To think that the TV and newspapers wouldn't give a shit about this storm if it hadn't happened in the South East?

[CiderBomb]

All morning I've been hearing on the news about the terrible storm that has apparently hit " Britain" in the early hours of this morning, however here we've had absolutely nothing apart from a bit of heavy rain. Seems like it was just the South East, but no surprises there because for a lot of people in the media that's where the British Isles apparently begins and ends....

I've just watched This Morning and they are talking about it like the whole country is affected, then Eamonn makes a snotty comment along the lines of "people on Twitter are saying that just because they are not affected we shouldn't be talking about it". Maybe they are just thinking the same way as I am, that a small part of the country was affected by bad weather, but the majority of us got off scot free?

I can't help but wonder how this would have been reported had the storm come in from the North Sea and devastated Scotland and the North East?......

Erm...what storm?

My commute to work involved negotiating a large-ish puddle at the end of the drive, I was then intimidated by a traffic cone that had almost been blown off the pavement onto the road. At one stage I had to switch my windscreen wipers from intermittent setting 1 to constant setting of 2, that’s how bad things are in Surrey (the eye of the storm) this morning.

On another note, you can amuse yourself with the spot the standard inclement weather news cliché bingo game. One point everytime you see footage of a wave breaking on the Brighton seawall, some women struggling with a brolly, a car driving through a flooded country lane and Carol Kirkwood getting excitedly buffeted by the wind at Lands End.

I thought the Scottish storm was mainly reported because media people found the (unofficial!) name 'Hurricane Bawbag' amusing.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Bawbag

SP

I do so love your posts

bawbag

Yes, it's horribly unfair OP. Try to think of the storm as payback for us all living in one-bedroom flats worth gazillions and being rude to outsiders who stand on left on escalators.

The problem is that when you are actually down here and trying to get into work, it is useful to have updates on what is going on. Most train services down here have been pretty much out for the morning - I set off before 8am and got to work at 11am for what is a 15/20 minute journey. And there are plenty of people in my office still not in, as I should imagine there are all over the southeast (and maybe south west too). It is important to know. And there have been lots of other problems - trees down, roads impassible etc.

It's just one day and there will be people in the North with family and friends in the south who are worried about them and want to know what is going on. I was in Manchester for the 1987 storm and we had slightly high winds whilst the south was taken apart. I was really worried about my family in the south. It seemed like news to me.

I went out this morning and ut was cold, raining with little wind.

I'm off to pub soon. It is currently sunny and rain free. It could be hurricane-ing and it wouldn't stop me. I would hope it would take me in the right direction to save me bus fare

"
" being rude to outsiders who stand on left on escalators."

Broken Britain

AIBU to be sick of northerners who don't know that the South isn't just London bleating on about being left out. Get over it. It's beginning to sound like a toddler stamping his feet for attention.

Admittedly, this storm is nothing like 1987 from what I can remember.

^We have huge storms up here in the Highlands that never get a mention.
Ok, we don't have the same overpopulation as down south but we get the same powercuts/ fallen trees etc.
The news is definitely anything North of the Watford gap doesn't make the news.
And I don't know anyone that posts pics all over the internet of their blown away garden stuff, I've lost count of the number of times my wheelie bin has blown half way down the street.^

I'm confused by this. I live in Hertfordshire, not that far from Watford! We get news about what is going on about what's going on across the British Isles every day.

I get the Watford gap reference, I'm from the North! I find it bizarre that I hear all about what's going on elsewhere while living down here, while others living elsewhere allegedly don't.

It's fairly significant news I guess when two people (probably three with the 14 year old) have been killed as a result of the storm?

3 people have died so yes it's news worthy! Just because some of the uk didn't get anything doesn't mean others haven't suffered!

Or the North...

I'm in the south east and was able to understand that the worst of the storm was expected to be in the south west.

Some people just have a bee in their bonnet about the south east for some weird reason.

From what I've seen and read this morning I feel that the same coverage would have been given no matter where it was. People dead, hundreds of trees down, houses collapsed, scaffolding littering the streets.....seems pretty newsworthy to me?

I'm in the South East and we've only had some bad winds, I haven't ventured out yet though so don't know if there's much damage here....There was a bike wrapped round a fence post outside our window though.

Apparently I failed at quoting properly before arguing.

I was going to ask people about the various floods in the West Country over the years, as well as the coverage of the Cornwall floods when Boscastle was wrecked years ago. We had non-stop coverage of that. Is the West Country classed as 'darn Sarf' too? Down here, we had extensive coverage of floods in the Midlands too. We get news from everywhere all the time.

I remember watching the floods in Hull with sadness, as I went to uni there. Our coverage in Herts was non-stop.

I don't understand all this moaning about ''The South'' (which far too often means London and its environs.)

I like to subscribe to a good SR conspiracy but this isn't one. The storm is affecting everyone south of Birmingham or so, SW, south coast, East Anglia as well as SE, which probably accounts for a vast proportion of the population. So YADBU.

I have a friend in Northern Scotland. They had a massive storm and lost their water supply last week. Not a thing on the news though.

Yes it's newsworthy but not this much coverage - seriously.

It isn't just the South East......family in Wales have lost all power and winds are high. Meanwhile here in Essex the wind has dropped and it seems all over.

Your point was OP?

People who live in the South don't tend to notice the bias to be fair, but my god do they get arsey when anyone dares to point it out to them ;)

In the winter months there is often loads of news about how the country has been hit by snow and extensive coverage. Mostly it is in the north and Scotland and the south hasn't seen a snowflake. It's just the way the press are.

Behave yerself CiderBomb. (Yes, I'm taking the bait out of sheer boredom! )

I've lived in various areas of the country (and abroad, but that's another thread.) I moved around a hell of a lot during my childhood and am Scouse. I never noticed any bias towards the South when I was living in the North, the Midlands, or even the bloody South for that matter. Some people just like to whine.