Scots could be forgiven for thinking they have turned into Time Lords.

Just over two years ago, then First Minister Alex Salmond said Scots had a “once in a generation opportunity” to vote for independence.

So, like Dr Who, have they regenerated?

Two years on, is there an appetite for another referendum and all the animosity that may produce once again?

The Scottish Parliament has just finished a two-day debate on whether to request permission from Westminster to hold a second independence referendum.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said last week that a new vote would need to be held before Brexit or shortly afterwards to prevent Scotland facing a “lengthy period” outside both the EU and the single market.

She wants to hold the referendum in the autumn of 2018 or the spring of the following year.

Prime Minister Theresa May is set to signal the formal start of Brexit on Wednesday and the UK is expected to leave the European Union on March, 29, 2019.

The economy of Carlisle and north Cumbria draws strongly from the border areas and southern Scotland.

Businesses on both sides of the national divide depend on those who cross over on a regular basis to work, socialise and live.

The Longtown livestock Mart, founded in 1926, is Europe’s largest sheep market and has long been a major feature in the region’s rural economy.


John Thomson Director John Thomson drives from his home in Dumfries across the border to work and regularly has breakfast and lunch with farmers from across south and west Scotland and Cumbria.

He says the call for a new push for independence is not supported locally.

“I have not met anyone who has any stomach for it.

“Even among nationalists, of people who voted last time for independence, I don’t think there is any enthusiasm for another referendum.

“We were all told it would be settled for a generation.

“Mrs Sturgeon does not speak for the people of Scotland that she keeps banging on about, she speaks for the SNP.

“I live in Dumfries and travel to Longtown every day for work, it would not be very entertaining if I had to show my passport every time I had to cross the border and change my money.

“More than 80 per cent of our livestock crosses the border and a significantly higher figure would apply to the Carlisle mart.

“The thought of any further complications to add to the transportation of animals would be terrible.

“For everyone round here, their shopping town is Carlisle and also to work and do business.

“The thought of an artificial barrier, or worse still, a different currency, is not good.”


Denis Male Denis Male, Dumfries and Galloway councillor for Langholm, says talk of a new referendum is ill-timed.

He explained: “We need to see Brexit settled down and what it brings before we look at independence again.

“At this moment in time we should be pulling together, getting Brexit in place and seeing what happens.

“Nicola Sturgeon declared her plans for the referendum at a time when we have local elections and they should not be used as a vehicle to trot this out on the doorsteps.”

The language used at J Kerr and Sons Butcher in Gretna to describe Mrs Sturgeon’s bid for a second referendum was less diplomatic and sharper than one of the shop’s knives.

“Everybody I know says she’s off her heed. She’s a barmpot,” said butcher Ian Bryson.

“What about the people here who voted for Brexit?


Ian Bryson “She never mentions them and the vote was 60-40 (against leaving the EU).

“Most people round here don’t agree with her.”

Annan Athletic chairman Henry McClelland is standing as an SNP candidate in the Dumfries and Galloway Council elections next May.

He says Scotland wants to stay part of the single market and can’t wait for Britain to leave the EU before it starts the process for a new referendum.

“If Mrs Sturgeon waited to call a referendum until 2019, the actual vote would not be held for another two years, by which time it would be too late and Scotland’s access to the single market would be gone,” he explained.

“The timing is absolutely right. It is the process for the vote that is being applied, not the vote itself, that is what people have to understand.

“All Mrs Sturgeon is trying to explain is that Scotland is being taken out of the EU, when the majority of Scots voted to stay in.

“I support the principle that Scotland and the people of Scotland have the sovereign right to determine their own future.

“We just want to be treated as equals.

“Anyone who thinks there is going to be a wall between Scotland and England are off their head.

“Scotland needs England as much as England needs Scotland.

“Theresa May has said there will be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, so why should there be one between England and Scotland?”


Gordon Routledge Gordon Routledge was born in Longtown 68 years ago.

He doesn’t see himself as English or Scottish, but as a Borderer.

He crossed the line between the two countries most days of his working life and his lifelong fascination with the area’s history has led him to write nine books about it.

He sees no good in the planned referendum: “It would be another leap in the dark following the Brexit decision.

“Scotland would be better to wait three or four years to see how things work out, but they should be given the opportunity to make up their own minds about their future.

“Living on the Borders, we have learned to live and work together and I would not like to see that undermined.

“If you live here along the border line, the perspective is quite different from that of Edinburgh or London.”

Mr Thomson added: “The referendum was very divisive last time, there are families still not speaking. It was incredibly divisive and it will be much more divisive this time.

“The threat of independence is very serious to the economy in the south of Scotland and Cumbria.”