That people in the south think they are better than those in the north

[EatsShitAndLeaves]

That's it really.

I'm interested in your opinion.

Well, I think my Southerner parents look down on the North

Over lunch my mum said "I would never live in the North" with a shudder

In conversation with my dh, a Northerner

I don't think they've ever been up there, so they probably have a skewed idea of what it is like from Billy Elliot

In my early 20s I was really excited to move from the south to the midlands. My initial euphoria rapidly disappeared as I was constantly looked down upon because of my accent. People muttered things about 'posh', assumed I was wealthy (I absolutely wasn't!) and worst of all, assumed that I was looking down at them. It was a horrible time. Time and time again I would walk into the staff room to overhear people talking about me. It invariably was about my accent. Absolute discrimination and totally spoilt what should have been a fun time.

Having RTFT it seems pretty unanimous but op is still a bit giving it a bit more thought it's strange I don't think I've ever very really spoke about the north vs south but I always seem to hear people talking crap about London, and peoples attitudes in the south in general, and how great Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle etc are and that's where real men are, the southern men are all soft, and the women up north get properly dressed up and make an effort those down south don't.

FWIW one thing that irritates me slightly and I'm nowhere near to being a pedant ( I lack both the vocabulary and grammatical knowledge, as well as find it annoying myself ) is when people miss words like the out of a sentence when talking so it's like I go to gym I go to shops I think it may be regional no idea to which region. I don't look down on the people who do it though.

I've not experienced any southerners looking down on me. I think most people don't care where you originate from, it's how you behave that matters.
I have a fairly heavy scouse accent. I used to get the usual scouser jokes when I worked in London, but they were mostly made by some older colleagues.
I didn't take offence, but jokes about me being a thief etc, wore a bit thin after a very short time!

I can't recall ever feeling that people thought they were better than me though, based on me coming from the North West of England.

I only come across this type of thing on MN, nobody cares in RL.

I'm from the North (Newcastle) but don't sound it and get a lot of people who are surprised by that. I'm pretty sure the same people wouldn't ask someone from London/Bristol/other places in the south why they don't have a regional accent. It's like they can't imagine there being posh people in the North.
I do think that shows some people have a certain perception of the North and it does sometimes come across as superior..... but equally I imagine Southerners have to deal with irritating stereotyping from Northerners too.

Judgement definitely goes both ways. I'm from the North West originally, now live in East Anglia. My London raised fil was astonished when he visited my family and there were trees! in the North!. He genuinely thought it was all rows and rows of terraced houses

Similarly, I've had members of my family castigate me on various issues because I live in 'the south' so am obviously wealthy beyond imagination and can never hope to grasp the problems faced by ordinary folk. When I mentioned I actually live in the East rather than the South, they apologised and took everything back

So, you are judging southerners en masses for apparently judging northerners en masse...?

OP where is the "North"?

From my perspective Manchester is pretty far South.

Southerner here and can say that it wouldn't even dawn on me to think I'm better than a northerner. What a weird thing to believe?! It doesn't make any sense.

Yabu
I live in the south my brother in the north
I don't think we are better in the south, maybe have more opportunities as am close to London but I'm always envious when visiting my brother. People in the north seem to have a slower pave of life, take time to chat more to strangers etc I'm always more relaxed after my visits and don't want to come back home.

I'm from the south, so I know more people from the south. I do know people who think they're better than northerners, but mainly they think they're better than most people everywhere. The main people I have to tolerate who think they are better than everyone else are BIL and SIL, they live up north but he's from the south originally.

I'm not sure its a north or south is better but more of a superiority over everyone else thing.

Most Londoners are not wealthy, they are ordinary people who have to deal with insane house prices and traffic congestion in return for a job.

^ this!!

Dreams of 10-acre smallholding and accompanying vanity business from confines of tiny, smoggy London flat...

Sighs heavily...

Feels superior

Sigh - let's just denigrate the argument.

To be fair it didn't have far to go.

'I have an opinion!'
'Why do you think that?'
'I am not willing to explain in any detail but I want you to answer me!'

I'm a foreigner. I haven't noticed this southern disdain for northerners. Disdain for immigrants, on the other hand...

I have to say, I am always in awe of southern accents. They always just sound so sophisticated, intelligent and...posh (not sure if that's the right word tbh confused) compared to my own harsh sounding northern accent

What all of them? Because in all honesty my southern accent makes me sound like the love child of Trevor McDonald and a Wurzel.

We live in the south. My stbx is from here and always made fun of everything when we visited family up north.

But actually he was worse when we went to Ireland where I'm from - he was full of potato jokes and thought we all spoke like Mrs Doyle.

So I think he was just being a dick, rather than it being a southern thing.

I've lived in the south all my life but half my family is from the north, and DH is too. I have nothing against it at all, well, some bits I do, given that we're talking about half a country, same as I do about bits of the South, but my lifelong experience is being told constantly how much better the North is than the South, and how crap being in the south is.

I wouldn't ever live in the North of England, but mainly because of the freely expressed dislike of southerners especially people from London and the strange assumption of poshness based on possession of normal southern long-A vowels - coming from a council estate and being accused of the posh by boarding-school educated Merc and pony owners didn't sit well with me at all, I can tell you.

The higher North-East (Northumberland) is completely different - really friendly and unchippy.

I live in the South West and think you are all crap....(PS NOT BRISTOL/DEVON)

I am in the south.

The only person I have ever heard spout this sort of claptrap is a colleague. He is from Newcastle and has an almighty chip on his shoulder.

I dont, however, think he represents northerners. He's just a twat on his own.

It's grim up north

Divided loyalties here - mother from north, father from london, live in midlands..