to wish people would stop saying 'The North'

[Lludmilla]

...like it's all one great big homogenous lump of land.

This irritates me at the best of times, but the recent Covid scapegoating has made it worse. Newsflash: Covid rates actually VARY in what people are referring to as 'The North'. Just like poverty rates, crime rates, unemployment rates, everything really. Who'd have thought it?

I've spent my life in various places, mainly around the north-west and the east Midlands, and I don't have all the southern counties lumped together in my mind as one big mass called 'The South'.

Am I alone in feeling that some (note I said SOME) of those who use the term 'The North' are exhibiting unconscious ignorance/bias?

was mocked for my westcountry accent being "posh"???!!!

My Scottish family think my DC have 'posh' accents. We live in the NE of England.

@CountFosco

was mocked for my westcountry accent being "posh"???!!!

My Scottish family think my DC have 'posh' accents. We live in the NE of England.

It's funny isn't it! When I was in my late teens I worked with a group of people from Bournemouth - so still the westcountry and they teased me for sounding like a farmer, yet in Newcastle I'm posh, I worked as a Receptionist in North Shields and people who phoned in would often comment about my "nice posh voice"!

DD is born and bred in Lancashire, but evidently acquired her accent in part from DH (Gloucestershire) and me (raised in Essex). Her school friends said she had a 'London' accent, which she was very indignant about especially as at that point she'd never even been to London.
Now 'up' () at uni, with mostly southern friends (of those who are british) apparently they think her accent is northern. although apparently her most 'northern' trait is 'going for a walk' as a leisure activity. (I suppose that may not be such an obvious differentiator after this year!)

I find it hilarious. Its like we've all been marked as Starks and Wildlings in GOT.

They do know the Starks won GOT right?!

The North/South border is between Orkney and Fair Isle.

Why else would incomers to Shetland be called 'soothmoothers'?

@Frankola

I find it hilarious. Its like we've all been marked as Starks and Wildlings in GOT.

They do know the Starks won GOT right?!

Who's in the middle?

@Smoorikins

The North/South border is between Orkney and Fair Isle.

Why else would incomers to Shetland be called 'soothmoothers'?

LOL. That is literally the first time I've ever been called southern.

It is an area of England with rather subjective boundaries. In America their reference to 'The South' covers a much greater land mass. You need to have some term when discussing areas of a country without listing all the lower level administrative areas....for example on road signs or just to give a high level indication.

@DrivingMo

Are you equally annoyed by northerners who say "the South"?

Yup.

Hang on I thought Haltwhistle was the centre of Britain!?

I'm in central Scotland. To me up north is Inverness upwards. I have family that live "down south" they're in Watford. Newcastle, Berwick and other border type places are considered "basically Scotland really", anywhere else is classed as "England" until you get to Wales. And Ireland is where I would move to if I didn't live living near my family.

@juneybean

Hang on I thought Haltwhistle was the centre of Britain!?

It's a sort of centre but not a centroid.

With tongue firmly in cheek: