Intelligence Squared

Rory Stewart on Trump, Nationalism and The Value of Rural Life (Part One)

December 10, 2025

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  • Rory Stewart argues that the traditional narrative of English history, centered on Saxon origins in Hampshire, ignores older kingdoms like Cumbria, which he calls the 'imaginative soul of Britain' due to its role in the Romantic movement and unique cultural identity. 
  • Westminster politics and central government often fail to understand or adequately address the needs of rural areas like Cumbria because their economic language (growth, productivity) does not align with the reality of small, diverse, and often low-income local economies. 
  • The current first-past-the-post electoral system is fundamentally flawed, as evidenced by recent election results, creating a dangerous political vacuum that could allow a party like Nigel Farage's to gain significant power with a minority share of the national vote. 

Segments

Introduction and Book Context
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(00:00:01)
  • Key Takeaway: Rory Stewart’s new book, ‘Middleland: Dispatches from the Borders,’ focuses on his rural constituency of Penrith and the Border, contrasting with his previous political memoir.
  • Summary: The episode introduces Rory Stewart discussing his new book, ‘Middleland: Dispatches from the Borders,’ which is based on weekly articles written for the Cumberland and Westmoreland Herald. The book explores tensions between rural and urban life, farming, and preservation versus growth. Host Caroline Lucas highlights Stewart’s description of writing these articles late into the night, often in the bath.
Defining Cumbria as Middleland
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(00:06:41)
  • Key Takeaway: Cumbria is termed ‘Middleland’ because it was historically a vanished kingdom existing before the formal division of England and Scotland, speaking a language neither purely English nor Scottish.
  • Summary: Stewart explains that Cumbria was the ancient kingdom of the Carvetti, predating established English history centered in Winchester. This region retains a sense of difference, becoming particularly salient during the Scottish Referendum due to its shared language, culture, and history with the Scottish borders. This area represents the ‘imaginative soul of Britain,’ being the birthplace of the European Romantic movement through figures like Wordsworth and Turner.
Rural vs. Central Government Disconnect
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(00:12:29)
  • Key Takeaway: Central government policy, exemplified by a former Secretary of State’s belief that ’there’s no such thing as rural affairs,’ prioritizes urban cost metrics over rural necessity for infrastructure like broadband.
  • Summary: Stewart recounts instances where Westminster failed to grasp rural needs, citing the example of broadband installation costs being judged against London rates, making essential connectivity prohibitively expensive for Cumbrian businesses and residents. This reflects a profound lack of imagination from policymakers who apply economic language like ‘growth’ and ’efficiency’ inappropriately to small-scale rural livelihoods.
The Role of the Constituency MP
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(00:23:51)
  • Key Takeaway: The role of a constituency MP involves the ‘radical strangeness’ of juggling incompatible roles and managing personal ignorance to represent 100,000 disparate people, raising core questions about representation in democracy.
  • Summary: Stewart questions the feasibility of one person speaking for such a diverse group, noting that constituents often prefer to speak for themselves rather than be represented. He contrasts his interest in small farmers with other groups, highlighting inherent biases in representation. This difficulty in representation is compounded by the current electoral system, which distorts the national will.
Electoral Reform and Political Fear
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(00:28:40)
  • Key Takeaway: The current first-past-the-post system is ’terrible’ because it allows parties with historically low vote shares, like Labour and the Conservatives, to gain immense majorities, creating a risk of a Farage government gaining power disproportionately.
  • Summary: Stewart advocates for a system like New Zealand’s, which retains constituency links but offers a fairer reflection of public views, noting that the UK effectively operates under a five-party system. He fears that the current system could lead to a Farage government, as first-past-the-post allows a party to gain far more seats than its percentage of the national vote warrants once a certain threshold is crossed.
Landscape Protection vs. Imposed Infrastructure
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(00:32:01)
  • Key Takeaway: Rural opposition to infrastructure like wind turbines is often dismissed as NIMBYism, ignoring the historical precedent of London imposing major, often environmentally damaging, facilities like nuclear sites onto Cumbrian land.
  • Summary: Stewart questions when loving one’s landscape becomes selfish, noting that Cumbrians opposing development are labeled NIMBYs, while Londoners push infrastructure onto them. He points out that Cumbria has historically been the dumping ground for Britain’s nuclear waste and military testing sites, suggesting that the imposition of projects like the nuclear repository is driven by the perception that the region’s concerns ‘don’t matter.’