To think the Government don't understand where "the north" actually is?

[AdamRyan]

Government have scrapped the Leeds extension of HS2, so it now goes to Manchester. There will be faster trains to Sheffield as well. This apparently is to enable levelling up of "The North"
www.bbc.co.uk/news

AIBU to think Manchester and Sheffield are barely The North in an English context, let alone when you add in Scotland? What exactly does this do for the most deprived communities in the North East and the Lakes?

I'm so annoyed, the North of the UK just constantly gets left behind :(

@AdamRyan Not really relevant to the thread but am interested to know whereabouts in the SW you are that it's 90 minutes to London? Seems to take me around 3 hours no matter how I do it!

@JollyJoon

That will be the wonders of Jaywick.

You can already get to the lakes from London really quickly on the train, it’s 2 and a half hours from Euston to Oxenholme - how much quicker are you hoping for?

Looking at population density, there is a high proportion of people living in the north living in Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and the surrounding areas.

There aren’t even 1,000,000 people living in the whole or Cumbria and Northumberland combined. It clearly isn’t value for money. There are however 3 million people living in greater Manchester, 1.5 living in Merseyside and nearly 1million in Leeds.

[quote thetwofridas]@AdamRyan Not really relevant to the thread but am interested to know whereabouts in the SW you are that it's 90 minutes to London? Seems to take me around 3 hours no matter how I do it![/quote]
Bristol fast train

@Ifailed

Officially, the North of England is made up of: Cheshire, Cumbria, County Durham, East Riding of Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Northumberland, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear and West Yorkshire, plus the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire.

Officially? It sounds about right, but who makes it official?

Does anybody have an idea of how the population of England breaks down between the regions?

@Glassofshloer there is plenty of wealth in the sw, it's just not very evenly distributed. But as the population are largely true blue Tory voters then I guess they're completely fine about that.

IMO the North starts around Perthshire.

South of the border, I'd consider Manchester, Leeds, etc to be the lower limits of the north of England.

Ask someone how they pronounce the word BATH where they’re from and you’ll soon work out if it’s in the north or not

On a more serious note, the share of infrastructure spending around the UK is not and never has been equal. The government should do like medieval courts and move around to different parts of the country every 6 months. That would certainly improve the transport links!

@MoonlightApple

Ask someone how they pronounce the word BATH where they’re from and you’ll soon work out if it’s in the north or not

On a more serious note, the share of infrastructure spending around the UK is not and never has been equal. The government should do like medieval courts and move around to different parts of the country every 6 months. That would certainly improve the transport links!

Haha yes but I say BATH and Im originally from Wales. BUT I say GLARS and GRARS for glass and grass so I’m a bit of an anomaly. 😊. 15 years of living in the South West will do that to you 😊

[quote Porcupineintherough]@Glassofshloer there is plenty of wealth in the sw, it's just not very evenly distributed. But as the population are largely true blue Tory voters then I guess they're completely fine about that.[/quote]
Oh that’s alright then.

Let’s not forget the ‘red’ wall is also now blue.

🤷🏼‍♀️

@Porcupineintherough

Does anybody have an idea of how the population of England breaks down between the regions?

www.statista.com/statistics/281322/population-density-in-the-uk-by-region/

"The North" is Scotland North England is complicated and definitely doesn't include Derbyshire if you believe ancestry my heritage is Midlands and my family is Derbyshire based on my dad's side

@AdamRyan

I mean, Manchester is in the North. But only barely. Same with Sheffield. Fucks me right off that the Government constantly say they are investing in the Northern Powerhouse by which they mean Manchester. There needs to be better transport links across the North and into Scotland, not focussed on links into London. The Government need to start focusing on Northern England as a region, and if they conservatives want to appeal to unionists and Scottish voters they need to benefit links between Scotland and England too

There needs to be better transport links across the North and into Scotland, not focussed on links into London.

This!! why must everything link to London!?!

I think it’s worth mentioning, for anyone in Leeds feeling aggrieved, that I don’t know anyone in Manchester who sees any benefit in HS2. We’re going to have years of noise and disruption while it’s being built, for the very dubious return of shaving about 20 minutes off the journey to London, which none of us need to make any more because business travel is pretty much a thing of the past. It will benefit people who decide to work in London and live up here, keeps their London salaries and fucking up our housing market with the additional buying power they’ve built up over the years. I really don’t think you are losing out by not having that.
We are all losing out by not getting better lines between Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds, though. We desperately need them.

It’s interesting that the North West means what used to be Lancashire, and most of Cheshire, whilst the North East doesn’t mean Yorkshire or anywhere further south.

@Glassofshloer thanks but I dont have $450 odd to satisfy my curiosity

@Courtier England = North, Midlands, South
Scotland = Highlands, Lowlands, Islands

You missed out the central belt in Scotland. I can't think of anyone from this region who would refer to themselves as coming from the lowlands.

@Disfordarkchocolate

To those of us close to Newcastle, Manchester is hours away and not North. Leeds 'feels' Northern when you visit so I think of it as the lowest North there is. Liverpool, definitely not North.

There is no intention of 'levelling up' just a wider area for low paid jobs to support companies based in London.

Of course Liverpool is north.

It's well over halfway up the country

This cuts both ways. I've heard people in Aberdeenshire talk about Teeside being "the South".

@Disfordarkchocolate

We shall have to agree to disagree *@JollyJoon*. To me they are far to far from the Scottish border to be in the North.

Scotland is a different country.

Surely people from Edinburg are southerners compared to people from northern Scotland

There is no intention of 'levelling up' just a wider area for low paid jobs to support companies based in London.

This is certainly true, and I've not a lot of sympathy for anyone who voted for Jonson's Tories thinking anything else!

@Hemingwayscats do you really think so it's already so easy to get to London from Leeds - 2hr 15 or thereabouts (plus you've also got the smaller northern towns of wakefield and Doncaster on that line so it serves a big proportion of yorkshire) 2 trains an hr which are on the whole very reliable. It would be have been easier for me to work in London than it would have Manchester or Liverpool. What he North really needs is better connectivity between to cities, this would open up so many more opportunities for people than being able to get to London in under 2 hrs.

There seems to be less focus in Scotland on a north/south divide. You hear more references to differences based on if you come from the west/east coast.

I think we should be starting a Celtic arc with Cornwall/Devon/Wales/Liverpool upwards (including Scotland) joining forces as we all get ignored or lumped in with other places we have nothing in common with! #NotJustForHolidays campaign.