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Who fancies explaining to me the North South divide?

82 replies

Dogsandbabies · 20/12/2020 07:04

Foreigner here. Increasingly, (amplified by this government's hideous local response to the covid pandemic) I see people joining in at bashing southerners a northerners.

Why is that? Why is there such a divide? And what drives it? Reading here it seems to be mainly directed at southerners so I was wondering what you think drives it.

OP posts:
Witchend · 20/12/2020 14:14

The north/south divide seems to be amplified on MN. I've lived in both (but not London), have family in both.

I've certainly had far more prejudice from the north on having a southern accent/living in the south than I've ever had the other way round.

Both places have their benefits, both places have their drawbacks.

What I notice on here is that there is a definitely anti-southern nastiness.
Often silly things: eg a flood in the south and it gets reported on in the news, then you'll see a thread about how the news is southern centric because their flood didn't get reported on-even after people have said they saw the reports of the northern one.

People post threads with generalisations about London/Londoners which would get shouted down if they were about any other area.

And for what it's worth, I've done travel with small children round London, and never needed help and had to ask. Someone always picks up the end of the buggy, carries a suitcase, I've even been offered a seat on the busy underground when I was pregnant.
My dsis, who lives up north, used to complain people refused to help her when she asked for help when hers were small. I say I obviously look helpless Grin

And look at now. How many threads have there been about the dreadful Londoners leaving London yesterday? And, having seen the pictures it looks like lighter than normal Saturday traffic. Having driven over a major motorway out of London yesterday I know that was very light traffic.
But no, it must be London trying to infect the rest of the country.

It's something I wish @MNHQ would ban because it fuels prejudice and hatred.
I don't recognise the view of the south given by many people here. I also don't recognise the view of the north. Neither seems to have the root in anything but perceived prejudice.

The South/Urban is very full of people, even in the countryside there's houses everywhere. There seems to be a house in every corner of every field if you're within a couple of hours of London. There's a lot of people in a small space and most have lost touch with growing and making.
And this is a typical generalisation. I currently live just outside the M25. Within 5 minutes walk I can be in the open countryside. Yesterday I went out there (there was a beautiful double rainbow) and I saw some deer, a red kite, a nuthatch and a green woodpecker in the first 10 minutes.
My afore mentioned dsis, who does not live in a city, has to drive 10 minutes before she can get to an area like this, and even there she can hear traffic noises.

There are bits of rural North in the Urban South, and vice versa, but that's how I see the split.
Which shows the prejudice. No, there aren't bits of "rural north" in the urban south. They are bits of "rural south"; they weren't picked up and pinched from the north. They belong in the south. And there's also urban north; it's not a southern concept.

RosesforMama · 20/12/2020 15:26

witchend
I think the point I have tried to make is that when I lived in the South, where I was brought up, we weren't nasty to the North. We had a vague perception of grinding poverty. We might have taken the Mickey out of a kid who joined our school from Lancashire's accent, but that goes both ways.

What I now understand is that came from a position of privilege. I know it's a different thing entirely but it's a bit like black people arguing about their representation in the media. If you are a white person you may not realise there's a problem because you are fully represented; you don't feel any animosity to black people, and anyway there is a black presenter on CBeebies. It's a bit like that. If you live in the South you are represented as "the default". If there is terrible snow in the South East it will be the national news headlines. If there is terrible snow in Northumbria it might be mentioned but it won't be the lead story. It's that kind if thing. If you don't notice it, doesn't mean it's there. And Northerners are "nastier" about it because the gap is genuine, and they are not being heard.

RosesforMama · 20/12/2020 15:27

*doesn't mean it's not there

MoltenLasagne · 20/12/2020 15:49

I think the people enjoying the South East being put in Tier 4 for Christmas are twats but I think that its come on the back of:

  1. Northerners being portrayed as thick, rule breaking idiots when we were higher
  2. Tiers being put up fast in the North when numbers rose, not coming down again when they dropped, and Northern Tier 3 areas having lower rates than southern Tier 2 areas
  3. The media reaction when London went into Tier 3, especially talk of how damaging it would be to industries and how it wasn't fair to have regional tiers rather than local ones, when the millilns of us had been stuck in the same situation for months.

I've seen similar conversations in Scotland with Central belt v other areas and Glasgow v Edinburgh as well. I think its just people mostly being royally fed up at what's happening anyway so any perceived inequalities, no matter how small, become major grievances.

ThePlantsitter · 20/12/2020 16:01

MoltenLasagne I don't disagree with anything you've said. But anecdotally ordinary people in London never thought those up North were rulebreaking or thick. Just as the sensible people in the North didn't believe the stories about selfish Londoners 'flocking' to parks and outside spaces... I think.

MoltenLasagne · 20/12/2020 16:16

I don't think its all Londoners just as its not all Northerners. I think, like the boomer / millenial thing its something which helps drive the news cycle so the media like to hype it up but then it can genuinely piss people off!

FunnyInjury · 20/12/2020 17:50

Wealth concentration and politics!

I'm in a long-term north-south long distance relationship! That,and the fact I've spent my life approx 50:50 Yorkshire/Kent means I've heard every variation of every stereotype going 🤷‍♀️

Imho you get good points and bad things everywhere.

But wealth concentration and politics are the really noticable differences Smile

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