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The North

ckn

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Phil

Phil

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We played a gig in Derby a few years ago, as an experiment we asked the audience if they regarded themselves as midlanders or northerners, about 1/3 claimed they were Northern. 

"Freedom without socialism is privilege and injustice, socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality" - Mikhail Bakunin

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Clogiron

Clogiron

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Talking about the north is there anybody who seriously belives HS2 will ever go beyond Birmingham? Never have believed so myself, and it may have been discussed before but the slow leaking of reports etc against it seems to laying the ground for a announcement soon.  A typical government tactic and con?

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shrek

shrek

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6 hours ago, ckn said:

So, where does “The North” starts for you?

Driving up the A1 yesterday, we got to the Wakefield junction, last main one before M62, and I said “ahh, the north” to the wife.  She said “I thought Doncaster was in the north?”

I was thinking about it and I consider Doncaster as the demilitarised zone for “the North”, keeping those pesky midlanders and southerners out but really still the “north”.

So, for me, my built-in perception is that the southern border of “the North” is almost a straight line from Grimsby to the south of Sheffield to Chester.

What about you?

Warrington, anything south of Warrington is, well, the south!

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Futtocks

Futtocks

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1 hour ago, 17 stone giant said:

It's wherever things go from not grim, to grim.

You can do that in London by travelling from anywhere to Neasden.

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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DavidM

DavidM

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2 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Ha ha.... I agree marra ?

Lovely . Just like a local . Honestly there are places round here where it’s almost literally a different language . 

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Kayakman

Kayakman

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14 minutes ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

Do the polar bears and Moose not carry torches? 

A real torch tightly wrapped in burlap and soaked in tar oil of a simple little flashlight?

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Wiltshire Warrior Dragon

Wiltshire Warrior Dragon

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Three perspectives on 'the North'.

  1. Some years ago, the spoof, BBC documentary series People like us did a programme about the wealthy, commuter belt nature of parts of Cheshire.  Roy Mallard's opening lines included something like "Indeed, Cheshire is sometimes called the Surrey of the North, except by people in Sussex, for whom Surrey is the Surrey of the North."
  2. We moved from one village near Salisbury to another about five years ago.  When we got seriously interested in the house we eventually bought, I asked the estate agent if there was a 'genuine' reason for the sale.  He said there was; the owners were teachers and had both got new jobs 'up north'.  On further examination, 'up north' turned out to be Worcestershire!
  3. When I was the CEO of a small, Durham City-based charity many years ago, I was talking to a couple of colleagues over a coffee and they told me that, at the weekend, they were going to see a band play at Sheffield Arena.  I asked if that was the only place they were playing in the North.  They said I had misunderstood them.  The band weren't playing in the North; that was why they had to go and see them in Sheffield!

Remoteness is a similarly hard concept to pin down.  We once had a holiday, based in a static caravan, on one of the islands at the north end of Shetland.  On our last night, we were invited by the owners to join them for some supper.  He turned out to be the local councillor on Shetland Islands Council.  I was rash enough to describe Shetland as 'remote'.  He smiled benignly; "What you have to remember" he said, "is that, to us, it's Edinburgh and London that are remote."  I have never forgotten that.  It is true that the London-centric media do not seem able to take a national perspective.  If something happens somewhere in, say, the Hebrides, Orkney or Shetland, you can bet your bottom dollar it will be described as 'a remote island'!

There is a wonderful moment of typically Milligan-esque lunacy, logic and clarity in a Goon Show episode.  Someone mentions South America.  "That's abroad, isn't it?" suggests Neddie Seagoon.  The reply: "It all depends where you're standing!"  Quite!  That probably underpins most definitions of 'the North'.

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Bearman

Bearman

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3 minutes ago, Wiltshire Warrior Dragon said:

Three perspectives on 'the North'.

  1. Some years ago, the spoof, BBC documentary series People like us did a programme about the wealthy, commuter belt nature of parts of Cheshire.  Roy Mallard's opening lines included something like "Indeed, Cheshire is sometimes called the Surrey of the North, except by people in Sussex, for whom Surrey is the Surrey of the North."
  2. We moved from one village near Salisbury to another about five years ago.  When we got seriously interested in the house we eventually bought, I asked the estate agent if there was a 'genuine' reason for the sale.  He said there was; the owners were teachers and had both got new jobs 'up north'.  On further examination, 'up north' turned out to be Worcestershire!
  3. When I was the CEO of a small, Durham City-based charity many years ago, I was talking to a couple of colleagues over a coffee and they told me that, at the weekend, they were going to see a band play at Sheffield Arena.  I asked if that was the only place they were playing in the North.  They said I had misunderstood them.  The band weren't playing in the North; that was why they had to go and see them in Sheffield!

Remoteness is a similarly hard concept to pin down.  We once had a holiday, based in a static caravan, on one of the islands at the north end of Shetland.  On our last night, we were invited by the owners to join them for some supper.  He turned out to be the local councillor on Shetland Islands Council.  I was rash enough to describe Shetland as 'remote'.  He smiled benignly; "What you have to remember" he said, "is that, to us, it's Edinburgh and London that are remote."  I have never forgotten that.  It is true that the London-centric media do not seem able to take a national perspective.  If something happens somewhere in, say, the Hebrides, Orkney or Shetland, you can bet your bottom dollar it will be described as 'a remote island'!

There is a wonderful moment of typically Milligan-esque lunacy, logic and clarity in a Goon Show episode.  Someone mentions South America.  "That's abroad, isn't it?" suggests Neddie Seagoon.  The reply: "It all depends where you're standing!"  Quite!  That probably underpins most definitions of 'the North'.

"Fog in the Channel, Continent cut off"

Ron Banks

Midlands Hurricanes and Barrow

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Father Ted

Father Ted

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Going by train on the west coast main line, leaving Crewe I've always regarded as the North yet next stop being Stafford is the Midlands as far as I'm concerned. That's around 30 miles so where in the journey it goes from one to the other I don't know.

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