COULD Yorkshire become England’s first semi-autonomous province?

In a post-pandemic, post-Brexit landscape, Colin Speakman, author of more than 60 books, walker, campaigner and environmentalist, thinks it could. His latest book, Yorkshire: Ancient Nation, Future Province - is due to be launched at the University of Bradford later this month.

COLIN Speakman is probably best known as the co-creator, with the late Tom Wilcock, of the 81 mile Dales Way - one of the most well known ramblers’ routes in the UK that wends its way from Ilkley to Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria.

Along the way, it sweeps up and over the Pennines, and passes through Appletreewick, Hebden, Grassington and Deepdale, before crossing into Cumbria.

The long distance route could be seen as a metaphor for Yorkshire devolution, the subject of Mr Speakman’s latest book, Yorkshire: Ancient Nation, Future Province.

Part polemic, part manifesto, it has a foreword from the newly elected Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin.

Mr Speakman, now 80, points out that Yorkshire is as populous as Scotland - both have 5.4m inhabitants - and has more people than Wales; but in terms of GDP per head succeeds less well than many comparable mainland European countries.

He asks in the book: “Is there now a distinct possibility that even the 400-year-old idea of ‘Britain’... may have to change?”, before taking the reader on a brief history of Yorkshire from Roman settlement, through to Viking and Norman invasions, the War of the Roses, and the historic origins of Yorkshire’s enigmatic White Rose right up to the still-reviled local government reorganisation of 1974, which saw the abolition of the famous and emblematic Ridings.

Speaking ahead of the launch, Mr Speakman, who was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University in 1997 and who lives in Burley-in-Wharfedale, says: “The book is about devolution but it’s also about Yorkshire, its people, its landscape, its huge strengths and resources, and the fact much of this is mismanaged by central governments of whatever political colour.

“We are as big as several European countries and yet we’re held back by a neo-colonial attitudes from Whitehall”.

While his latest book is dense with Yorkshire’s history - with detours into its people and places - from writer Michael Bradford, author of The Fight for Yorkshire, and poet Ted Hughes to Stoodley Pike obelisk - it also outlines a path to deliverance from what he calls the ‘nostalgic imperialist’ mindset of government by London.

“Post-Brexit and post-pandemic, the world has changed,” says Mr Speakman, who recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Outdoor Writers and Photographers’ Guild.

“We’re at a moment of change. West Yorkshire is the biggest conurbation in Europe without a modern light rail transport system, there have been no new rail lines created in Yorkshire since the Beeching Cuts in the 1960s.

“This is a cry for hope but also a rallying call for devolution. The ideal would be to have some sort of regional federal structure the way they do in parts of Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

“We need to have pride and confidence in who we are. “

Mr Speakman said he wanted to launch the book at Bradford University because in many ways it ‘celebrates the change that needs to take place’.

“This was one of the first ‘technology’ universities, this is where our hope for the future lies - it will be the young people of today who bring about the changes of tomorrow.”

“Being from Yorkshire is not about being born here. It’s about our shared culture and where people’s hearts are. If we can celebrate and strengthen this, we can achieve political change.”

And, he sees Yorkshire as a brand - like Normandy in France or Bavaria in Germany.

Mr Speakman, is amongst others, chair of the Dalesway Association, an active member of the Yorkshire Society, a Vice President of the Friends of the Dales, and a Vice President of West Riding Ramblers.

Yorkshire: Ancient Nation, Future Province, published by the Gritstone Publishing Cooperative, is available now, priced £12.50. It is to be launched at the University of Bradford on Wednesday, November 17.