Yorkshire Assembly
by Jack Tindale
Publisher: Sea Lion Press
Yorkshire, whether you think of it as 'God's Own County', or an uppity region with a Pennine-sized chip on its shoulder, is nevertheless a place with a firm identity, which for many years has clamoured for more autonomy of its own. In the early-2000s, it was one of three regions in the North of England that was mooted for devolution, but a failed referendum in the North-East, coupled with an increasingly ambivalent Westminster, scuppered proposals before they began. Over a decade later, no real progress has been made to give the Three Ridings the powers available to Scotland, Wales, or even Manchester.
In T'Yorkshire Assembly, however, efforts prove a little more successful. In a travelogue across the region, politicians, academics, and journalists review the impact of fifteen years of home-rule for the ancient capital of, um, Bradford.
From rapturous support to entrenched cynicism, from Buffet Bars to Barnsley, and from Leeds to London, T'Yorkshire Assembly gives a look at devolved United Kingdom that is even more of a patchwork than our reality.