Yesterday's
Berwickshire carries
a fascinating letter from a Reston man headed ' New residents inexperienced in niceties of small communities' It quotes from a report made in 1980 in a sociology publication which was about ' Urban incomers and Rural Change: the impact of Migrants from the city on Life in an Orkney Community' (1980) The writer suggests that although this is not Orkney 'the gist of the piece has a lot of relevance for many of us as we welcome so many new residents who are quite inexperienced in the niceties of living' in rural Berwickshire.
I recommend that anyone interested should read the letter in full (sadly not reproduced on the website) and certainly all incomers (and in Orkney they were predominately English) should do so. It is a shame that Huttonian did not have the benefit of this research before he started his original rant two years ago. It has to be said that not all incomers around here are English, lots of Scots unable to be fully paid up townees because of the high house prices in Edinburgh and its surrounds, and many are not in the category described in the article who explained their move to Orkney because of the 'superiority of rural over urban life ' Their motivations are mostly financial and many of them regard being in the countryside as just a base for working in the city and have no inclination (nor see any necessity) to involve themselves in the affairs of the local community. Indeed if I have learnt anything from 8 years as a maturing incomer (
blow ins they say in Norn Iron) it is that there is balance to be struck between remaining aloof (and isolated) in your new home and involving your self actively in local affairs. One extreme encourages accusations of snobbery, stand offishness, and looking down on local people, the other throwing your weight around where you are not wanted upsetting the traditional rhythm of decision making and 'governance' -in the jargon-in small closely knitted village based societies. Difficult especially for a retired person who has no other outside life to satisfy his interests and absorb his energies (I am using man as embracing woman, of course) . If you don't involve yourself in what is going on around you, you do indeed become isolated and withdrawn; not a good recipe for a healthy old age.
Much food for thought there. Well worth following up at
http://soc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/38/1/43 where there is a wider study about English people in Scotland generally under the headline :'We hate the English except for you!'
PS Spell checker suggests 'Rectum' for 'Reston' Do we really need to know that?
