MPs representing constituencies north and south of the border clashed at Westminster yesterday over an SNP call for the governments in Edinburgh and London to begin talks on moving Berwick-upon-Tweed from England back to Scotland.
After the ITV poll of around 2000 locals, which showed by a margin of 60% to 40% they would like their town to be in Scotland, Pete Wishart, the SNP MP for Perth and North Perthshire, tabled a parliamentary motion hailing the result and insisting: "The people of Berwick recognise the benefits of being governed by a Scottish Government in Edinburgh committed to improving services instead of the current situation of remote, uncaring Westminster indifference."
Noting how the town had changed hands between Scotland and England 13 times over the centuries, he insisted that the locals' views had to be "paramount" on the subject.
Mr Wishart added: "Negotiations should begin between the Scottish and UK governments."
Alan Beith, the Liberal Democrat MP for Berwick, in his own parliamentary motion, dismissed ITV's "so-called poll" and noted that the Scottish Government had "issued a statement that it is not making any territorial claims on England".
Mr Beith noted, however, that the programme had "identified the genuine concern that Berwick and other parts of England do not enjoy the free personal care for the elderly and free student tuition rescued by Liberal Democrats when they were part of the coalition government in Scotland and do not enjoy the higher spending levels on schools, highways and other public services financed under the Barnett formula".
At Holyrood, Christine Grahame, the SNP MP for the South of Scotland, has tabled a similar motion to Mr Wishart's. At the weekend, Alex Salmond said: "We have no territorial ambitions for any part of England."
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 hereComments are closed on this article