Congratulations to Dunfermline, Scotland’s newest city.
The ancient seat of the Kings of Scotland has been given the status as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Dunfermline is already an on-the-up location with a growing population and an improved sense of its place in the world.
But this fantastic and richly deserved honour will hopefully provide Fife’s new city with the confidence to push on even further.
What ‘city status’ will actually mean to ordinary Dunfermline residents – or the seven other new cities across the UK and Overseas Territorities – is difficult to quantify.
But anything that further raises Dunfermline’s profile – and that of the Kingdom of Fife more widely – is welcome and can do no harm in the perennial fight to retain jobs and talent locally and attract inward investment.
It has been confirmed that #Dunfermline will become Scotland's 8th – and Fife's 1st – official city.
Here's a piece I wrote in @thecourieruk earlier this year about why the Kingdom of Fife deserves a city. (St Andrews was also in the running to be one)https://t.co/02KiOnJ2oS
— Ross Cunningham (@RCunningham_MMM) May 19, 2022
Perth has been on a rollercoaster ride economically and socially since it recieved city status at the Diamond Jubilee in 2012.
But it is now a more self-assured place and is looking forward to major developments including the return of the Stone of Destiny to a refurbished city hall.
There is no reason why Dunfermline can’t make similar progress as it sheds its Auld Grey Toun tag and moves into a new era as a confident, striving, Auld Grey City.
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