An Irish person would never say this

[yodelehoho]

"I'm thinking of moving to the north east, where can you recommend"

Neither would a Scottish person, not a Welsh person.

Why do English people seem to think that everything revolves around England? I see this time and time again on Mumsnet. People assuming that "North East" is flipping England.

I know Welsh people who refer to living in the 'The Valleys'. I'm assuming they mean LA of course.

The legal system in Ireland is basically the same as in the UK. Which is why, post Brexit, many London legal firms have a company name in Ireland.

It's nothing to do with where people live. The North East is a geographical region of the UK.

See, this is news to me. I'm in Scotland, and although I've heard people refer to the "north east", the "south east", the Midlands, etc., I never knew they were actual defined names - I though they were just vague geographical areas. So thank you, I've learned something new today.

However I do think the OP, has a bit of a point (even though I've no idea where s/he is based) because for many years, Scotland has been referred to as "the north" or north-east, north-west etc. Not by everyone, but by enough people for most Scots to feel unsure, when hearing the words "north-anything", if it means them or not.

It's especially annoying in weather forecasts when the presenter says "cool in the north and east" and gestures their arm so vaguely across the map that we have no idea what north and east they mean - the BBC are especially bad for it, and I wish they would just use proper county names, then we'd be in no doubt. Learning today the North-East is a defined region of England really doesn't help in that regard!

It's a problem that people in the South and centre of England will never have as everything is "north" to them, but in Scotland certainly, north sometimes means us, and sometimes doesn't, and it's only when "of England" is added that we can be sure.

It's not worth getting fashed about though.

Could you please stop saying ROI? The name of the country is Ireland. It's not hard to say or remember.

@rightnowimpissed. Omg yes that's right! You have saved me nipping to the shop to find the answer even though I want crisps now

No harder than remembering and saying the North East when referring to a region of England. It is however totally dismissive of the people of Northern Ireland who also live on the island of Ireland.

Republic of Ireland is completely acceptable to use, especially when referring to Northern Ireland in the same sentence.

I have the answer to this debate, get a compass out! Take five steps forward from the fridge and tell me if ur NESW or inbetween those and your location. I don't really want your location

Well didn't you know that the UK means England OP??

There are so many things that irritate me tbh such as "Scoff, scoff, how can a child have to attend a school 15 miles away? The next school after our local school is less than a mile away (Therefore you are talking out of your arse).....

Born and brought up in rural Wales I completely get where you are coming from

Yes! West coast is California and Eastern Seaboard is the east coast of the USA. As well as across the pond.

The thing that irks me is 'The Mainland'

It's Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland is part of a province of Ireland called Ulster. There are nine counties in the province, six of those are in Northern Ireland; but Northern Ireland is sometimes referred to as Ulster, and the six counties.

Have I made myself clear?

Could you please stop saying ROI? The name of the country is Ireland. It's not hard to say or remember.

Well, you're arguments against my points are getting much better. I'm afraid that as I don't know anything about anything I'm still non the wiser as to what your point actually is.

Republic of Ireland is completely acceptable to use, especially when referring to Northern Ireland in the same sentence.

Thank you. the reason I've been writing ROI (apart from that I enjoy reading 'roy', the way I enjoy reading ruck for rUK' it just makes me smile) Is that the original post existentialmoment took issue with I only referred to the country as 'Ireland' and I wasn't sure that part of the problem wasn't that they had interpreted my saying 'Ireland is a completely separate matter' as saying that NI was a separate matter. I wanted to make it quite clear which part of the Island of Ireland I was referring to.

Clearly I can't do right for doing wrong, but existentialmoment still hasn't really clarified what It was I did wrong, other than acknowledge that Ireland (there you go) was a different country to the UK. I would have thought trying to claim that there was some kind of special relationship between the two and that we weren't really that separate would have been a worse crime (as well as incorrect) - but hey ho!

When we see/hear Welsh people living in Wales saying they are moving to the Welsh valleys (not just the valleys) or Scottish people living in Scotland saying they are moving to the Highlands of Scotland (not just the highlands) then you would have more of a point.

Also, surely Newcastle is is NSW.

New South Wales?

Just don't get me started on Bangor. Tsk!

Bangor Maine I assume?

New South Wales? yup.
And yes to Bangor too. :D

Seriously - I have never heard anyone say 'Highlands of England' - does such a place exist? What would they be talking about?

Just to say population of Scotland is around 5.3 million for someone who asked up thread.

And Mumsnet demographics - www.alexa.com/siteinfo/mumsnet.com

60% of visitors to the site are from the UK

There are 232 mountains (over 2,000 ft or 600 m) in England. Most in the north western corner. England has quite a few highlands. But, I always think of the highlands as a part of Scotland.

Bangor Maine
Bangor NSW

Yup!

With apologies to all the other Bangor's.

You would never say moorlands without prefixing

Yorkshire Moors/North Yorkshire Moors
Dartmoor
Exmoor
The other one in Cornwall
Saddleworth

Google is evidently bias too: I put in "the North East of" and it offered me "England" as the suggestions.

Not the North East of Scotland, Wales or Ireland- nor in fact anywhere else.

(I'm not in the UK so not that)

There are 232 mountains (over 2,000 ft or 600 m) in England. Most in the north western corner. England has quite a few highlands. But, I always think of the highlands as a part of Scotland.

I live in Leeds, I once had reason to visit a Primary school in Bradford. When I arrived I commented on the steepness of the hill I'd had to drive to get there and was immediately corrected that it was a mountain. I was There's a mountain in Bradford? How can I live in Leeds and not know this?
turns out this particular school is the highest school in England. Very windy, it was, too.

Half this thread is telling us that the proper name for the area is the North East so you can't go moaning that people say the Highlands and don't add in they mean Scotland. The proper name is the Highlands and thanks to many posts (including images) we can safely say none of the English regions are called the Highlands. You can't have it both ways.

Though feel free to take the piss with various Highlands across the world.

My chips were crap so now I'm tetchy.

None of Scotland's level one regions are called the Highlands. Scotland is just one level 1 region, called Scotland, it is all to do with population.

But Scotland has a devolved parliament and England does not (well only London, the other eight are missing) despite it being an EU recommendation. However, the UK is a sovereign state and can ignore whatever it wants.

Wales, NI and Scotland get a say in their lives. People in the North East, South West etc get far less of a say. Be proud of what you have and embrace it, you are lucky.