FORMER Conservative MP Rory Stewart has been accused of “inventing” a new region in the Scottish Borders while promoting a new edition of his book.
Social media users reacted with fury this week after Stewart, who co-hosts the podcast The Rest Is Politics with former Labour director of Communications Alastair Campbell, shared a photo of the landscape from Dumbarton rock on Monday and labelled it "Middleland".
The caption stated: “Standing now on Dumbarton rock above the castle – ancient capital of the #Middleland and one of the most stunning sites in Britain! Come and see it.”
Stewart has used “Middleland", the title of Stewart’s book, to describe the regions in and around the Borders – such as the Penrith and The Border constituency he represented for over a decade – since 2014.
That year, Stewart presented a BBC documentary miniseries titled “Border Country: The Story of Britain’s Lost Middleland”, broadcast in the months before Scotland’s independence referendum.
The former MP discussed how “after the Romans left, [Britain] split once again, near the line of the wall, into the Kingdoms of England and Scotland".
In his book, Stewart reflects on “tensions between farming and the natural world, between the need to preserve and to grow, between local and national politics” during his time in the constituency.
Following the social media posts, another user challenged Stewart on Dumbarton’s historical identity, saying: “It was the capital of the Brittonic Kingdom of Strathclyde, not of 'the Middleland' – a concept you invented that artificially lumps together Strathclyde with the English-speaking Kingdom of Northumbria.”
“Nope,” replied Stewart, “the Middleland connects Dumbarton to Penrith – it is Brittonic Cumbria and Strathclyde. A vanished kingdom squashed between Scots and an Anglo-Saxon dynasty from Wessex.”
“You invented it, Rory,” responded the other user. “It was an ideological wheeze to undermine the legitimacy of Scottish national identity in the run-up to the 2014 referendum ... the BBC gave you a platform to punt your fiction as fact.”
“It’s Scotland, ancient Celt Scots stronghold,” a third user agreed, before continuing: “Stop erasing Scotland off the face of Britain you rude little man.”
“Except it’s not,” Stewart responded.
“Capital of the Strathclyde-Cumbria kingdom – which stretched across Southern Scotland and Northern England – a Middleland which was neither Scotland nor England!”
Replying to this, a fourth user questioned “WTF is going on?
“Why is Rory Stewart publicly arguing about Dark Age Cumbria?”
