Rory Stewart’s romantic view of Cumbria is wide of the mark |
It’s tricky for writers to gather up pieces of old work and collect them in significant literary form. It’s risky for former politicians to publish outdated commentaries, with no agenda other than to show politics on the ground and as a record of their efforts and prejudices. Most hazardous of all is titling a book in such a way that it eschews the established geographical and psychological identity of the region it describes. These are the challenges Rory Stewart sets for himself in Middleland.
The book consists of the granary-floor sweepings of journalistic pieces published in the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald while Stewart served as MP for Penrith and the Border. The constituency no longer exists, having been split between three neighbouring territories after the 2023 periodic review. It was located in the very north of England, taking in the Eden Valley, Appleby-in-Westmorland, Wigton, Brampton and a span of the Scotland-England border. To be literal, it’s about halfway down (or up) the island of Great Britain. Stewart’s preferred name for the area is something of a conundrum. It recalls Cumbria’s former independent kingdom, while also operating as unionist toponymic engineering regarding Scottish independence, which Stewart strongly opposes. ‘Middleland’ also suggests a position between local and national governmental systems and between polarised states – the axis of modern politics.
Consisting of farmland, uplands, market towns and historic villages, Penrith and the Border was the largest and arguably safest Conservative seat in the UK, having only ever elected Tories. In 2010, its long-serving MP David McLean stood down and was succeeded by Stewart, who remained until his exit from the party. It wouldn’t have been a bad position to parachute into if you were an........