Northern Independence Party

[AngryOfTuebrook]

The absolute fucking state of this.  You know the best way to defeat the Tories right now?  Fabricating more divisions amongst ourselves (because, y'know, we're just far too united).

https://www.redpepper.org.uk/the-case-for-northern-independence/

 

The so-called United Kingdom is on the verge of collapse. The Republic of Ireland led the way; the next break is only a matter of time. It could be Scottish independence or Irish reunification – only time will tell. But one thing we know for sure is that the Westminster elite will not quench our collective thirst for freedom, autonomy, and sovereignty. We are the Northern Independence Party – NIP for short – and this is our case for a new nation beyond the Humber.

 

Locating the North

It begins, as you might expect, with the North-South divide – a divide most Northerners recognise even if not everyone understands how deep its history runs. Barring a golden age sometime after the Romans left, which ended with the Viking invasions, for most of its history the North has been a militarised frontier. The industrial revolution transformed the North and then the world – a change that led to both progress and strife. But industry has come and gone, dropped as soon as it was no longer profitable for this country’s ruling class. Now, after 40-years of Thatcherite economics, 10-years of austerity and a global pandemic, we believe it’s time to rethink the North radically.

 

We do not believe the ‘generosity’ of Westminster will bridge the North-South divide  – this tried and tested approach is destined to fail. The centrality of London, with its capacity to gobble-up all of this country’s assets, is built into the very fabric of the so-called ‘United Kingdom.’ Infrastructure, people, resources, opportunities: all filter south by design. Only through a referendum – with a resounding ‘yes’ – will we solve, once and for all, that vast array of economic and social disparities that split this island in two.

 

The North, which we prefer to call by its historic name ‘Northumbria’, is vibrant and diverse. Yet mainstream media and Westminster continues to lump us together as a deprived, bigoted backwater. London-based journalists and politicians consistently pick out the worst of us and declare them our true representatives, demonstrating no understanding of the North’s actual character.

 

NIP defines Northumbria on our terms. We acknowledge that Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Durham, Northumberland and Cheshire are all distinct lands with long histories and strong cultural identities. As such, we refuse to be reduced to lazy stereotypes. It’s also true that the North is a slippery concept. It is difficult to pin down on a map. For this reason, we respect the rights of anyone in ‘border territories’ to join us subject to a local referendum.

 

We know too that the struggles of Hackney and Blyth Valley are one. Stuart Hall famously wrote that ‘race is the modality in which class is lived.’ In a similar but distinct manner, the underdevelopment of the North produces a regionalised experience of class. We are not an exclusionary movement. We say to our allies in the South: join us! We need you – help us build a Free North!

 

We firmly reject the spatialisation of the North by the right (and some quarters of the left) as a monolithic block of working-class whiteness. Not only is this inaccurate, but it is offensive to the vast array of people who call Northumbria home. The North was, is, and shall remain international. Our fledgling country is home to the children of Irish migrants, Romani folk, Europeans from the continent and more recent migrants coming from India and Jamaica, among others. Our beautiful diversity is nonetheless often ignored, shrouded by a St George’s Flag – a symbol for obnoxious racism and a fictitious ‘white North’.

 

Leading from the North

The ‘United Kingdom’ was created by a handful of elites, and what kept this artificial construct together was always oppression and force. Centuries of struggle gave the working class the vote, then the welfare state, and with it an increased standard of living. The North has contributed more than its fair share to a wide variety of progressive struggles. We can point to the Mackem Leveller John Lilburne or Thomas Spencer the Geordie radical who inspired Thomas Paine, the French Revolution and the Chartists. Nor should we forget the Mancunians who led the fight for universal suffrage, the pioneers of Rochdale that worked towards a cooperative future, or the Hull-native that led the English struggle to abolish the slave trade. Our modern history of resistance includes defining moments like the Miners’ Strike, the Jarrow March and the long struggle for justice for Hillsborough.

 

But under Thatcher, capital gained the upper hand. We watched the Tories destroy our industries. Our towns continue to decay as Northerners move on to find opportunities elsewhere. Our communities are splintered, and further economic degradation constantly threatens our sense of dignity. We are not alone in this history – we share it with Scotland and Wales. Their answer to deprivation is independence, and it shall be ours too.

 

The impoverishment of the North and areas in other metropoles was driven by capitalism and accelerated under neoliberalism. NIP’s understanding of deprivation, however, is greater than just empty wallets. Poverty has a Northern texture, where public transport is patchy, expensive and infrequent, museums and art galleries few and far between, libraries are closed and town centres have become ghost towns. Poverty is always something lived – not only measured.

 

Despite intermittent campaigns, the UK has never federalised. Instead, Westminster has kept all the power and wealth for itself. We live in one of the most centralised and regionally unequal countries in Europe, we have no written constitution and our voting system is archaic and unrepresentative. Is it any wonder that so many of us are disillusioned?

History teaches us that if you want meaningful change, do not look to Westminster.  The UK remains a former imperial power whose transition to democracy was just a pitiful series of concessions to the working class. The ‘UK’ is irredeemable, and we will break it.

 

An economy for the North

The impoverishment of the North demands a political solution. While working-class Londoners suffer at the hands of greedy landlords, Northern deprivation takes on its own particularities, ranging from long term structural unemployment to infrastructural collapse.   Given our specificity and centuries of little progress, we believe that the only realistic way to stem the ever southwards flow of capital, people, and resources is to break the union itself.

 

In building our new country and a modern economy, the North will not begin from ground zero. A vast wealth of practical proposals for a new Northern economy – from the now faltering Powerhouse plans to New Labour regeneration strategies – fill the dusty cabinets of Whitehall. No government has acted on these propositions in good faith. If an administration acted upon them to the letter, they would risk the City of London and Westminster’s dominance over the regions. From Northern Investment Banks to a Green Industrial Rebirth (we’ve already had a revolution), we simply cannot rely on a government hundreds of miles away willfully tilting the balance back to our favour. We must rebuild alone.

 

Not only is the UK  the most unequal country in Europe, some of the most impoverished areas in Europe are in the North of England. Yet not only do we have some of the largest cities on this island, we’re rich in resources from minerals to water. Vast amounts of trade comes into our ports through the Irish and North Seas, as well as along our roads. And we’re home to some of the world’s leading companies. On current measures, our GDP per capita ought to place Northumbria just below Japan at 35,539 (USD). Yet, somehow, we continue to endure low life expectancies, terrible welfare statistics, low educational achievements and a worsening mental health crisis. The North remains the most deprived region in what is currently called ‘England’, and this didn’t happen by chance. Northern impoverishment is instead the product of an ongoing plundering of Northumbria – a never-ending harrying of the North –  that exploits the many for the enrichment of the few.

 

We don’t want to level up; we want to level out. Economic independence will mean we can implement economic democracy. The North will take control of its assets and enable common ownership over the wealth they produce. Just as we are rich in wind and tidal power, we also have the industrial know-how to decarbonise our economy fully. This will see us capture the entire Green-tech supply-chain, employing hundreds and thousands in the process. We will fully insulate our homes and our power supply will be entirely renewable. Our movement’s friends in Scotland have already made plans on how to make that vision a reality. We will partner with them to extend those benefits to ourselves.

 

Our soon-to-be country of over 15 million people – with an economy roughly the size of Sweden – did not become financially reliant on its Southern neighbours by accident. Northumbrians are not inherently incapable, and poverty is not inevitable. Our current economic malaise is the result of profound structural injustices that allowed segments of London and the South East to function as a black hole, pulling everything into their centre and gobbling it up – from investment opportunities to our best and brightest.

 

A free Northumbria for all

We are not ‘Northern England.’ We do not need London to orientate ourselves. We are Northumbria. And for our North, only independence will do. NIP demands the right to run our affairs and control our assets, land and borders, for we know what is best for our communities, what is best for our economy and what is best for our future.

 

Together we will break the chains of Westminster. Together we will create a free and fair Northumbria.

 

The Northern Independence Party is a new political party. Follow them on Twitter at @FreeNorthNow

[AngryOfTuebrook]

https://www.thesocialreview.co.uk/2021/01/21/nip-it-in-the-bud-the-case-against-northern-independence/

 

Even though they have the wrong answer, people calling for Northern independence are asking the right questions. The North of England was decimated by Thatcher and, outside of a few urban centres, has been in steady decline since. Nothing has stepped in to replace the secure, unionised jobs in manufacturing and mining. Infrastructure is dilapidated or non-existent, especially when it comes to rail within and between our cities. The UK has some of the highest regional inequality in the world – with the North East being the UK’s poorest region in terms of income. These challenges are not unique to the North, but they are acute, and they require bespoke solutions. 

 

What I don’t see is how drawing an arbitrary border and replacing one set of elites based in Westminster, with another set of elites based in (probably) Manchester is going to solve this...

 

The real divide in this country isn’t North-South, it’s the haves and the have-nots. Class is what separates us – how much power and wealth you happen to born into makes a bigger difference to your future than whether you’re from Harrogate or Harrow. And this becomes easier and easier to miss as the reality of the class system moves further anyway from the language we use to describe it. Splitting England in two isn’t going to do anything to solve inequality.

[cochyn]

It's fucking horseshit alright: Up here in Yorkshire we've had the 'Yorkshire First' party for donkey's years. They're lucky to get over 60 votes in a constituency of 30,000. There is, and will never be a credible grass-roots public mandate for this kind of arbitrary micro geo-political division and. well lets just call it what it is: populist regionalism. I've long believed in the aphorism that nationalism is the last refuge of the scoundrel and regionalism is no different.

 

I'll bet a pound to a penny that this regionalism has been devised and propagated by a bunch of utter gammons who - as you say, are their own local political elite who just want more of the political pie for themselves.  They get a fucking hard-on when thinking they can 'smash the system' and 'go our own way' and now emboldened by Brexit see how the masses can be manipulated to follow their dogma.  

 

Unity and co-operation regardless of borders and culture is always the answer and a key driver for prosperity my view. These cunts can go fuck themselves. 

 

 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Even if you were attracted by nationalism and regionalism, it's surely only a real prospect in places like Scotland or Catalonia that already have a cultural identity.  You can't just shit out some lines on a map and say "everyone inside these lines shares a culture that the people outside the lines don't".  (Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot tried that once and it didn't work out terribly well.)

[Anubis]

They are going about it the wrong way. Instead of calling for a north/south divide they should be uniting the northern tribes into a unified force and invading and pillaging the south, taking their assets and resources and enslaving their population.

 

I, for one, will not be sated until we can stand atop A Red’s bins surveying the fruits of our conquest.

[Reckoner]

I’ve not read through all that as I’m knackered sorry, but I will tomorrow...but I broadly agree. But rather than the haves v have nots I think it’s people of a certain intelligence vs the idiots. The media run the country and get people I vote against their own interests. 90% of the population would have been better off under Corbyn but poor people still vote Tory if told to.

[Reckoner]

25 minutes ago, cochyn said:

I've long believed in the aphorism that nationalism is the last refuge of the scoundrel and regionalism is no different.

 

I'll bet a pound to a penny that this regionalism has been devised and propagated by a bunch of utter gammons who - as you say, are their own local political elite

Is all this ‘ scouse not English’ an extension of that though? ( I’m scouse btw) An extension of the military mentality that has seen the city punished by Westminster for generations? Maybe whipped up by corrupt politicians. Playing devils advocate here.

[cochyn]

1 hour ago, Reckoner said:

Is all this ‘ scouse not English’ an extension of that though? ( I’m scouse btw) An extension of the military mentality that has seen the city punished by Westminster for generations? Maybe whipped up by corrupt politicians. Playing devils advocate here.

That's really interesting. I'll be honest; I always thought the 'scouse' mentality was borne from the city's history as a port, and  therefore people were more accepting of external influence and cultures. There's an inherent pluralism to it which underpins the scouse culture (in my view - maybe I'm romanticising)? Whereas I see this 'northern independence' as the opposite of that: It's about carving out a fictional identity that doesn't actually exist anymore - if it ever did?

 

I think in any post-industrial region there is a natural potential for blaming the government (or the powers that be) as the bogey-man responsible for their predicament. When to a larger degree, it's global capitalism that is the root cause - in Liverpool's case containerisation and the shift in trade from North America to Europe in the last 80 years, followed by a shrinking planet enabling cheaper labour forces abroad. Factors beyond the control of any national government.

[Reckoner]

44 minutes ago, cochyn said:

That's really interesting. I'll be honest; I always thought the 'scouse' mentality was borne from the city's history as a port, and  therefore people were more accepting of external influence and cultures. There's an inherent pluralism to it which underpins the scouse culture (in my view - maybe I'm romanticising)? Whereas I see this 'northern independence' as the opposite of that: It's about carving out a fictional identity that doesn't actually exist anymore - if it ever did?

 

I think in any post-industrial region there is a natural potential for blaming the government (or the powers that be) as the bogey-man responsible for their predicament. When to a larger degree, it's global capitalism that is the root cause - in Liverpool's case containerisation and the shift in trade from North America to Europe in the last 80 years, followed by a shrinking planet enabling cheaper labour forces abroad. Factors beyond the control of any national government.

I think liverpool has been rightly proud of standing up to liberal capitalism and generally regarding ourself as socialist. It’s a crazy idea, being nice to each other, helping each other. It’s absolutely nuts. 
This is a Tory country. People don’t agree with us. They’d rather protect their salaries and their kids than share any wealth. And you can understand that to a degree, with the media pushing the benefits scavenger thing. Manchester kissed the Tory arse and got all the investment since 1990. 
There will never be change until the media is reigned in. 
 

edit- that wasn’t coherent , I’ll post

tomorrow ha

[Paul]

All part of the endless human cycle throughout history of division and difference building up to eventual conflict which leads to unification and peace for a bit until everyone forgets the conflict and focuses on division and difference again. The further we get from WWII the greater our division, with Brexit and nationalism key signposts on the social media magnified journey. 

[mattyq]

Nationalism/Regionalism is for cunts

[A Red]

9 hours ago, Anubis said:

I, for one, will not be sated until we can stand atop A Red’s bins surveying the fruits of our conquest.

And when you get here and realise we dont have wheely bins you'll wish you hadnt bothered

[Section_31]

I don't know if it's a North/South thing any more, I think it's a city/non city thing. I think it's the same in the States.

 

You'll hear opinions on things like, say, benefits claimants, immigrants and the likes in places like St Helens that's curl your hair, whereas places like Bristol are pretty notoriously liberal.

 

Liverpool is a weird one, I think we buck authority but I don't think it's as simple as us being a socialist city, I don't think we are. Heavily unionised back in the day yes, but that's not necessarily the same thing (chat to anyone from back then who couldn't get a job because they had no relations in Ford or on the docks, and you'll hear some choice views on it all).

 

Most scousers I've met over 60 seem pretty Conservative with a small c, I know it was largely Tory at one point. Socially Conservative too, possibly due to the Irish Catholic influence.

 

It also has to be said it's a very consumerist city, nowhere will you get more grief growing up for having the wrong trainers, even though the person doing it probably hasn't had breakfast.

[A Red]

The easy answer of course is for the south east to break away

[Bobby Hundreds]

I've said it before but I'd be all for proportional representation party that exists purely to get power implement proportional representation  and split up. 

[Anubis]

1 hour ago, A Red said:

And when you get here and realise we dont have wheely bins you'll wish you hadnt bothered

Cottage roof it is then. 

[Mook]

I haven't read the article but don't have an issue with a more devolved system. Having a centralised, neo-liberal, shit show in London is not working for millions of people so maybe having more localised corruption would be better.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

10 hours ago, Mook said:

I haven't read the article but don't have an issue with a more devolved system. Having a centralised, neo-liberal, shit show in London is not working for millions of people so maybe having more localised corruption would be better.

Devolution is good.

Local democracy is good.

Subsidiarity is good.

 

Fake nationalism where there is no sense of nationhood is really not good whichever way you look at it. 

[Mook]

1 minute ago, AngryofTuebrook said:

Devolution is good.

Local democracy is good.

Subsidiarity is good.

 

Fake nationalism where there is no sense of nationhood is really not good whichever way you look at it. 

Agreed.

[VladimirIlyich]

On 20/03/2021 at 12:09, Anubis said:

Cottage roof it is then. 

Cottaging we go! Lock up your Sons, Bognor Regis.

[VladimirIlyich]

On 20/03/2021 at 12:29, Mook said:

I haven't read the article but don't have an issue with a more devolved system. Having a centralised, neo-liberal, shit show in London is not working for millions of people so maybe having more localised corruption would be better.

Yet the finance would still stay in London? Doesn't make much sense to me. We'd need a more strategic financial centre that could suck capital out of the City of London, which is basically the UK's Monte Carlo,but with the pretence of actually paying tax.

[Megadrive Man]

I can't see any reason why a party called the NIP wouldn't be taken seriously? 

[Jairzinho]

10 minutes ago, MegadriveMan said:

I can't see any reason why a party called the NIP wouldn't be taken seriously? 

Nip slip in the polls?

[Anubis]

The North remembers. We know no king but the King in the North whose name is Stark.

[Remmie]

As a southerner who supports a northern f**tball team, wastes most of his life on a northern forum and went to a northern University, I have to say that I've encountered a hell of a lot of northerners with a stick up their arses about southerners. Admittedly, a huge amount is justified but we're not all called Tarquin and familiar with Quail eggs.