to wonder why it seems to be acceptable to be so negative about people from the North?

[TeacupTempest]

Every day on here I see references to people from the North being less educated, less literate, less fashionable and so on.

How is that acceptable?

There are so many sweeping generalisations going on.

It's ignorant and it winds me up

I sat next to some people at a wedding once who were from Cambridge and they said that the only good thing about being from Cambridge was that at least it wasn't Norfolk! But I went to Norwich recently and it was very lovely. You see - nowhere is really immune.

Diabolo- what all of it? Like, for example,

I know what orm thinks I am gonna say LMAO

but no, I have people I love there.

No, like...

Chard? retirement home of the South West? Place for MILs to rest in peace unassaulted by rela life?

(Did the MIL bit give it away? )

They did a mn census a while back and London and the HC were over represented- may have changed though.

Mike I am loving that name. They do take me a moment or two [dense emoticon] but once I'm there I'm very happy.

All of what SanctiMoanyArse? All of Somerset?

I meant that I liked the places I have visited there - Westbury-sub-Mendip, Wells / Priddy / Cheddar etc, and would be very happy to live in one of those villages / towns / cities.

I'm a Soft Southerner. What pisses me off, on behalf of my beloved northern compatriots is that all Cheap, Bargain, Sale, Lotto, Bingo tacky adverts tend to have a gratuitous Northern voiceover.

It's a crap typecasting that is lazy and a cheap shot. Are ONLY those living north of Watford allowed to play Bingo? or allowed to play the Lotto, or avail themselves of a bargain? NO, so why then the disproportionate use of Standard Northern Bloke on the voice over?

There are educated and non educated people in all corners of the country. Just saying GRARSE rather than GRASS or BARTH rather than BATH doesn't add any IQ points. TBH, most of those I have met down south who HAVE come from traditionally more economically challenged areas have worked bloody to make the move away from their families to live down here.

Can we start a Hug a Northerner Day? if only to keep us southern softies warm

I come from up North, and have family up North. I have lived down South for 25 years.

I've found Southerners take the piss out of my accent, accentuating every sound, because they find it amusing, a radio DJ once said 'All Northerners sound thick.' , I've been asked on a few occasions to describe what it's really like to live on a cobbled street, and I've been told the Northern accent sounds aggressive. (I come from Manchester btw)

OTOH, Northerners tell me the South is obsessed with 'image', are all posh yuppies, the roads are bumper to bumper with BMW's and Mercs and that Southerners think they're above everyone else. Oh and all Southerners are absolutely loaded with cash and assets.

So IME, I find some Southerners do tend to look down on Northerners IRL, and Northerners feel this quite keenly.

im originally from birmingham moved to london in my teens then moved back up north to blackpool and now live in halifax and can honestly say that where i am now is the best, lovely town to live in the moors and seaside and places like york an hour to an hour and a half in the car hubby is scouser so both of us get the micky took out of us southerners think all brummies are thick and all scousers are villians but of course totally wrong on both counts, i have friends in the south who are lovely and friends in the north who are equally lovely and to some people watford is still the dividing line lol

beesimo - "nobody knew what I meant by a scullery."

Staggering, 'cos surely they'd have seen some drama on TV where a family had a scullery maid :)

See some comments on MN, but equally, bits and bobs on TV (and perhaps to a lesser extent radio) where 'ooop north' is commented on in a negative, deprived / backward / lacking way... while there are some similar 'soft Southerner' type quips the other way.

I was born south of London, and live south of Liverpool, in Wales (of parents from Wales, but firmly in the valleys in the South, not up here in N E Wales).

Speak no Welsh, but fortunately not a problem as no-one else here in the village does either (!) and apart from the infrequent sheep-shagger jokes that one gets on TV, and that twit Rhod Gilbert (who seems to have a one-man mission to discredit Wales) can sleep happy with little or no 'friendly' or nasty abuse to think about...

It's quite reassuring in a way, that most parts of the UK have godawful stereotypes. Nowhere seems to escape them.

Which is good and means I can ignore the chip on my shoulder.

For now.......

This has all got very serious, hasn't it?!
It's all just piss-taking. That thing that us Brits do so well, with our over-developed senses of self-deprecation and irony. It's banter, a gentle way for people to start bonding. No-one seriously thinks southerners are soft, or that northerners have ferrets in their pants...
Where I'm from, in very northern Cumbria, we take the piss out of anyone from south of Shap for being southern, we take the piss out of west cumbrians for being radiated from sellafield and talking funny, and we take the piss out of anyone from Carlisle because, you know, it's Carlisle...
I now live in Leeds and get the piss taken fir being from the wrong side of the pennines. They all take the piss out of each other for where they're from in Leeds. God forbid you're from Ponte Carlo (pontefract) or Cas Vegas (castleford).
I take the piss out of my mate from st helen's for being scouse - fully aware she's not! - she takes the piss out of me for being Scottish - it's fairly close to the border where I'm from. And so on, and so on. It's all just having a laugh.
And if someone thinks I'm stupid because they hear my very broad accent, well then I'm going to floor them with my fearsome intellect. And failing that, my fists, cos northerners are hard as nails, you know

Diabolo yep all of SOmerset- OK, I will be specific: I hail from the estates of Bridgwater. not such a great spot but you know, home (I was joshing BTW, not deliberately picking).

Fellatio- I saw some of the photos from Aintree. I have thought about sending you the link in case you're stuck for things to wear in May. There's a rather fetching blue dress there...

Why don't you look at some of these instead

Pah you'd be more likely to catch me in the agterparety frock below (and not joking either!)

Lady / Fellatio - surely it's the same sort of clothing you would see at Newmarket or Ascot when the sun is shining?

Trashy is trashy, or not?

Eeh by gum, DH's lot raced whippets, mine raced osses; only difference was that DH's gran were in't scullery and me gran supervised maid in ours except when she washed big pudding pot in't copper on't south coast with pheasants hanging round abaht to drop maggots which northern lot find reet disgusting as wi pluckin em.

This one

This is the dress I was thinking of.

I can't decide if it's nylon or crimpoline....

LOTM - that is just unfortunate - wherever you live.

Whatever floats your boat SanctiMoanyArse.

I've lived as far north as Newcastle, as far south as Brighton and everywhere inbetween and I love the north. I'm not from Liverpool but I think the people are fabulous because they are funny and down to earth and couldn't give a shit what people say about them.

Them northerners across the solent in Portsmouth really get my goat.

JenniL.

You and your DH look amazing on your wedding photograph.

Who knew that a northerner would have such style

Herhissyness- I always notice on gritty, horrific,murder drama things....always people who look like they are on heroin living in the same (seems like) Northern block of flats on a sink estate. When it's the south, it's Rupert Penis-Jones (sic) as a barrister being done in by his (changed accent especially for the show) posh wife.
And if it's southern Silent Witness gruesome murders, they do show sink estates, but they are always populated solely by gangs of black teens.

There has been a spate of allblackkidsareingangs type dramas and they are nearly always set on east/south london estates.

Infact I was watching an episode of that one a few years back and my fecking estate was on it. They made it look bloody grim when in fact it was desirable enough for me to sell my flat in a week!

That was a serial, gritty killer thing and I cant bloody remember the bloke. He was scottish, but not Robbie Coltrane, lived in face, drinker.

So many to choose from.. Someone help me!

Pies and Prejudice by Stuart Maconie is brilliant. Really positive about the north without being a bit sentimental.

I don't have any prejudice against the north at all. Mind you you are all northerners to me - I am from Devon. The only people who are southerners to me are those from Torquay and the Cornish (but we don't talk about those).

There are grim places up north (think I mentioned Barrow and Skelmersdale on the supermarket thread in the context that they don't have a Booths) but there are equally nasty places down south as well.

I like it up north. As soon as I can escape Gloucestershire I plan to move up there, Manchester, Liverpool or Newcastle (Newcastle in particular I think is beautiful, amazing architecture).