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.

On another site I'm on the majority of posters are American, so that's the 'default' and the rest of us state otherwise.

Right - so on British Expats I refer to myself as living in the northeast, but on Mumsnet I do not.

To actually be annoyed by this you'd have to have a general dislike of English people and that would then make you biased and unreasonable.

Nope. I’m annoyed by this and I am an English people.

I think the Southern Ireland thing is legitimate. Ive had people send me post (when I lived in Ireland) with - Southern Ireland - as the country name. It is NOT the name of the country and to many people it is incredibly offensive.

I was so hoping this was going to be really jolly, and about cultural stereotypes, from within the community, with people chipping in with their own examples.

Going by my own family, it would have been something like: "It's fine to go out in cold weather without a coat. I've never known anyone to get sick and die after being caught in a shower."

I grew up with a life's supply of: "You can't do x, y, z because Mrs. B's cousin's child did that and died, suddenly and horribly, a fortnight later."

I do it to my children now. Sadly, a pernicious English cynicism has pervaded their souls and they just laugh.

But OP how do you know that no Irish, Scottish or Welsh person would say this? Have you asked them all?

I'm from the North of Ireland but not Northern Ireland, writing Southern Ireland would piss me right off. It's Republic of Ireland.

Apart from England, the rest of the world does not hear "north west" and think "Newcastle"

Last time I looked it was in the north east of England.

But this is a UK website which overseas people happen to use.

If I used a French website I wouldn't expect them to start prefixing everything with France because a few foreigners use it or indeed because it might be used by Belgians or Swiss people.

Well said purple

100% of the Irish people I surveyed think you're talking shite OP.

But this is a UK website which overseas people happen to use.

Yes, see, I think this is the problem. People in Scotland and Wales and NI are in the UK too, and Scotland and Wales aren’t ‘overseas’. Describing people from the other nations of the UK as “a few foreigners” will get people’s backs up a tad.

A few foreigners?

Aren't you lot so welcoming?

Anyway, there's more than a "few" of us.

Few foreigners?! Bloody 'ell Alf.

Purple Scottish, Irish and Welsh people are not 'a few foreigners'

Because that is what it is called. It's called the North East of England. North East is the accepted shorted version.

People in Newcastle would be surprised to discover that they actually live in the Midlands

Surprised? They'd be bloody amazed.

see Be Alert year 4 with me is 7/8 yr old and seconardy scool starts in year 8 not 7, P7 is the last year of primary school, so it is all about the differences in the regions.

For example in NI down south is just the republic of Ireland so even if you were going to the top of Donegal you'd still be going down south!

Also the north coast is the top of NI, wed never say oh Im going North, cause you are north!

If I was on an American parenting site and someone said they were moving to the West coast, I'd be pretty sure they were not talking about Wales! Language has to be taken in context! The context of this site is surely this address:
MUMSNET LIMITED
STUDIOS 13-16 DEANE HOUSE STUDIOS
27, GREENWOOD PLACE
LONDON
ENGLAND *
NW5 1LBB

Shutupanddance1 Yip

Well I would say I was going northeast if I was going to Aberdeen? I think some posters on here should spend time with google maps until they can identify where Newcastle is.

Oh, so this is an "English" site is it??

Yes. Mumsnet Limited is based in London.

If I was on an American parenting site and someone said they were moving to the West coast, I'd be pretty sure they were not talking about Wales

Right? I certainly wouldn't get all upset and demand they say "west coast of the USA".

Some of you lot really need to relax a little.

Oh, so this is an "English" site is it??

Yes. Mumsnet Limited is based in London

Well the rest of us may do one then!

I'm told by my resident Irish expert, who is actually from the north east of Ireland, that a big part of the reason no Irish person would ever say they're moving to the north east is because people don't tend to refer to the north east as a region of Ireland anyway. They'd say I'm moving to Co Down or whatever. North and south yes, less so north east.

And of course 'south' in an Irish context has quite different meanings depending on the person saying it: people from NI sometimes use south to mean ROI (yes I know some of it is in the north) as well as the south of the island itself. I have heard 'south' used to mean both. I am less familiar with the way people from ROI talk about the north of the island (though I've heard Dubliners talk about the west, and knew where they meant) but let's not pretend that the existence of two states on the island of Ireland and one only in England isn't a complicating factor here.

So I don't think you chose your example particularly well there OP.

The north east means Aberdeenshire. The south west means Ayrshire. Carlisle is south west of me, but I wouldn't describe Carlisle as being in the south west because it's in England, which is a completely different country to the country I live in.
The south west to me means Dumfries and Galloway.

Well the rest of us may do one then!

If you must. I personally don't mind using websites based in other countries. I use google every day and that's American.