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AIBU?

To think people are generally happier in the South of England than the North?

141 replies

TigerPath · 18/05/2016 17:19

I've lived most of my life in the North... major cities like Manchester and Leeds, pretty Lake District towns and villages, Harrogate, York, a small town in the Dales etc... I've moved around a lot.

A few months ago we moved to the South Coast. I've noticed the people here seem so happy! They are friendly and smiley. They ask me if I need directions when I look lost, without me even approaching! They bend over backwards to help and just seem so content and positive. This includes nursery managers, Tesco staff, estate agents, taxi drivers, waitresses in pubs etc.

It's much sunnier here, in fact so bright I feel disorientated at times. The town is full of flowering trees and bushes and blossom- every street looks like a beautiful park! So maybe it's the climate. I'm used to rain and drizzle and cloud.

What do others think?

OP posts:
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MrPony · 18/05/2016 17:21

There's certainly a difference in weather, I think people in the north get SAD a lot. I wouldn't go as far as saying the south is happier than the north though. London looks pretty miserable to me

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MrsJayy · 18/05/2016 17:23

I probably agree with you the weather is milder its not so dull and drizzley i holiday in the south from scotland i instsntly feel cheerier,

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wasonthelist · 18/05/2016 17:23

Ha ha YABU

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ollieplimsoles · 18/05/2016 17:24

I would certainly not say the south is 'happier' than the north. London is the most miserable place I've ever been.

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wasonthelist · 18/05/2016 17:24

I'd be feckin miserable if I had to live in the South, so it would even things out :)

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AmysTiara · 18/05/2016 17:24

How strange. I've had the exact opposite experience. I find people in the North much friendlier and more cheerful.

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MrsJayy · 18/05/2016 17:25

Horragate is vair vair nice though my friend lives outside it and its a lovely town

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NewLife4Me · 18/05/2016 17:25

I found the complete opposite tbh, that's why we're back up here again.

You sound as though your experience of the North were posh places or cities, which may be a little unfriendlier.
If you came to lancashire and our little old mining towns you'd find we're really friendly.
Or the little towns away from South Cheshire too.

I suppose it depends on the actual place, they can vary so much.
We moved to East Anglia and even after 12 years we weren't considered as one of them, but it was the area, they aren't all like this in EA.

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timeforabrewnow · 18/05/2016 17:26

YABU - I live in the north and am a complete ray of sunshine - honest

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pocketsaviour · 18/05/2016 17:26

Did you move to the south west?

I moved from Yorkshire to the south east and people here are miserable as fuck. I desperately want to go back north.

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pickledpears555 · 18/05/2016 17:26

YANBU.

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EatsShitAndLeaves · 18/05/2016 17:27

What a sweeping over generalisation - have a Biscuit

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TeradelFuego · 18/05/2016 17:27

Received wisdom is that it's friendlier up north. Maybe you have just had the good luck to hit on a particularly friendly town?

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Piemernator · 18/05/2016 17:28

As a Southerner living up North I have the opposite view. Especially London being bloody miserable which is where my Mother is from and where I spent a lot of time though I actually grew up at the seaside on the South coast.

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ouryve · 18/05/2016 17:28

I'm in the Northeast and, in general, people couldn't be chattier and friendlier without getting on your every last nerve

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MrsJayy · 18/05/2016 17:29

Dont get me wrong im a delight Grin

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ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 18/05/2016 17:30

YABU, Glasgow was voted friendliest city in the world. Liverpool and Manchester also appeared in the top 15. No other UK cities in there.

It's grim down south...
www.roughguides.com/gallery/the-worlds-friendliest-cities-as-voted-by-you/#/15

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molyholy · 18/05/2016 17:30

North or South, as long as you have a good support network, happy family life, a generally optomistic outlook, you could live in timbucktu and be happy. I live in the north and you couldn't pay me to move daaahn sarf. I have to go to London for business and it depresses the shite out of me. Incidentally, where are you from originally OP?

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acasualobserver · 18/05/2016 17:31

It is very cold in the North and this makes people somewhat miserable. Also they speak a bit funny and that gets them down too.

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AmysTiara · 18/05/2016 17:33

They don't speak a bit funny. There are loads of different accents up North none of which are a bit funny.

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EnthusiasmDisturbed · 18/05/2016 17:33

My nanny used to say nowt happier than a Yorkshireman moaning

I think she meant those from Yorkshire are happiest when they are having a moan Confused

Just like to point out she was from Yorkshire and very proud to be

My experience people are friendlier up north apart from Blackpool ... Distinctly cold towards those from London

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treaclesoda · 18/05/2016 17:34

I don't know about happier down south but as someone from neither the north or the south of England I do believe that in general English people are very friendly and welcoming.

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MrPony · 18/05/2016 17:34

If most people agree London is miserable then why do so many people live there? I've only been a few times but the only people I saw that looked happy were tourists.

I live up North and love it. There are lots of friendly people here. I have many 'friends' that I don't even know, they're just people I see most days and stop and have a chat with. It's lovely.
There is a lot of unemployment though which is a bit shit. Seems like no one wants to bring work to the NE at the moment.

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FamousSeamus · 18/05/2016 17:35

Not in my experience. I was a Londoner for much of my adult life, and am a total ray of sunshine, but frequent visits to Newcastle, Manchester and Liverpool over the last few years have suggested that the serious fun is being had in the North. (

And tbh, I think the differences in the weather are hugely exaggerated. There was a hilarious thread on here a month or two ago from a hilariously deluded woman who lived somewhere in the north of England and wanted to book a summer holiday 'somewhere properly hot' where she could get a tan in the south... Grin )

Come to think of it, the closest my blue-white skin has ever been to a tan in this country was walking Hadrian's Wall...

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FamousSeamus · 18/05/2016 17:36

I'm not from either place either, but my younger sister claims Leicester is the friendliest place in England.

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