Carlisle and North Cumbria: Locals Real Concerns, Issues and Wider Regional Affiliations Not Addressed by Regional TV Broadcasters

3rd June 2026

 

Dear Readers

 

Folk living in communities in the North of Cumbria, what is now known as it formerly was many years ago, North Cumberland have local and wider regional affiliations, and interests that are markedly different from other parts of North West England further to the south: Indeed, tell anyone from Carlisle or Brampton that they live in North West England and you will get a sharp retort that they live in the Far North of England, that if they have cause to travel to any big city at all it is likely to be Newcastle-upon-Tyne, possibly even Edinburgh but never Manchester, 120 miles to the south.

 

This is why the local area receives ITV Border’s Lookaround, with local news about Cumbria and southernmost Scotland on the flagship evening news programme, and from the BBC Look North, broadcast from Tyneside. The only time- in the late 1980s- that the BBC subject North Cumberland to BBC North West Tonight, broadcast from Manchester, there was such widespread protests and uproar locally that the BBC eventually shifted the area back to BBC North East.

 

However, that does not mean that the Carlisle area is happy about getting so-called local news that is 90% about North East England: When ITV Border was mothballed in 2009, and ITV broadcast a combined ITV Tyne Tees & Border news-service for a few years the whole local community was up in arms, with MPs representing Cumbrian and southern Scottish constituencies putting real pressure on ITV.Plc to reverse-ferret on their amalgamation plans: This they have largely done so, although most ITV Border programming is produced in regional offices in Gateshead, rather than Carlisle (as was once the case).

 

North Cumberland is in North West England albeit the most northerly part thereof, and 100 or more miles further north of most other parts of North West England. Wider regional links are cross-Border into Scotland and towards Northumberland, and there are a few links with Lancashire- but North Cumbria has its own characteristics within the wider regional setting. This is why ITV Border Lookaround is by far the most appropriate Regional TV News-programming for the area. However, ITV Border’s very continuance may be called into question in the future and the quality and amount of truly locally-sourced programs aimed at North Cumbrians is not what it once was.

 

 

Localised and Topically-relevant Regional TV News is under threat

Local TV News-coverage is under threat, as at the time of writing Scottish Television (STV) are proposing the axing of a Regional TV News-service for Northern Scotland- covering a much larger area and with a much higher population than Cumbria and southernmost Scotland. Sadly- and shockingly- OFCOM have just given their approval for STV to axe their Regional TV service specifically for northern and NE Scotland (link here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yrngq34d3o). So there will now be just one single Scottish Regional TV service broadcast from Glasgow to all, but the extreme south of Scotland covered by ITV Border. It means Orkney and Shetland, up to 400 miles north of Glasgow getting “local” news about Glasgow! This is very much be the thin end of the wedge because it then becomes easier for ITV.Plc to consider amalgamating and mothballing “non-profitable” rural TV Regions in the name of saving money. Against this backdrop, one cannot be 100% certain that ITV Border’s future will be safe- and any future reversion to a combined ITV Tyne Tees & Cumbria News-service (with the Scottish part of ITV Border hived off to STV) is more likely to be permanent.

 

From the BBC, a new round of cuts to save money has been announced (link here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crrperp4r1zo), and after the BBC mothballed two BBC Regions in the South and East of England at Christmas 2022 one cannot say that the BBC Regional TV serving Cumbria is safe either. There is every possibility that the BBC NE and Cumbria transmission area is amalgamated with the Yorkshire and East Yorkshire/ Lincolnshire areas to create one big BBC North area. If that happens, the Carlisle area will be given a choice to be put back with BBC North West (to get 80% coverage of Manchester/ Merseyside and Cheshire) or to remain with an enlarged BBC North area providing 65% coverage of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and a further 30% of Tyneside and Teesside. Either choice would provide local news that is urban-flavoured in topical content and very distant.

 

 

The possibility of the BBC doing this is not an academic one. There is a possibility that, if Reform UK (or a Reform UK/ Tory Coalition) Government wins after the next Election that the TV Licence fee will be abolished, and then the BBC is faced with a massive loss of funding- and need to try and make up for the loss of TV Licence funding this from private income streams. If Labour stay in Government, there will be little pressure put on the BBC to increase funding for (or to expand) Regional TV services for rural areas like Cumbria, not least when the main voter-base for Labour in in the cities and includes the ethnic minority cohort. Either because of funding cuts, or because of an obligation to produce more programming aimed at ethnic groups that have come to the UK, the BBC will be forced to make cuts: And they will cut programming that is considered loss-making (for which, read TV Regions serving low-population areas of the North). The BBC will instead have programming that is dead cheap to produce, that will have mass-viewership in the millions, so expect more of soaps like East Enders and repeats of old Westerns (for which production costs would be very minimal). Little of the Local, high-quality News and Documentary programming that set the BBC apart in its heyday will survive.

 

The Local News and Programming that North Cumberland has lost

However, local news services and documentaries that addresses the concerns of local communities, which informs and expresses sympathy towards these local communities and their issues, and which fosters community wellbeing and cohesion are vital. That is especially true for the Carlisle area, the surrounding areas of North Cumberland and including the North Pennines around Alston (absurdly placed into Westmorland and Furness): For readers of this article, I refer to North Cumberland as the north-eastern half of the old county of Cumberland, which includes all areas north of a line from Maryport to Penrith and which includes those communities just north-east of Penrith (i.e., around Kirkoswald and Langwathby) and, of course, Alston Moor in the North Pennines (areas that, by the way, were never part of Westmorland- ever). Most folk living around the Carlisle area would understand Cumberland to be defined as including these communities.

 

Currently, ITV Border’s Lookaround provides very good local news-coverage for North Cumberland but for how much longer? Additionally, it is increasingly the case that certain items are considered off-topic by broadcasters- any discussion of Immigration and the impact of them moving up from the South, or the desirability of a return to Christian values, etc,: All that is considered too contentious, could be construed as offensive, and one must be careful of what one must report in 2026 under a Labour Government- whose strong arm reaches up to Carlisle- and northwards!  This makes an otherwise excellent Regional TV News-service more bland, less cutting edge, and less able to relate to all viewers and their needs and concerns.

 

Border Television, the precursor to ITV Border, produced a whole range of local programs and documentaries in the 1980’s, in addition to the flagship Regional News bulletins. There were documentaries like Burn’s Boots, retracing the footsteps of Robert Burns through the Scottish Borders in the late 18^th Century, there was The Drove, which recreated the journeys of cattle-herders travelling from Dumfriesshire to London around 1800, and plenty of programming about Cumbria, its people and landscapes featuring Cumbrian legend Melvyn Bragg and much more (you can read more about this here: https://transdiffusion.org/2023/01/19/itv-in-1988-border/). Border Television, from studios in Carlisle, managed all this on a relatively small budget through the recessions and inflation of the 1970s and early 1980s and the recession of 1990-91.  All manner of issues impacting North Cumberland were discussed and covered, there were documentaries and children’s shows, all produced by Border Television: All this has now gone!

 

All of these changes have been brought about by allowing the local ITV franchises to amalgamate, the loss of advertising revenue, greedy middle management and CEOs of the TV companies chasing profits for themselves and shareholders, and a light-touch regulatory regimé allowing ITV broadcasters to cut core news-services in lieu of that bringing in quick profits. It has been a disaster for Local and Regional TV.

 

BBC Regional TV is also a shadow of its former self. There used to be excellent news-coverage from BBC Look North (NE England), in the 1980s when Mike Neville brought interesting news to viewers, engagement with his audience, addressing viewers’ concerns, etc. BBC NE and Cumbria also broadcast additional Regional programmes and documentary programming like Life on a North Sea Oil Rig, the Political show North of Westminster, Look North Special Features, fronted by BBC Look North anchorman Mike Neville: All of this was special programming produced for the BBC NE/ Cumbria Region discussing topics that mattered like the Closing of Coalmines and the impacts on local communities, the quaintest pubs in the region, special Northern Communities, Regeneration projects, and so much more.

 

What there is now is just one BBC Regional News-presenter presenting news as a matter-of-fact. There is no longer the engagement with viewers, finding out what makes people tick, far less that the Regional TV presenters would go out of their way to produce additional programming at their own expense and in their own time (or even if the BBC at a national level would allow BBC North East & Cumbria to air special programming). The North of England is poorer for it, as it is poorer for the decline of other Public Services like NHS dentists, loss of local Community Hospitals in each small town, less rural transport, local Police Stations closing- and a contrary rise in Anti-social behaviour.

 

Protecting Local and Regional TV and Programming in an Uncertain Future

As all of the above changes have happened gradually over time, local communities have not been faced with a major, sudden loss of a good Public service- as happened in 2009 when ITV.Plc proposed merging ITV Border with ITV Tyne Tees. Then the proposed threat to a valued news-service was faced and fought by local communities and MPs applied pressure on ITV: ITV.Plc management listened, and ITV Border’s Lookaround was reinstated. The gradual loss of Regional programmes aside from just the Regional news has happened more slowly, both from ITV Border and from BBC NE/Cumbria, over a period of years: Thus, it has happened in the “Slowly Heating Frog” manner, whereby changes are slow and subtle enough to creep up on North Cumbrian communities in plain sight- and without provoking a backlash. Alas, the effect is no less real- Regional TV News and programming has become more distant, uncaring and, increasingly, less relevant in the eyes of viewers.

 

This need not be inevitable: There is a small island nation whose population is just half that of Carlisle alone that enjoys its own news, its own music and its own programming. That tiny country is less than 500 miles to the north-west of Carlisle. This is the Faroe Islands- with its own fully-fledged National broadcasting-service Kringvarp Føroya (Broadcasting Service of The Faroe Islands), which produces TV News and documentary programming for the Faroese people in their own language (link here: https://kvf.fo/sjon). The Faroese Government helped set this up, and it is funded by a broadcast license fee and some government subsidy- with a Public Service contract protecting Kringvarp Føroya from government pressure to report favourably on the government. TV Broadcasting for the Faroe Islands is, nonetheless, funded as a Public service- because that is essentially what it is.

 

It would not be necessary to increase the amount of funding per person for local TV to the level in the Faroe Islands- in order to bring about huge improvements in Regional TV in remote rural parts of Northern Britain. As things stand, there is today huge overlap in the provision of Regional TV in major regions across the country, for instance both ITV Granada Reports and BBC North West Tonight cover Manchester and Merseyside and a bit of Lancashire and Cheshire in bulletins lasting almost half an hour each week-day evening, both ITV News Tyne Tees and BBC Look North (NE) cover Tyneside, Teesside and a bit of rural Durham and North Yorkshire in over 80% of their output (though BBC Look North covers Cumbria, which ITV News Tyne Tees does not). This means resources are essentially wasted because viewers in cities do not need to have two Regional TV News services covering the same topics and the same news from the same areas. What would improve local news-services greatly is if each Region were adjusted so that they all cover different areas- and there is no reason why this should cost a big extra sum of money (except for transmission masts being changed where either the BBC or ITV change transmission areas).

 

So, we have a situation where both the BBC and ITV.Plc (or in Scotland, STV) each cover essentially the same broadcast areas for Regional News. In no other country in Europe are there two National broadcasters, each providing Regional TV programming for essentially the same transmission regions. But whilst this duplication happens, large rural areas in Scotland and northern England get little coverage from either BBC or ITV/ STV Regional TV, though North Cumberland is an exception because of ITV Border Lookaround (a situation that is not 100% guaranteed into the future). The vast area of northern and North East Scotland has its own STV News at Six- North, but if STV has their way that will be axed later this year, then viewers in the Highlands, Orkney and Shetland Islands will be getting the local news- STV’s News at Six broadcast from (and covering) Glasgow! Large areas of northern Britain will get little or no local news coverage, whilst the major urban areas across England, and across the Scottish Forth-Clyde valley will have two Regional News-services providing the same news! In what world is this a good use of resources, or fair for all parts of the UK? It is not!

 

The main issue, however, is that with both the BBC and with ITV.Plc, that successive governments and the main arms-length bodies overlooking broadcasters (like OFCOM) have allowed the National broadcasters to drop more and more local broadcasting obligations, including the time to be committed to Regional programs each week. At the same time, under the guise of diversity, governments have pressurised broadcasters to provide much more special programming for ethnic minorities and people groups from countries hostile to UK national interests. The BBC has set up whole channels like BBC Urdu, complete with news and programming in those languages for the benefit of folk living in South Asia.

 

To which, one is entitled to ask whether born and bred North Cumbrians are actually considered a lesser priority for our National TV broadcaster than folk living in Pakistan? Of course, in Public circles today, just to ask a question like that is considered most improper- bordering on racism, and liable to bring the current Labour Government’s Thought-Police knocking on one’s door! Is this the pass that we have come to, and what this beautiful corner of the world up in Cumberland must put up with and not complain about?

 

It Doesn’t Have To Be Like This

North Cumbrians have been here before, when the National Broadcaster has overruled their wishes and imposed on Cumbria a News-service wholly inappropriate for the area. In 1986, the BBC put Carlisle and North Cumberland in the BBC North West Region, so the whole area received BBC North West Tonight broadcast from Manchester. The area might be in North West England, but the change meant North Cumberland received very little local news and plenty from locations 120 or more miles to the south with which they had no affinity. Meanwhile, the Carlisle area got no coverage of major happenings not far to the north or east- in places North Cumbrians had links with- because those areas were beyond BBC North West’s transmission boundary. The result of these changes brought uproar, local MPs and the local press was involved, and a big campaign saw the BBC eventually (in 1991) transfer North Cumberland back to BBC North East. North Cumbrians had to fight again, from 2009 for the restoration of ITV Border Lookaround following the amalgamation with ITV Tyne Tees. After a long fight, with local MPs coming down on ITV.Plc like a ton of bricks, ITV Border Lookaround was reinstated- in 2013.

 

The lesson is that when Cumbrian communities come together to fight for their local news, and the local MPs get involved, the mighty BBC and ITV.Plc back down- and they somehow find the resources to provide news-services that Cumbrians need. But for some advance notice, it is very possible that North Cumbrian communities will have to fight again to keep ITV Border Lookaround. That is because it is entirely possible that, at some point in the future ITV.Plc will have another go at mothballing ITV Border and insisting that the local news for North Cumberland is from a combined ITV Tyne Tees & Border News-program. They will try to do this to save money, which is all ITV.Plc is really interested in. As soon as ITV.Plc have the temerity to merely moot such a proposal, North Cumbrians should come together to fit tooth-and-nail to keep their local news- service. Viewers should do this by writing to their MPs, and to OFCOM, who would come under real pressure to bear down on ITV.Plc to stop a good local news- service for North Cumberland from being axed.

 

There is no getting away from the fact that whilst ITV Border continues to produce Lookaround, providing good local coverage of Cumbria and southernmost Scotland, that the extent and quality of local programming has declined compared to what there was thirty to forty years ago. Local North Cumbrian communities should rightly expect more than news-presenters who sit there and present a series of documented facts with little more than a smile. A good Regional TV service provides additional programming, not just news and is characterised by the following:

• Positive and sympathetic engagement with viewers, with good options for feedback and coverage of issues and topics raised by viewers that they are concerned about and interested in.

 

• An awareness that a predominantly rural area close to the Scottish Border will have local interests and wider regional links, that are not like other parts of England to the south and south-east. Topical subjects and geographical connections relevant to North Cumberland- not Newcastle, not Manchester and certainly not London should be covered in broadcasts.

 

• Additional documentary and factual programming covering issues, concerns, and hopes relevant to North Cumbrians, beyond the presentation of Regional News-bulletins. There is much less opt-out for local and Regional broadcasting from ITV Border than there was from the old Border Television- the evening and weekend program schedules are dominated by National ITV programming so that folk living in Carlisle or Brampton get the same Coronation Street, Deal or No Deal, The Chase, Britain’s Got Talent, that viewers in Truro, Cornwall or Peckham, South London get! This is not acceptable.

 

The United Kingdom might be a relatively small country compared to some in the World, but the south to north distances across England alone warrant different TV programming across its length. It is over 430 miles from Truro, Cornwall to Carlisle by road, and over that distance the backgrounds, local dialects, cultures, hopes, interests and wider regional links change markedly. Not everyone, not every community along this whole south to north length of the country looks to London as the place to go for a rich nightlife, thinks that a trip to the West Country and Ilfracombe beach is the best place for a short break, nor likes Dua Lipa on BBC Radio One or imported USA Talk Shows.

 

There are some things that folk living in Kent or London enjoy that folk living in Carlisle would baulk at: A day-trip to Brighton to go to a French restaurant- with a nice view across the Channel to have a meal with a selection of French cheeses, pâtés, and foie gras, or to attend Notting Hill Carnival are not things that the vast majority of folk living in North Cumberland would feel comfortable with doing. However, North Cumbrians like barn-dances, listening to Celtic music with pipes and fiddles and would have haggis for breakfast on occasion, living as they do close to the Scottish Border- experiences that folk living south of Manchester do not warm to as readily.

 

North Cumbrians can get together in their communities and link up with adjacent communities to demand National TV broadcasters- via their own MPs- for a more sympathetic, engaging and understanding news-coverage from ITV Border Lookaround, and BBC Look North (NE)- as Mike Neville did in years gone by. Viewers can rightly club together to demand more local and topically programming- period. The continuity National output from both the BBC and from ITV.Plc is North London focused, Metropolitan-slanted, decidedly Left-Wing and over-sympathetic to ethnic minorities who have arrived in the UK.  There is also plenty of imported USA programs made on the assumption that if Britons have links with anywhere not British it must be with the good old US of A, that British folk never like programs in a language that is not the Kings English, or with an American twang! This is manifestly not so, as anyone who has visited the Outer Hebrides- or indeed Pembrokeshire in Wales might attest!

 

North Cumbrians Can Fight For- And Get- TV Programming that Addresses Their Concerns, Hopes and Regional Connections

I will now lay out some of the issues, concerns, topics, and sorts of connections that North Cumbrians are likely to have in 2026. These are different from the issues, hopes and wider links that folk living south of a line from Blackpool to Hull might have. The local TV programs and documentaries that viewers need to see on their televisions (or catch-up via BBC I-player on the Internet) needs to recognise the following:

1. North Cumberland, that part of Cumbria north of a line from Maryport to Penrith, and including areas immediately east-northeast of Penrith along with Alston Moor in the North Pennines is very rural, with small, scattered towns and villages aside from the main population centre of Carlisle. Local businesses include hill farms, larger lowland farms, pubs, hotels, Community shops, cafés, and some plumbers, joiners, builders, vets and the odd accountant. There’s a dwindling number of local Post Offices, GP surgeries and village schools. Carlisle itself has industries like food production/ wholesalers such as Booker and Pioneer, Carrs, there’s a major Accounting firm (Armstrong Watsons), Machinery and Vehicle firms like Rickerby, Thomas Graham Ltd, Solicitors, University of Cumbria, Banks, major retail stores, several major schools, Carlisle College, major transport hubs, the County Court, ITV Border offices, and Carlisle Airport (just a few miles east of the city).

 

2. In this large rural area, and within Carlisle itself, people are worried about the impact of immigration and the impact it has had on the local area: Muslim-related immigration is something that folk locally worry about- but it is considered taboo to mention, let alone express sympathy for those worried about this. Just over sixty miles to the south, a large mosque was built in Lancaster in the 1990s, and there are two smaller ones in the city too. Also sixty miles to the south of North Cumberland is the newly built South Lakes Islamic Centre at Dalton-in-Furness. To the east, the City of Newcastle-upon-Tyne now has a thriving Muslim community and has several mosques, the most recent opened in 2025. And this is now becoming immediately apparent very close to home- in Carlisle- which now has its own Carlisle Islamic Centre. One would nowadays be waiting a very long time for ITV Border Lookaround to cover these issues, even longer for any report that local folk are concerned about it- for fears of being accused of being anti-Islam or xenophobic!

 

• Those who have been brought up in Carlisle and who have lived there for years have seen their city change in major ways from how it was fifty years ago. In the 1970s and 1980s, there were vibrant churches, and families following Christian values, North Cumbrians who had jobs in the city, tight knit communities, barn-dances, ceilidhs, Scottish bag-pipes, local stores selling local produce. And there were winters with snow and hard frost that used to provide locals and visitors to the area a reminder of the unique northernness of North Cumberland compared to other parts of England. Snow and hard-frost is, of course, a rarity nowadays.

 

3. In rural North Cumberland there have been other changes that have caused consternation, the loss of local amenities like Post Offices and banks, the loss of rural bus- services, village schools, pubs and doctor’s surgeries and, above all, the loss of farming communities in the North Pennines and North Lakeland fells.

 

4. Farm and land prices have soared, but the gains from running a farm have declined whilst taxes on them have soared. When farmers have died their offspring have been forced to sell the farm to pay the Inheritance Tax bill, and rich Southerners have come north to buy the farms as no-one in the North Cumberland communities affected can meet the asking price of £2 million or more. And so, the character of the rural communities change, friendly farmers who helped out their neighbours are replaced with reserved, selfish and retired yuppies, bankers, solicitors, who have come from within an hour’s drive of Central London. They might bring families with them who have less affinity towards their new home area, who have not been disciplined to respect others- thus anti-social behaviour becomes a problem where it once was not.

 

• Not all of the decline of rural communities can be blamed on successive Governments, circumstances unique to North Cumberland have accelerated this trend. In Spring 2001, Foot and Mouth disease wiped out farming across the Eden Valley and in the rural areas around Carlisle. The iconic image of that year in North Cumbria was the funeral pyre- where diseased slaughtered animals were incinerated to try and stem the spread of this disease. Farming has never recovered to what it once was before 2001. Government policies have merely exacerbated the decline in the neighborliness, the community cohesion, the local services and the crumbling state of local roads: For over 35 years, UK Governments whether Labour or Conservatives have focused resources on the cities, on those coming into the country at the expense of rural communities which have been taxed heavily- but the money has not been returned to them.

 

5. The loss of Christian values, with both the Church of England and the Government embarrassed to make the case for them, the outlawing of Corporal Punishment in schools and with the Police- and increasingly in homes- means so many young people are not deterred from yobbery and anti-social behaviour, which the British Benefits-system entrenches. This has led cities to become dangerous and this violent yobbery is spilling northwards and out from the cities- into North Cumberland. Examples of youth violence in and around Carlisle abound:

 

• August 2023: A 17-year-old yob breaks a tourist’s jaw, gives him a black eye and knocks him out, stealing his gold chain (link: https://www.itv.com/news/border/2024-02-26/teen-jailed-for-serious-act-of-violence-and-robbery)
• January-February 2026: Groups of teenagers hanging about Carlisle city-centre over a period of weeks drinking, shouting, being violent to passers-by and vandalising property (https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/25825934.carlisle-youth-crime-hotspots-targeted-police-patrols/).
• October 2025: Groups of 12 to 16 year-old boys vandalising Carlisle Castle, throwing bricks to the ground and menacing passers-by with fireworks, and racially-abusing shop-workers in Carlisle city-centre (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2px37qz9po).
• May 2022. Brampton, Cumbria: Two 15-year-old boys attempted to murder a 19-year-old young man. The victim was left with serious injuries- including a fractured skull (https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/20715532.teenagers-court-alleged-attempted-murder-brampton/).
• September 2021. Alston, Cumbria: A father in his 30s was left fighting for his life after being repeatedly stabbed by a 20-year-old thug outside a pub. This drug addict had previously harassed the victim over money, threatening him after climbing in through the victim’s window and making death threats (https://www.itv.com/news/border/2021-11-25/alston-man-locked-up-for-nine-years).
• October 2023 and January 2024: Carlisle. A 19-year-old teenager murdered an army veteran in Carlisle by beating him to death, took his body into a wood on the outskirts of the city and tried to dispose of the army veteran’s body by burning it. Later, in January 2024 this young man travelled to York where he attempted to murder a second man by attacking him with a hammer (https://www.cps.gov.uk/north-west/news/carlisle-man-guilty-murdering-army-veteran).
• April 2026. Wigton, Cumbria. Two men suffered facial injuries after being attacked by two men and a woman outside a shop in Wigton. One of the men who assaulted these two men was about 18-19 years old. No arrests have been made (https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/26042518.two-men-left-injured-assault-near-wigton-spar/).

 

• Those who have lived long in and around Carlisle, and especially in the more rural areas have memories of their tight-knit friendly communities, the safety and tranquility once associated with them, when one could be confident of going about their business without being attacked- but that is no more. That is not to say that violent crime never used to happen, but there is a sense that a violent “Wave of Lawlessness” is spreading. Statistics may point to less crime, but a lot of it goes unreported because the Police often never bother to turn up except to provide a crime number. Forty years ago, some people did not lock their doors in rural areas of North Cumberland, nowadays that would be unthinkable.

 

6. Then there’s the changing climate. Climatic changes are real (if overblown a bit in the Left-leaning Press). The severe winter spells from the Arctic or Russia that brought snow and hard frost, transforming North Cumberland into sparkling beauty under the low winter sunshine are becoming rarer. The snow and frost that marked out North Cumbrian winters as special and beautiful do not do this so much nowadays. Instead, winters more often bring strong south-westerly winds delivering torrential rain to Cumberland with greater frequency- with devastating consequences on occasion. The prime example is when a foot of rain fell on the Lakeland fells leading to severe flooding across Cumbria- with half of Carlisle being under water in December 2015 (read more on this here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-35028043). In February 2020, torrential rain due to Storm Ciara again brought flooding to much of Cumbria, though at least Carlisle was- largely- spared inundation (link here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-51442839).

 

• Summers have become a bit warmer too, albeit with some short spells of extreme heat. In July 2022 there was a short heatwave, with the 19^th July seeing temperatures over 34̊C in parts of Cumbria, associated with strong summer sunshine (link here: https://www.itv.com/news/border/2022-07-18/safety-advice-as-record-heatwave-set-to-hit-the-region). These are the sorts of conditions that cause heat-stroke, and are conditions that many folk living in the far North of England are not used to.

 

And it is not just in North Cumberland where these unwelcome changes are happening, but in the rest of Cumbria and in the surrounding rural communities of Northumberland, County Durham, Lancashire and south-west Scotland too. The pleasant, friendly Northern environments that folk were bought up in- in these beautiful areas too, all that has gone.

 

Taken together, all these are underlying trends, changes that have made North Cumberland a less uniquely northern, special, friendly and pleasant place to live and work than it was forty- fifty years ago. Sure, folk had no mobile phones and no Internet back in the 1980’s, but communities were friendly and cohesive, you did not have to lock your house up at night if you lived near somewhere like Alston or Nenthead, and you could go into town to do shopping without running the risk of being harassed or assaulted. Winter snowfalls regularly transformed the Lakeland fells and North Pennines into gleaming white, and deep winter freezes beautifully frosted over Derwentwater and Talkin Tarn, reminding folk of their unique Northern latitude compared to the rest of the country. Moreover, Regional TV produced local programming that was interesting, directly relevant and sympathetic to viewers in North Cumbria back in the 1980s!

 

To recap, these are the topics around significant change that have caused alarm to those who have lived in Carlisle and surrounding rural areas all their life. These are topics that Regional Broadcasters, if they do their job as they should, should cover:

 

• The rural and northern position of North Cumberland brings geographical challenges affecting North Cumberland that are different from other parts of the UK.
• The impacts of immigration and significant Islamic influences on this hitherto Northern, rural and Christian area of North Cumberland
• The loss of essential amenities like GP surgeries, banks, post-offices and bus-services from rural areas
• The loss- and displacement- of friendly rural farming neighbourhoods with retired professionals moving up from the South and leading to less friendly and welcoming communities.
• The decline in Christian values and an increase in Youth anti-social behaviour and violence blighting once-safe rural North Cumberland communities
• Climatic Change. Loss of snowy frosty winters that made Cumberland special. Increase risk of flooding due to torrential rain and spells of hot sticky summer weather.

 

Each of these topics cover changes that have a deep, devastating impact on local communities, and each topic would merit a Local Documentary series on its own. But any mention of increased Islam in the area or of immigration causing local concerns; or indeed of suggesting that the outlawing of Corporal Punishment has led to an increase in Youth violence in recent years is considered taboo in the current political climate. Journalists and broadcasters need to be bold, cover the issues that folk in the Carlisle area worry about, and to speak out on them. Broadcasters must cover- dispassionately- all the issues affecting local communities: And to worry more about what the viewers they serve need and less about the woke CEOs of the BBC and ITV.Plc calling them into the office to be sacked. Those heading up the National Broadcasters need to be less worried about what the Government of the day might say, and to provide Regional broadcasters to have more flexibility to air special programming that serves local viewers.

 

Local North Cumbrians have every right to feel exceedingly short-changed by local TV broadcasters who have failed to cover issues and topics that have impacted them more acutely than places further south. The impact of increased immigration, loss of snowy winters and more anti-social behaviour has been more devastating to North Cumberland- an area that has traditionally been especially welcoming, friendly, beautiful and uniquely Northern- than it has on South Lancashire or Cheshire (which rarely had snowy winters even in the 1970’s, where there has long been a bit more crime and some South Asian communities). Viewers should demand that these topics are covered by writing to local broadcasters, and if not they should write to their local MPs and to OFCOM.

 

Local TV Broadcasters Should be sympathetic to viewers’ Concerns, offer Solutions, and Cover wider Regional Links for North Cumbrians

In addition to getting coverage of all these topics, they need to be offered practical solutions to work with others to improve their communities, to try and restore them as they once were. Either that, or folk need help and advice to mitigate the impact of some of the negative environmental and societal changes wrought upon their communities. In extremis, this may well mean packing up and moving- abroad, if need be, to find a pleasant environment or culture like the one they had and were brought up in. Again, local broadcasters, in providing Documentary coverage on some of these topics around the environmental and societal changes need to offer practical remedial steps to give viewers hope that their communities can be reclaimed from unwanted changes, or confidence that they can leave if it is not possible to stay and fight back against the changes.

 

Wider Regional links are important, especially in the context of which Northern region best replicates the North Cumberland of old. And this comes back to culture, what people groups, cultures and regions folk living in Carlisle and North Cumberland would they adapt to if they had to up-sticks and move? The answer, as I alluded to above, is that born and bred North Cumbrians do not have the same affiliations as the UK overall. That point must be made clear, because there are big changes in wider regional and cultural affiliations and interests- as one travels from the English South Coast up to the Scottish Border.

 

North Cumbria, close to the Scottish Border is influenced by Scottish ties, people travel across the Scottish Border for days out, to visit friends and family and there are business links across the Scottish Border. And to state the obvious, ITV Border Lookaround is broadcast to southernmost Scotland as well as Cumbria. But North Cumberland has links east-northeast with Northumberland, another large rural county with remote communities, hill-farms, and with tourism being a big part of the local economy. The cultural roots with barn-dances and ceilidhs is connected to the Scottish-flavoured music with pipes, fiddles and accordions that is often played at such events. Wider regional links extend further north too. There are historical connections between Cumberland and Norway, and a good number of words used in the local dialect – such as fell, beck, force (waterfall), gimmer (female lamb), bairn, laik (to play)- are very close to the Norwegian equivalents, not standard English. North Cumbrians share a love of the sort of country and folk music that there’s plenty of in Norway and Sweden, music that involves pipes, violins, fiddles and accordions. When this music is in English, i.e., Abba, North Cumbrians take to it like a duck to water, though that is not to say that they would not listen to similar nice music in Norwegian and Swedish, both of which are Nordic languages that are easier for North Cumbrians to master than is French.

 

It is across North Cumberland, along with Northumbria and rural parts of Scotland, and in Northern Ireland that folk are furious at how central, mighty Government in distant London has not only seemed to wilfully ignored remote Northern communities, but has seemingly opted to act against them at every turn. Violent yobbery is not punished, but those taking the law into their own hands to protect their communities are. Those who protest in any way aggressively about illegal and other immigration putting communities at risk feel the full force of the law, farmers are expected to put up being tax increases and loss of support- but woe betide them if they travel down to London to protest in their tractors!

 

And the worst thing about it is that folk in the North cannot vote from power those who would betray their communities- all because Left-Wing Press publish “Sleaze Scoops” just before elections and dig dirt on those who might save Britain from some of the disturbing changes and impacts occurring. Enough people are then turned against Reform UK, the Tories and Restore Britain Party by “Sleaze Scoops” in the Left Wing Press, that when the Left-Wing Parties collaborate, with Tactical Voting websites springing up- so that voters vote for whichever Candidates in their Constituencies can keep out Reform/ the Tories/ Restore Candidates, and so achieve enough to keep the Left in power. Those who want to get rid of a Labour Government (or a Tory one) which has betrayed their communities will find they cannot. This is not about Right vs Left, but about a Government that seeks to protect the nation’s citizenry versus one that willingly sides more with those who wish harm on the UK.

 

Broadcasters can be Politically impartial but be willing to call out bad government, as they should. Local broadcasters have a special responsibility to report dispassionately on those standing for parties with policies like Defund the Police, Legalise Cocaine and Heroin (as the Green Party wants to), Abolish Prisons for under 21-year-olds, or Easier Immigration laws. Why? Because those policies would- if enacted- directly jeopardise the safety and well-being of British citizens. However, in an effort to prove to others that they are unbiased, the BBC and ITV.Plc have done all they can to accommodate and approve of those who have such views, and to report critically on those of a different political persuasion who might criticise such policies. Suppose Restore Britain had a brainwave and decided to run on a Policy of axing all Public Services, Benefits and State Pensions in order to Axe all Taxes- this would (rightly) be howled down and derided in the Press as dangerous, irresponsible- and cruel to those who cannot earn money themselves because of disability. However, when the Left come up with all manner of wacky, dangerous policies this is just called Political Opinion, not a dangerous irresponsibility that must be called out!

 

As Left-Wing Parties are not called out over policies that go well beyond being collectivist and legally liberal, whilst the Right is constantly lambasted for Sleaze, Big Money, Racism, having Heartless and Cruel Policies. This has an effect because it ensures that there enough folk- including many professionals who think there’s something vulgar about supporting Reform UK or the Tories- to keep voting for Parties who form governments that do not have Cumberland’s best wishes at heart, let alone have any real consideration of places like Carlisle, Aspatria or Alston. The Tories, too, have continued with such policies when in Government because former Prime Minister David Cameron calculated that the only way for the Tories to become electable and to get into power was to Hug a Hoodie, have Green Policies, and Match Labour’s Spending Plans. The result has been that the remote communities of North Cumberland, and similar communities in South Cumbria, Northumberland and the Scottish Borders have been truly shafted by Westminster-based Government for over thirty years.

 

To Stay and Fight, or Go. Will ITV Border Lookaround and Regional TV Documentaries offer Practical Support

There is a limit to how much, and how persistently folk living in the Northernmost communities of Britain can stomach being despised, neglected and betrayed by the British Government, and by unfriendly newcomers and violent anti-social yobs who make it their lives’ mission to inflict pain, grief and outrage on their fellow citizenry. But this is the pass we are approaching and, if Northern communities fail in their ability to eject this appalling Labour Government from power in 2029 North Cumbrians, along with Northumbrians, Scots and North Lancastrians will be screaming, and clamouring for answers.

 

The cultural and social connections that have made Cumberland, Westmorland and Northumberland into the traditional fondly-remembered counties that they were, before the regional local authority reorganisations in 1974, and again in 2023, have often been from the North. The love of the great outdoors, of folk music, of barn-dances and a good number of unique words peppered into the local Cumbrian and Northumbrian dialects have come from Scotland and- historically- from what is now Norway through the ancient influence of the Vikings. The prevailing climate of the North Lakes fells and the North Pennines has, at least historically, had more in common with Scandinavia than the English lowlands- with cold snowy winters and cool moist summers.  Global warming has made the climate across North Cumberland- even at elevation- more temperate-climate rainy than any way sub-arctic; and the loss of other historical cultural influences with the “mixing up” of the local population from the South has led to the North Cumbrian communities that many folk over the age of forty remember being lost. Along with deteriorations in rural public services, community friendliness and a sharp rise in thuggery all these changes are- emotionally at least- deeply upsetting!

 

Mitigating against these adverse trends, trying to preserve what is good in local communities, or leaving the area altogether are topics that needs to be covered in Regional TV broadcasting, in special documentaries, not just Regional TV news. Depending on the network of support one has, connection to the local council and where in North Cumberland one lives the solutions will be different. Wider Regional links are important, as if folk have to pack up and leave, which would have communities with the climate, culture and community friendliness that one grew up with? Staying and fighting the changes locally, or moving depend on one’s different circumstances, connectedness, ability to fight and how much in the way of resources (skill or money) one has. The different measures to counter the negative changes, that should be covered in local programming for the benefit of North Cumbrians, are listed here:

 

1. Reclaiming Communities from Anti-Social Behaviour

If you are a fit strong man, of stature and had friends who had similar stature- and you live in Carlisle or larger towns around like Hexham, Workington or Penrith anti-social behaviour could be addressed by forming Neighbourhood Security groups and going out on patrols. This would be done with co-operation with the Police and performing citizens arrests of yobs menacing streets, vandalising property, or bullying the little man with learning difficulties in the big house on the corner. The Neighbourhood Security group set up in this way would ideally carry body cameras to prove their innocence in case the thug (or thugs) made allegations against members of the group to the Police or their parents, and capture evidence of the crimes being committed. Once arrested, the yobs would be taken to the Police Station, and the evidence handed to them. This approach may not work immediately, the perpetrators may just be let off, and return to continue harassing the community- in which case the Neighbourhood Security Group would repeat the procedure.

 

If after several times the Police do nothing, it is then time to involve the local council and local MPs, explaining the Police are doing nothing when the yobs are making people’s lives a misery. As it is not out of the question that the young thugs, or their families, find out where Neighbourhood Security Group members live, smash up their homes, and threaten reprisals- so having CCTV at home- to send to the Police any evidence of the crimes would be valuable. It would be a very tin-eared local Police force that would not be making arrests by this point. Once the Police start making arrests and thugs start to see the inside of a prison-cell, that will help deter further violent yobbery in the community. If so, that is a success and the Wave of Lawlessness can be held back from North Cumberland.

 

However, it’s possible, in 2026 (more so in future years) that the Police do not act, and may come after the Neighbourhood Security Group for being vigilantes- even though no violence has been committed. Only your group can discuss what you do next, complaining to the Council, writing to MPs might yield results if pressure is bought to bear on the local Police. In this case, another option might be to teach folk in the community Self-defence skills.

 

2. Self-Defence Classes

For folk with fewer friends, who are smaller in stature, or where one has tried the option of forming a Neighbourhood Security Group without success protecting oneself and one’s family and property from harm is paramount. If one is being attacked or threatened by thugs the first thing to do is to have CCTV footage in your home, and contact the Police if you, your family or home is threatened. Provide evidence, show the Police any bruises or damaged property and as much detailed information as possible on the assailants. If, as is likely the Police fail to follow up and make an arrest, and the perpetrator comes back with reprisals, it is essential to see what else you can do.

 

For Self-protection when out and about it is advisable to take Self-Defence classes so that one is able to protect oneself when out and about. It is illegal to carry knives or knuckle dusters in Public, not even pepper-spray is legal. However, to stand a chance of protecting oneself one needs to be able to surprise any attacker(s) by quickly hitting back, and fleeing whilst they are disorientated. Self-defence Classes are available in most towns locally. Carlisle has several and the B5 Martial Arts Academy (link here: https://www.b5martialarts.com/) is great for you and your family if you have children. There’s also the Carlisle Taekwondo School (link here: https://www.carlisle-taekwondo.com/).

 

Short of self-defence classes one can learn how to use keys, a pen or a walking stick as an effective weapon to protect oneself. However, one should only do this if there is a good reason for you to have these items on you when out and about in the first place. Having such items about you as a weapon specifically to ward off an assailant can lead to a lengthy prison sentence.

 

Another common-sense approach to protect one from violent attack by an assailant when out and about is to go with a friend, if possible, with a friend who is bigger than you.

 

With the risk that, even in parts of Carlisle, an average person there has a near 10% risk of falling victim to violent or sexual crime, or to theft, it is staggering that the Local and Regional broadcast media has not woken up to this. This is a significant Public health risk, as a 10% risk of being attacked each year means that if you are small in stature and your face doesn’t quite fit it is more likely than not you will be attacked during your life if you live in Carlisle.

 

This is an appalling state-of-affairs, because it means that for a little man or woman, perhaps with learning disabilities a high chance of being attacked: For them, even to live in Carlisle in lovely North Cumberland- is for them to expose themselves to probable injury and/ or trauma of an attack. Think about that for a moment, a small vulnerable adult, during the course of their adult life will probably- at least once- be assaulted during their life if they live in a Northern city! And neither ITV Border Lookaround or BBC Look North (NE) see fit to report on this alarming state of affairs in Carlisle or in other parts of the North, let alone to advise viewers how they might protect themselves from harm!

 

Such change is utterly devastating to local Cumbrians who recall their wonderful communities and now see them where gangs of young men go around and inflict fear and torment with impunity!  Of course North Cumbrians should be given the tools to legally fight back against such changes, and sympathetic local TV services would offer practical advice to their viewers on how to Take Back Control (to use a well-known phrase)- of their communities, or to effectively protect themselves and their families.

 

3. The Loss of Local Public Services in Rural Areas

This is something that is felt very keenly in rural parts of North Cumberland. So many small towns like Alston, Aspatria, Longtown, and Brampton have lost local surgeries, local Police Stations, Post Offices, banks, dentists, primary schools, churches, petrol stations, and much more. Not only do local folk lose local amenities and have to travel further to access them, but each loss represents the loss of a community facility where folk could meet, and chat and get to know each other.  Additionally, the loss of local GP surgeries, dentists, primary schools, etc., is exacerbated by the loss of (or greatly reduced) rural bus-services. This makes it harder for folk to travel from the rural areas to Carlisle or Penrith to access vital services- especially for folk who cannot drive.

 

The scale of this change has been devastating. On Alston Moor, for instance, there was back in 1970 two local banks (one of these, a proper local bank called Martin’s Bank, where the bank-manager was intimately acquainted with each of his customers, their needs and circumstances). The local hospital, Alston Cottage Hospital had a maternity unit, hospital beds for the very sick and a maternity unit. There were additional GP surgeries in the nearby villages of Nenthead and Garrigill. Not only was there a permanent Police presence and station in Alston, but Alston had its own Magistrates Court. Alston also had a railway service connecting it to Haltwhistle, 15 miles to the north, from which folk could travel on to Carlisle or Newcastle-upon-Tyne. There was a daily bus-service to Hexham and Newcastle for commuters, another to Penrith and Keswick every day of the year.

 

Alston itself also used to have a whole host of useful little shops, butchers, ironmongers, Millican’s Drapers Shop, Mrs. Bannister’s Shoe Shop, fish-and-chips shop, a launderette, and there were garages where you could get petrol both in Alston and nearby Nenthead. All this has now gone, though the hospital still exists only for GP appointments with a locum who does not know you, the two garages are just in Alston, and the bus-service to Keswick only operates July to September!

 

And this sort of change is typical in remote rural areas not just across Cumbria but other parts of rural Northern Britain.

 

Communities do have some means of fighting back against such changes, to preserve local services, but it is limited by what locals can get the local council to support and it is limited by the finances of local residents themselves. Recently, the residents in the village of Nenthead, high up in the North Pennines, attempted a community buy-out of the village pub, The Miners Arms; unfortunately, when Labour got into power in 2024 they pulled the match-funding for it and the community buy-out fell through. This is one of the difficulties of being up against a government which has disdain for remote rural villages like Nenthead or Nicholforest. If folk have the will, some determination and resources they can fight

 

There are, nonetheless, things that local communities can do. The village of Nenthead, for instance, has a local Community Shop run by and for the local area, and there is a Community Snowplough, responsible for clearing snow in and around the village in winter. Local folk can set up businesses or charitable organisations to provide essential services that might not be commercially profitable, and any profits are reinvested on behalf of the community. Local folk can pay in donations, and there are also platforms such as Go Fund Me and Easy Fundraising that can provide charitable funding to set up vital Not-for-Profit services.

 

If folk have the will, some determination and resources they can fight back- and can succeed in preserving vital amenities that, among other things, helps to keep the community cohesive, vibrant and friendly.   Whilst ITV Border Lookaround does- occasionally feature community organisations being set up for local rural communities, local broadcast media do not do this enough- and should actively encourage folk to step up to the plate for their local community about to lose it’s Village Shop, Pub, local Primary School:  And, should it ever come to pass, Regional TV Broadcasters should invite those in the community who can– to rise to the challenge to provide local TV, if that Regional TV service is about to be shut down!

 

4. The Role of Becoming a Christian and Spreading the Gospel and in combatting unwelcome Community Changes

 

There is, though it is probably quite contentious to state this in 2026, a role in becoming a Christian and promoting Christian values that could bring benefit to the community.  Membership of a Church group and gaining Christian friends, who are predisposed to look out for the vulnerable because of their faith, is a good way of protecting oneself from harm.  However, there comes an increased risk of opprobrium from those who don’t want to know Christian values, and it is not unknown for Christian street preachers to be arrested for quoting Scripture in 21^st Century Britain. But the Gospel, promoting Jesus’ message of Salvation for those who would trust and follow him, and promoting Jesus’ teachings on love, kindness, selflessness, patience, forgiveness and long-suffering would undoubtedly be of benefit to local communities, whatever one’s religious views might be. If encouraging people to be kind, loving, selfless, and forgiving leads to more people in a rural community in North Cumberland behaving that way, that can only be a good thing.

 

The decline of the established Church, and the acceptance of ways of life contrary to biblical precepts, even in the Church of England has been accompanied by changes in lifestyle and behaviour in the population. It is no accident that selfishness, greed, callous indifference to others’ suffering, divorce, and rage have increased in society whilst the promotion of Christian values has declined.  Northern communities, such as in North Cumberland and Northumberland have a vested interest in trying everything possible to get back for their communities what made them so welcoming and special in past years: The unique Northern character of warmth, friendship and hospitality which made communities in Cumberland and Northumberland a magnet for tourists from elsewhere in England or from Scotland.

 

Unfortunately, in 2026 the promotion of Christian values, even for one’s Self-protection, is frowned upon by the BBC and ITV.Plc management. This means that local broadcasters need to have the courage to extol the positives that Christian communities can bring to an area.

 

5. Do Not Vote for the Left until after the Next Election

This is probably contentious advice, especially for those of a Socialist mindset, but the Political Parties of the Left in the UK- Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party- are all Soft on Crime and Soft on the Causes of Crime (to play on a well-known phrase by a former UK Prime Minister!): These Parties are totally squeamish about considering policies that would actually protect the British citizenry from harm, whether it be long prison sentences for violent young thugs, the Police being able to administer a clip round the ear to yobs, or even for law-abiding British citizens to be able to carry items that stand a chance of protecting them from thuggery.

 

Also, if any North Cumbrians or from anywhere else in North West England is reading this, please do not allow yourself to become “Disgustified” (for want of a better word) against Not Voting for the Left by Sleaze Stories about Reform UK or the Tories, appearing in the Left Wing Press like The Daily Mirror just before the next General Election. Labour has hardly demonstrated itself to be Whiter than White in recent months, and we need a Politicos that will make Defence of the Realm and Protection of the Citizenry a top priority as that is the primary responsibility of any Government! Whatever one’s political beliefs, it is the most vulnerable (like those with learning disabilities) who most readily fall prey to violent thuggery if this is not stamped out effectively. When those of a Left-Wing persuasion vote as they normally do on the grounds that Left Wing Parties are about protecting the poor and vulnerable- it is rather important to realise that- in 2020’s Britain, it is Reform UK, Restore Britain, the Tories, and genuine Independents who, contrary to that opinion, are actually more likely to deliver such an outcome.

 

It is essential that you share this with your friends, family, colleagues at work and your social circles: The Left, in its current make-up, would leave Britain at great risk from foreign and domestic threats and thuggery. That’s because the Parties of the Left simply think it is wrong to punish certain sections of society (i.e., teenage young men)- from which are  some capable of inflicting wilfull, lethal violence.

 

It would not be wrong even for the BBC and ITV.Plc to air programming based on the premise that the modern Left is dangerous for Britain because those making up these parties are squeamish about doing what must be done to properly protect people in this country, that given that the first and foremost duty of Government is to Protect the Citizenry that the Left- as it stands- is wholly unqualified to remain in power.

 

Broadcasters, both at a national and local level have a Public Service Responsibility (PSB) to advise their viewers to reject any choices, actions, or indeed votes that would lead directly to their peril.

 

6. Leaving North Cumberland and Moving North

There is a possibility that some parts of Carlisle, and some of the surrounding towns and villages is North Cumberland such as Penrith, Alston, Wigton or Allonby become especially dangerous if the current Labour Government remains in power, especially if- after the next Election- they go into Coalition with the Green Party or the Liberal Democrats to maintain a majority in the House of Commons. Both the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party do not believe in locking anyone up except for murder, attempted murder or rape- and the entirety of the British Left is now infected with this belief that the law should go soft on Muslims, ethnic minorities and anyone under the age of 18 years-old. That’s despite the fact that a muscular, tall and well-built 17-year-old can do lethal violence much more than most folk over 60 years old.

 

And so, there may be situations when the only sound advice to give to a vulnerable Carlisle resident, or a family suffering from violent yobbery in Penrith is to move home- and move to another community that is safer. This will apply to folk who have tried all other avenues to find redress, and to protect their homes and families. It will also apply to vulnerable adults, possibly with learning disabilities.

 

Men and women with a learning disability are impaired in their ability to develop rapport with their neighbours, and to develop a network of friends who would look out for them. If they do develop friends, one inappropriate comment (that they might not realise to be so), means that the few friends they might have could turn on them, hate them and maybe do violence to them. If the person with a learning disability is also small in stature, they are then especially vulnerable.

 

Of course, both small children, along with small adults with learning disabilities can also be vulnerable in their homes, especially if they have parents and/ or siblings who are bigger, stronger and more able to manipulate situations to make it look like it is the victim’s fault- so that it is the little child or autistic adult who gets blamed- often with violence. This stuff happens and Social Services have in the past proved inept at detecting when abuse occurs, far less being successful in removing vulnerable folk from cruel home environments.

 

Maltreatment of children in the home is not new, it’s perhaps one of the few things that is not, but it is no less terrifying for children and vulnerable adults in that situation. It is incumbent on local folk to be vigilant, and if they see evidence of abuse happening- an unhappy child with bruises, a vulnerable man or woman being screamed at and being shoved to report it to the local authorities. Good neighbours should report such concerns, with evidence gathered- to Cumbria Police or the Social Services. At least there is a greater chance of vulnerable children being removed to safety by Social Services than the Police turning up to reports of assaults by thugs.

 

Vulnerable adults living alone in the community, or strong fit men and women exhausting all legal avenues to protect the community and getting zero support from the Police (see above) may have no option to leave the local area themselves. To be forced to leave an area one has lived all one’s life, where one may have happy childhood memories will be a huge wrench for some. But if you cannot protect yourself, cannot get the Police or local Council to help you or protect you, then leave one must. There’s nothing to be gained by keeping yourself and your family in a state of danger.

 

As already mentioned, there is a real likelihood- if Labour stay in office- that the Violent Lawlessness that is already rife in major city areas further afield, i.e., Manchester, Middlesbrough, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Glasgow will spread out of the cities and northwards into the lovely parts of the UK like North Cumberland. Once that happens, there will be few places that will be truly safe in Britain- especially for someone who has a learning disability, is small and whose face does not fit. If that’s you, and you have a caring family in a rural area in Northern Scotland or an auntie who lives in County Donegal, North-West Ireland (where you will be safer) you should move to be with them. Those places will stay safer, and you will be surrounded by a protective, loving family. One does not even need a passport to move to Ireland.

 

Unfortunately, folk with learning disabilities are not only the most vulnerable to attack in the community, but for them the act of moving- the cost, the logistics, etc., is also likely to be especially hard for them. They are likely to require financial assistance in the form of benefits (these would be lost on moving outside the UK), they are unlikely to have cash-savings to assist with the move- including moving their belongings. If they want to travel to (let alone move to) Scandinavia or anywhere in mainland Europe then, from the end of 2026 they will have to apply for a European Travel and Information Authorisation System (ETIAS) Visa Waiver: The process of applying for an ETIAS, filling in all the forms, providing passport details exactly right will be daunting for anyone with a learning disability. Even applying for a Passport, which they will also need will be a real challenge for someone with Downs Syndrome or moderate-severe Autism. If they have any history, i.e., a violent outburst a few years’ previously they will have to declare that. And they would end up with their application for an ETIAS rejected, as they would if they put just one digit wrong in applying for a Passport or an ETIAS Visa Waiver!

 

Additionally, an ETIAS and Passport will only enable relatively short stays in mainland Europe:  All countries in mainland Europe or Scandinavia will not let someone from the UK come to live there long-term if they have no work-skills, cannot speak the language of the country, and have no money- personal circumstances which describe over 95% of those with learning disabilities. That is especially so when the handicapped person is liable to become a financial burden on the European country to which they wish to move to. That rules out, comprehensively, anyone with moderate or severe learning disabilities from being able to leave the UK long-term.

 

Additionally, folk with moderate or severe learning disabilities can only follow plain, simple instructions, and if anyone with Down’s Syndrome or moderate-severe Autism watches the Regional TV, like ITV Border Lookaround, or at least a few of the Regional TV Documentaries on Leaving for Your Own Safety that should be aired- the advice given to someone with a learning disability should be something like this:

 

If you are threatened or hurt, ring and tell your Social Worker, if you have one. If you cannot remember their number call 999 and ask for the Police. Tell the Police your condition and what’s happened to you, given them your name and address, and ask them to help you leave.

 

If the Police and Social Services won’t help you call a member of your family and ask for them to help you. Tell your family friend you are being threatened and attacked, and ask them to help you to move to where they are. If your family are not nice, find a local lively Church, tell the Pastor or elder there your condition, that you are being threatened and attacked- so could they help you move North to a safe rural area out of harm’s way.

 

If no-one helps you and you are threatened again, think about how important your life is. If you have access to some money, go to the Bus Station in Carlisle, and ask for buy a Coach ticket to get you as far north as you can, preferably Inverness. Just take the valuable belongings you can carry. We understand that it will be a long ride, try and put on the best behaviour you can so other bus-passengers are not mean to you and the bus-driver does not throw you off before you reach your Safe Haven. This is your way to find a happier, safer life in the country. If you can, try and go further north and get the ferry to the Orkney Islands or go north-west to the Outer Hebrides.

 

If you have no money, and can walk wait until the safest time of day- mid to late morning. Just pack your card, phone and some clothing, and some food for your journey. Make sure you have comfy feet- and just start Walking North. You must reach North of Inverness, so just ensure the daytime Sun is behind you and keep going- and try to avoid motorways as it is illegal to walk on them. Try hitching, but only accept lifts from kind-looking older ladies who are less likely to do you harm. I know your feet will get sore, you may get cold and hungry, so if you are tired stop in a little barn or bus-stop beside a rural road.

 

If it gets too much, find a little farm or cottage where a nice-looking lady is just outside towards evening. Explain your plight, tell them you are trying to flee North to Northernmost Scotland because you have been threatened and attacked where you live in northernmost England. Tell your lady-host that the Police did not help you. Show the kind lady your injuries from being attacked: Who knows, she may put you up for the night and give you a hot meal- and some money to get a bus much further North. The worst she can do is call the local Scottish Police- to whom you can explain why you are fleeing North. Explain to the Police Officer that arrives that the Cumbria Police didn’t protect you when you were attacked, and show the Scottish Police officer your injuries. It’s unlikely they will make you return to Cumbria, and may let you continue North.   

 

When you get as far North as you can find a local church, or a hostel. Tell the warden you are a vulnerable adult with learning disabilities fleeing from Cumberland because of violent, horrid people in your community, and the Police did not protect you- and so, would the Warden/ Church Pastor please help with somewhere to stay whilst you try and sort out your benefits.

 

This may become to be the best practical advice to give to a vulnerable adult with learning disabilities who must flee a community for their own safety. If the worst happens and the Labour Government remains in power after 2029 advising vulnerable folk to move North of the Scottish Border, to the far North may be the only way to protect them. They will probably be safer in rural northernmost Scotland under a Scottish Government that has a bit more leeway to be tougher on law and order (with Reform UK now the real Opposition in Holyrood)- which means that there is a real hope that rural northernmost Scotland remains rather safer than the rest of the UK. If someone with learning disabilities is taken under the wings of Social Services and the local Church in a rural community in northernmost Scotland, it is they who will prove more adept at protecting a vulnerable person should they fall victim to violence and intimidation there: There may still be some risk of that even in the North Highlands of Scotland, but the risk should be lower than elsewhere. Folk with learning disabilities, who are not clued up about travelling at all, may fall victim to attack in transit in the process of trying to flee- and it must be said that if they are that disabled they need a Social Worker or family member to travel with them. However, if they stay living in what becomes a rough area they are more likely to come to harm by staying.

 

The plight of the most vulnerable in society who do not have the resources and may not have the help, or the means, to leave increasingly threatening communities (that direct the most hostility at them in particular) is likely to become quite a scandal. These folk might have been bought up in loving families, with neighbours looking out for them- then the community changes for the worse around them and they end up in danger!

 

What are our National broadcasters doing if they are not reporting on such societal deteriorations – caused by moral and legislative changes- that could lead to thousands of the most vulnerable adults in society feeling threatened by the environment around them? In rural Northern Britain, where such adverse societal changes will be felt more acutely, Regional TV Broadcasters have a special responsibility to report on changes leaving communities feeling threatened, and many of the most vulnerable terrified. A country, and at a regional level, provincial government (in this case, Cumberland Council) is rightly judged on how it looks after and protects its most vulnerable citizens. If either local or national Government cannot do that, that should be a damning indictment on the local council and local Police as well as the UK Government.

 

Regional TV Broadcasters should do their duty in calling this shocking state of affairs out, as the Wave of Violent Lawlessness spreads North from Manchester and south Lancashire, and westwards from Tyneside and Teesside to North Cumberland- and they should speak not just to the authorities but to viewers in the rural communities too with the following type of message:

 

“Vulnerable Adults are at increased risk of being tormented and threatened with violence by thugs in Carlisle and even in some of our surrounding rural areas, in places that were once totally safe to live in and enjoy the North Cumbrian scenery. It is not only a blight on beautiful North Cumberland, but shocking that the Police and Social Services seem unable to stop it, and the Police insist on witnesses every time an assaulted person reports harm to them (even if they are covered in bruises and are tearful).

 

“And you, Dear Viewers have a wonderful role to play. If you see an Autistic man or a Down’s Syndrome woman being bullied by thugs you can report it to the Police. If the Police fail to protect them, call Social Services, and if Social Services don’t respond, see if you can help these vulnerable people escape to a safe location.”

 

For those folk who are stronger, have skills and money there are more options for leaving the area. You may just want to go to northernmost Scotland or NW Ireland, which is fine if that’s where you think you would be safe and happy there (rural NW Ireland has very little crime).  However, you can also move abroad and if you have skills and money one stands a good chance of getting a work-permit to relocate. If folk are being threatened in their homes and all legal options to try and protect their families, homes and communities legally to no avail, then leaving the area and moving North- with their families- may be their only realistic option. This article advising on moving home to Norway hints at this happening already (link: https://www.pytheas.no/move-to-norway-from-uk-the-complete-guide-for-british-nationals). There are significant indications of Scots wanting to move to Norway, and to Sweden for various reasons (see link here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Norway/comments/ncz0pi/moving_from_scotland_to_norway/ and the link here: https://www.reddit.com/r/TillSverige/comments/cj2h99/future_plans_moving_from_scotland_to_sweden/).

 

It would take a lot to make North Cumbrians start to up-sticks in significant numbers to move away from where they have been all their lives. When it becomes clearly unsafe and/ or unpleasant for enough folk to continue living in North Cumberland, and legal avenues of redress don’t exist people will move. And, if North Cumbrians are forced to flee, with their families, for their own safety it is unlikely that they will be drawn to venture further south to Manchester or Merseyside, let alone to southern England- much of which will be even more plagued by thuggery and violent gangs than the rural North West and North East of England, if and when Lawlessness becomes endemic in the UK. Northern NW England is has not traditionally been considered a region with a refugee problem,- with local inhabitants fleeing north for their own safety- but if Labour remain in power after 2029 that may change!

 

And the regions North Cumbrians might flee to will surprise many commentators and those in broadcast media: North Cumbrian families, along with Scots fleeing the increasingly lawless areas in and around Glasgow and Edinburgh may seek to make their home as far North as Arctic Scandinavia:  Folk will move to far Northern regions that, aside from language difficulties that would not be insurmountable to born-and-bred North Cumbrians, have the vibes, the culture, the close-knit communities, the folk music, Nordic music with pipes and fiddles, the lovely scenery and sparkling snowy winters that once featured in North Cumberland.

 

The possible Nordic links with North Cumberland, Northumbria and much of Scotland, and also the Isle of Man is a blind-spot that Regional TV broadcasters have. Certainly south of the Scottish Border, it is considered inconceivable that North Cumbrians, Manx or North Northumbrians might have cultural and wider regional connections to anywhere that does not speak English. It’s scarce recognised, far less reported on. And if (and when) life becomes hazardous and risky for North Cumbrians in the communities they once felt safe folk may decide that just moving to northernmost Scotland doesn’t quite cut the mustard- then the idea of moving to Trøndelag county in central northern Norway- or even further north- becomes an attractive option. Local News broadcasters serving North Cumberland, Northumberland and Scotland need to wake up to this possibility.

 

 

If it’s somewhere safe, but with warm summers and mild winters that one might want, then rural northern Portugal is an option instead: Rural northern Portugal, around Porto and Coimbra are extremely safe with very little crime. The route to moving to Portugal would involve a process not unlike that of moving to Norway: One would first move to Ireland, find work there and become an Irish citizen and obtain an Irish Passport. Once one has an Irish Passport one will not need an ETIAS to travel to Portugal, and one would be able to live there six months of the year. The scenery is lovely, there are mountains nearby to remind one of the Lake District and friendly locals who- once you can master how to falar português, say Como vai, tudo bem? on meeting people, and Obrigado (for thankyou) and some other basic Portuguese phrases- they will quickly warm to you. Northern Portugal, near the coast is seldom stifling in summer and the climate would be agreeable to North Cumbrians who may wish to relocate to somewhere pleasantly warm, not cold in winter but not stifling hot either. The following You-Tube clip is an example of a couple moving from Northern Ireland to Northern Portugal, though the same things illustrated in the clip that motivated this couple could well motivate Cumbrians to move there (link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5AUrm5T3lc).

 

Again, it is local broadcasters who need to explain the options for people who wish to move away, who want somewhere that is lovely and safe (as Cumberland once was), but is warmer.

 

Folk Do Not Leave an Area They Have Been Brought Up In and Have Family Roots In – Unless There’s Catastrophic Change

Regional TV coverage of these fundamental environmental changes in rural North Cumberland- loss of local amenities, loss of snowy winter weather, big increases in antisocial behaviour, demographic change and a change to cold, uncaring rural areas is, of course essential. As too are the solutions to try and counter unwelcome changes, which depending on one’s circumstances and the issues one is trying to get addressed will vary. In the worst situations, where remaining in the community might carry a health-risk, one will need practical steps on how to leave the area, and where to go to find and reclaim the happy environment one once had but which is now lost: Not everyone who decides to leave Carlisle and North Cumberland will be doing so for reasons of personal safety, but if (as seems likely the longer Labour remain in power in the UK) folk leaving for reasons of personal safety will become significant.

 

In the past, people moved abroad if they had money because of the weather, or they had careers with high wages that they could not pursue locally. Or they married someone from another country and moved abroad to be with them. I have two brothers who live in Switzerland who live there because of these precise reasons, one is married to a Brazilian who cannot get a residency Visa for the UK, the other moved there over thirty years ago because the career opportunities for him as an engineer were limited from a base within an hour’s drive of the North Pennines.

 

However, the pull factors drawing people away from homes and communities that folk are brought up in have to be strong- and to that there will come to be push factors driving people away (i.e., because the local area becomes violent and dangerous to live in). Folk do not move away from an area where they have lived all their lives, where they have family and friends and identify as, for instance, North Cumbrians unless there are compelling reasons to do so. People with less attachment to an area, who do not have family locally or they were born and bred abroad would tend to be the first to leave when there are negative environmental changes. However, it would take a lot more to make a mother- with four kids at local schools, with a network of friends, and relatives nearby- to get her to uproot her family and to move North to safety.

 

Folk are already starting to leave some urban areas in the North of England and in Northern Ireland- because of the increased risk to personal safety alone. Last year, families were forced to flee parts of Belfast where thugs attacked homes, and in August 2024- some families relocated from Sunderland, Manchester, and Southport when there were widespread riots. Increases in violent crime in North Cumbria may well soon lead to people leaving Carlisle in significant numbers and- later- rural North Cumberland with their families.

 

The factors contributing to folk who have been born and bred in an area finally deciding enough is enough- and leaving to seek out somewhere better are several. The increased risk of violence is one, but there are  other factors such as a changing climate, reduced Public services, impacts of immigration altering communities, the loss of amenities locally that impact folk’s decisions.  There comes a point where, as an individual or part of a group in the community, with liaison with the local authorities, all legal options trying to hold back the forces of lawlessness or fighting closures of vital local services are exhausted. At that point, folk may decide to leave an area they have lived in all their lives.

 

North Cumbrians Leaving May Head North….  

Not everyone in the UK wishing to depart from the country is inclined to head south, to Australia, or the USA. As mentioned above, the wider regional- and international- connections that folk have in this northernmost part of North West England that is North Cumberland are not necessarily what people have in other parts of England or in Wales. If folk leave the area, a good proportion will try to find climates and cultures similar to what they were brought up with. Some folk will head off to warm, sunny climates, but North Cumbrians are not acclimatised to sweltering heat: A short break in the Mediterranean in the summer is very different to living with six months or more of sweltering heat each year- and having to work in it.  And some North Cumbrian folk will hanker for the snowy cold winters of their childhood.

 

Some North Cumbrians will head to North West Ireland or, possibly, the Isle of Man, both of which are easy to get to as they are part of the British Common Travel Area. Both those areas have a cool changeable climate, crucially not too warm in the summer and with hilly rural areas not far distant, so not unlike Cumberland. Crucially, both the Isle of Man and County Donegal, NW Ireland are very safe, with little violent crime (at least that is so outside the larger towns). There is also a culture with Celtic and Gaelic music with pipes and fiddles, as in Scotland and which has historically influenced Cumbrian communities. Rural Northern Scotland, especially north of the Great Glen is relatively uncrowded and beautiful, with higher mountains than in Cumbria which do still get snow-cover in the winter (albeit not as much as in years’ past),- and so more North Cumbrians may well move here too. But there is the possibility that increasing numbers from North Cumbria may head even further north.

 

Moving to Scandinavia is also something that is- increasingly- attractive for a significant number of folk living in Northern Britain: Norway or Sweden with their beautiful and breathtaking scenery, fantastic Nordic culture, great music and wonderful folk beckons them, as a lover might tempt a wife in an abusive relationship with a man who was once her love and is now betraying her with violence (i.e., Cumbria under a government that won’t protect them, in which the community they grew up in, once loved and cherished is now cold, hostile, with unfriendly groups in their city, where young thugs run amok with impunity). At some point, and that time might not be so far away- probably after the failure to get the Labour Government out after 2029- some of the good folk of North Cumberland will make their move. Their forlorn hope of possible restoration in North Cumberland will evaporate. They will resign from their jobs, give notice to their landlord, renew their passports and get their ETIAS approvals. And they will be gone, but they may (rightly) write some very strongly-worded letters to Cumbria Police for failing to protect them and their families!

 

….Where a Whole New Culture Awaits

Both Arctic Norway and Arctic Sweden retain close-knit communities, even more so than Cumbria had back in the 1950’s and 1960’s, along with very little crime and sparkling snowy winters with lots of frost- like the coldest spells in the Cumbrian winters of the 1960’s and 1970’s. There is also the love of hygge and koselig (cosyness of home around a warm fire in winter), of krimmer (Norwegian murder-detective films/ series such as Wisting), Nordic folk music, and friluftsliv, a love of the open air and the great outdoors.

 

All these features of Nordic culture will be ones that many rural Cumbrians will warm to because these have influenced the culture of North Cumberland, and locations further north and east over many years. And learning Norwegian (or Swedish) is not that difficult for a Cumbrian- and once one has done so one can really appreciate and get into Norwegian and Swedish culture.

 

For North Cumbrians with less skill and ability to clear immigration into Norway or Sweden, one can do so via moving to the Irish Republic for a few years, finding work there and- in time- becoming and Irish citizen and getting an Irish Passport. An Irish Passport enables one to travel to anywhere in Europe without the need for an ETIAS approval, and one is also able to live in any European country for up to six months in a year. So, they may split their time between living in County Donegal in NW Ireland and Hammerfest, in northernmost Arctic Norway where the Northern Lights put on a fantastic display each year. Then when in Hammerfest, for instance, one could learn Norwegian, find a nice spouse (assuming one is not already married), apply for residency through getting a work-permit and a job- and stand a good chance of being able to move to Norway permanently.

 

The short-cut to avoid having to move to Ireland is the ability to get an Irish Passport based on having Irish parents, or a Norwegian or Swedish Passport based on having parents from either of those countries. You can then travel to Scandinavia for six months of the year and spend the remainder of the time in Northern Scotland.

 

Of course, Regional TV News coverage itself should concern itself with matters that are, at least, regionally local to viewers watching the local news. Northern Scotland, NW Ireland and- most definitely- Norway and Sweden are a good few hundred miles from Carlisle and North Cumberland: Local is within an hour’s travel time though, proud Northern folk that they are, North Cumbrians are more interested in places northwards of them than southwards- places that not only big up their sense of Northernness but which are certainly more desirable to visit. St. Mary’s Loch, just south-west of Selkirk in the western Scottish Borders is an hour’s travel time from Carlisle, beautiful and tranquil, it would take the same time to travel south on a non-stop train to the city of Preston where, in addition to the hustle and bustle of people there is not a zero risk of having your mobile phone snatched or getting attacked by a group of thugs! To the east, the beautiful Northumberland Coast is just over an hour’s drive distant, and it is somewhere folk in North Cumberland might push themselves to visit in fine summer weather, but they are less likely to want to wander about Scotswood Estate, in the West End of Newcastle and risk getting jumped by yobs, even though the West End of Newcastle is just an hour’s drive from North Cumberland.

 

However, if people go on holiday, or are considering leaving an area for good, they do not restrict themselves to locations that are local. If they see the whole area around them, as well as their locality becoming less safe, less pleasant to live in, and with sharply poorer Public services folk may move hundreds of miles to find somewhere that has characteristics that once made the area they called home pleasant and attractive to live in.

 

Northern Cumbrians, with their local dialect peppered with a few Nordic-origin words, should not have too much difficulty picking up Norwegian. They could truly fall in love with Norway, it could become their adopted land that they love because of its music festivals, countryside from mountains to the cost, lovely Northern Lights and-in summer in the far North- the Northern Lights- all sentiments encapsulated in this great song by Norwegian pop-group The Flame called I Dag er Vår Dag (Today is our Day)- link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gieP5RO3f_k.

 

Other Scandinavian songs that North Cumbrians may warm to quickly- and fall in love with as they embrace their new home- all follow a familiar theme of the lovely land, the music, of nature- and the lovely people. All with great music:

 

Sarek, a great Swedish pop-group who play music with fiddles and violins produce some lovely music. There’s Genom Eld och Vatten  (Through Fire and Water, in English), a song about a lover going to great lengths to be with the one she loves- which is fitting for North Cumbrians trying to move to Norway or Sweden, an effort that it would prove to be well worth it. Link here on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK_VrQetwGc.

 

Another lovely song by Sarek is Alla Änglar Log (All The Angels Smiled, in English) which is all about an enchanted couple under a magical wintry scene under the stars and Northern lights. This certainly encapsulates some of the magical attraction of Sweden in the winter. Link here to the You Tube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsQVsbudpHA.

 

Another great Swedish song by the pop-group Highlights, Land och Rike Runt (that’s Country and Kingdom Around in English), which is about a group of young men who want to get out into the country, of which they love as the summer has finally come. Good quality Swedish pop-music (like Simon & Garfunkel back in the day), the You-Tube link to which is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C40VPXfiywk.  Certainly, in the northern half of Sweden, in the vast region they call Norr, the country is fantastic with some truly breathtaking scenery.

 

There is also a cracking Nordic folk song by a folk-artist called Nordman, and the song is called Nordman (Swedish for the North Man, which is highly appropriate to a North Cumbrian), the link to which is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RseU4mxDb1w. It is one that North Cumbrians will warm to, with music in the style of the pop-legend Bryan Adams, but only better with pipes and fiddles (like Scottish and Nordic music): North Cumbrians would find it great to listen to once they picked up a bit of Swedish.  It is a song about a Northman (or Norseman)  fighting to get right, be whole again- before he becomes like a name carved in stone; and then with his Norse strength to share his life with his lover so that they can fully live life together. The sentiments could- in future- echo North Cumbrians formerly fighting to try and change their community to how it was, but the fight proves futile in the end. They might come to realise they must move a long way North to somewhere new, to stop fighting and to throw in their lot with a new Norwegian or Swedish model (as it were)- which would be much better: One can only hope that Labour loses power by 2029, and so it doesn’t get so bad for North Cumbrians that they have to act on such advice in such a manner!

 

Of course, not even beautiful Norway and Sweden are without crime, in and around Oslo there is violent crime.  In Stockholm and other towns in the south of Sweden there has been a real issue with gang-related violence in recent years. However, the governments in both these Scandinavian countries, and the local authorities are dealing rather more seriously with these issues than in England. The Swedish Conservative Government has recently pushed through measures requiring the Police to stop and search even the bairns (kids) thought to be carrying weapons, and the Courts are imposing tougher measures on gang-members: See this article here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/02/10/how-sweden-defied-liberal-outrage-crush-the-gang-violence/. Likewise, in Norway the Police actually protect the Norwegian Public from harm.

 

What is more, both Norway and Sweden have large rural areas with very low populations, especially towards and north of the Arctic Circle. There is a good number of rural hytter (Norwegian for cabins), which are often available in remote forests or mountain areas- away from areas of population that folk can buy or rent. In these areas, with very few people around, the risk of coming to harm is negligible and liable to remain so.

 

Whilst the vast majority of born-and-bred North Cumbrians are unlikely to move far away from North Cumberland, even if the communities deteriorated significantly with a sharp uptick in thuggery, a significant number will if they find there are no legal avenues to protect their families, and such folk will move.

 

Others, incensed at the negative changes in their once-lovely communities whilst the Police apparently ignore their pleas for protection and help may take the law into their own hands, with the Neighbourhood Security groups set up to patrol communities deciding to plan on beating up young thugs (or worse) should the Police not be supportive of them doing citizens’ arrests and bringing the thugs in. The Police are then liable to arrest them and break up Neighbourhood Security Group concerned- members of which will move away from Cumberland for a few years -not to North Scotland or Norway, but to Durham Prison or Lancaster Prison!

 

It falls to Regional TV broadcasters to pick up on when folk in North Cumbrian communities might reach boiling point at the problems in their midst that have thwarted all legal attempts to deal with:  And to explain to their viewers that taking the law into their own hands and getting a criminal record is bad for their liberty, and thereafter their job-prospects, finances, and relationships. And also, that a criminal record will affect folk’s ability to travel abroad because of the ETIAS screening that will soon be up-and-running for those wishing to travel to mainland Europe or to Scandinavia.

 

Even if North Cumbrians just move out of Carlisle to, say, Keswick or the North Pennines, if they are affected by the lack of snow in winter and like skiing, or a White Christmas, increasing numbers may still opt for short breaks to Norway, or even Arctic Sweden to experience the glittering snow, and frosty magic under the Northern Lights. That’s even if folk decide not to move there.

 

The Regional Broadcasters remain completely blind to the possibility that the wider regional connections and influences that will come to pull unhappy Cumbrians away will come from a long way to the North. They are in even less of a position to offer practical advice on how local folk could relocate if they wanted. Both ITV Tyne Tees & Border programmers and BBC NE England programmers are blinkered by their inability to conceive that some folk in Britain’s most remote northern communities might not only come to the end of their tether and move away for reasons related to their own safety. But also that they might move to regions that are actually outside the confines of the Anglosphere to find safety, solace and beautiful places, culture and people.  As that seems to be the case Regional TV programmers need to take their blinkers and dark glasses off and find out how people in the Northernmost communities in the UK think, feel and relate to the wider region, and crucially the sort of regions they may want to move to when their own communities become intolerable to continue living in.

 

With kind regards

 

Ian Pennell

(Proprietor of NW Is NW)