To think the north of England offers a worse quality of life than the South or Midlands?

[DDRickyDD]

I was thinking of moving to Lancashire, but having done some research online, it seems a lot of people have negative opinion of it. I'm now set on Warwickshire or Leicestershire. Does the north in general offer a worse quality of life than the Midlands? I know its cheaper up north but is it much worse up there?

Also in the north “book” and “luck” are the same vowel sound*

Aren't they just about everywhere? *  I know some people say booook, but that's fairly rare isn't it?

Not to my knowledge, Luck and book have two completely different sounds to me. "Uh" and "ooh" are nothing alike. I've never heard anyone pronounce book and luck with the same sound.

@DioneTheDiabolist

I think most Mnetters are clever enough to know the difference between The North and North of the Wall

I thought most Mnetters were clever enough to know that England and Scotland don't have a wall as their boundary, but I guess not all.

If you're thinking about Hadrian's Wall, there's a whole chunk of England north of it before you reach the Scottish border.

Don't forget the Antonine Wall!

Book and luck have completely different sounds to me.

@BarbaraofSeville I am W Yorks born and bred- but married to a southerner. It was DH who noticed the difference, and I noticed when I spent time down south.

If you’re raised in the north you will use the same phoneme ‘U’ for “book” and “luck”. If you’re raised in the south they are different vowel sounds. Generally speaking.

It’s actually quite hard to learn to pronounce the southern “u” if you are a northerner!

@Chocolatedeficitdisorder

I'd consider Scotland to be "far North". Northern England and the Midlands is the "North". Southern England is the "South".

Also in the north “book” and “luck” are the same vowel sound

Aren't they just about everywhere? confused I know some people say booook, but that's fairly rare isn't it?

No - in a lot of the south luck is "lack" and book is "berk" - same thing in good, really good becomes "rely gurd" in the South.

Also for some odd reason Southerners miss out the r in broadcast and add an r later so it becomes "boardcarst".

I don't say book and luck with the same vowel sound.

Ooh yes. I moved to the NW from North London purely to live in shit and learn to grunt like the locals, like a pig in muck me 🐷.

I'm a northerner in the south and i miss the people rather than the place. The experience i have had in the south is very passive aggressive and people appear happy and friendly and say they are going to do something and then dont which leaves me very confused as never experienced that before.
In the north i found if you feel like you get on with someone i can guarentee you do, whereas im never quite sure how people feel down here.

book and luck do not sound the same for many of us from the North however. Just as some people in London drop their gs at end of words and others don't.

@DDRickyDD

I'd consider Scotland to be "far North"

But you would be wrong. By Carlisle you've left the North and reached the South of the next country. I'm a Southerner, from the South of Scotland.

Obviously the South-East offers the best quality of life in the country

To phrase this very subjective opinion as some sort of global truth probably qualifies as one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read on here. And if you're happy to take the Quality of Life Index as some kind of unequivocal metric of where is 'good' and 'bad' to live, then you've a very blinkered view of life imho.

I've lived in the south-east and the north-west among other places. I personally found the south-east overcrowded, unfriendly and overpriced with ridiculous traffic. I also found more people there were hung up on money than in other places I've lived in. I know that's going to piss off a lot of people who live there, but that was my personal experience and unlike the OP I'm not trying to dress up my opinions as general truths.

What people seem to forget when they get all hung up on 'quality of living' is that further north many people can afford a larger/nicer property without having to saddle themselves with an insane commute or a massive mortgage. I'd have said this contributes an awful lot to 'quality of life', personally. To say nothing of better scenery, less overcrowding and overpopulation, and (in my opinion anyway) friendlier people.

I live in the Midlands now but my heart is still in the north-west where I grew up. Much friendlier and more down to earth, less pressured and some beautiful places. Again this is my personal experience.

I really don't know why you started this thread other than to be goady OP, your mind clearly is firmly made up on this matter already.

the Midlands is the "North"

Oh, and you need to brush up on your geography.

Northern England and the Midlands is the "North".

I'm sorry but that's just weird.

To me the South is just eight counties from Oxford down around London to Kent
Wiltshire and anything west is South West.
London, Essex, Hertford and Bedford are all London.
Suffolk, Norfolk Cambridge are East England. Anything west of these are Midlands and anything north of Leicester is North.
Until you hit Scotland which is not North because it’s a different country.

In my mind anything level with Wales is the Midlands.

Anything north of wales is the North

Anything south of wales is the South

Draw a line up from Southampton to divide east and West

Born and brought up in Greater London and, apart from a mad foray to the east several years ago, for a year or two, have always lived here. I holiday all around the UK and without doubt, my favourite destinations are those north of Birmingham. Yorkshire is probably my favourite, but Cambria and Northumberland appeal to me as well. If it weren't for the fact that it would mean leaving the dcs and their families here, we'd move like a shot. anywhere with a Thomas the Bakers in walking distance would do

Loving this thread. I'm a southerner but my heart is in the North. To me, the North starts at Crewe Station. Everything changes at Crewe

I live in west Lancashire. It's horrible, destitute, cold, grey skies all the time. And we don't even get the luxury of a snow day in winter because we're surrounded by water on 3 sides so classed as a microclimate, we just get ice cold rain. All the time.

@Figmentofimagination I genuinely can't work out if you're being tongue-in-cheek here. I grew up on the Fylde coast and outside of winter (when I will concede it is grim) that's not my recollection of the weather at all. Maybe it's worsened in the 20+ years since I last lived there, but I see a lot of 'sunny' photos on Facebook from friends who still live there.

@bringincrazyback, tongue-in-cheek. It can rain a lot (didn't stop for the whole of February) but I'll admit the last 2 months have mostly been lovely.

Problem with the North is there is always trouble at t'mill......

It rained for most of February in many places, and worse, tbf!

Actually I've been quite surprised since living in Lancashire that there doesn't seem to be severe flooding that often as I'd expecte - perhaps because people here know it rains and don't build on flood plains so much, and there's somewhere for the water to go? You know that obnoxious thing where roads in new housing estates are named for what used to be there before developers covered them in brick and tarmac - I knew a friend down south hadn't thought it through when she moved into Watermeadow Close....!

I love the North - broadcaster Stuart Maconie wrote a very good book on the North - I read it circa 2007

On another note - I used to love the song by Dream Academy 'Life in a Northern Town' - which was in the UK charts in 1985. Apparently the video was filmed in Hebden Bridge

Me too! I always assumed it was near Manchester - never seen the video, just always wondered which northern town.