A DAY for everyone and every place!

It would seem that today is Yorkshire Day 2018: the celebration of all things Yorkshire. Once again somebody has decided that today is a DAY!

Well, Spain and Italy and probably most other countries of Europe have DAYS for this that and the other. So why not Yorkshire? After all, every dog has his day, they say!

One of yesterday’s papers asked readers to tell them what the county means to them.

“Yorkshire Day is upon us once again, a time to celebrate all things great about the county – although for some, everyday is Yorkshire day. First marked in 1975 after the Yorkshire Ridings Society protested against local government reorganisation, this year’s official celebrations are taking place on Wednesday in the county’s smallest city, Ripon. There are plans for a parade through the market square, live music and a Wilfra Tart festival.

In past years people across Yorkshire have celebrated the day with pudding throwing contests, renaming pubs and councils have even come together to call for a “coalition of the willing” to fight for a devolution deal. We want to know how and where you’re celebrating God’s Own County this year. Are you taking part in town parades? Is your local pub doing anything to mark the occasion? Are you a believer in devolution?”

In my case, it means memories of the Yorkshire relatives turning up at intervals throughout the summer to stay with us in the house where I grew up in Southport. Slow speaking, with a marked accent, in my grandmother’s case dressed in black and looking like an illustration of a “peasant woman” from some school text book. She would have fitted in perfectly with the elderly Spanish ladies dressed in black who I came across when first I visited Spain in 1968.

As for devolution, well, I know a few who would happily go for free rule for Yorkshire.

Our village, Delph, used to be in Yorkshire, before the boundaries changed. Some people still have white roses on their gates and would go back to being in Yorkshire tomorrow.

Other friends would add Greater Manchester to it and go totally independent and probably stay in the EU! Alternatively, the whole of the north of England could join Scotland and go independent.

Would it cause as much disturbance as the Catalunya independence movement? I wonder!