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The "North-South Divide" in the UK: Does it exist?

glorygloryeze

glorygloryeze

Steffen Freund
If so,
- Where does the dividing point lie (surely not just at "The Watford Gap"?)

- Economically: taking away the Square Mile, would the North be as Economically important as the South for generating the nation's GDP?

- Culturally: do those in the South have more in common with/have more influences from mainland Europe?

- Reputation: are Northerners really more friendly than Southerners (i have heard this comment many MANY times over the years)

Note, i am talking about the UK, so am including Northern Ireland AND Scotland as well as Wales and England.

Please Discuss...

P.S. - Scara, please try NOT to mention Liverpudlians, "Ginger scots" or "inbreds"....;)
 
I think the question is far more diverse than that.

The SE clearly seems a very different place economically and culturally because it such good links to London

But then "the south" you also have the SW, which economically is a million miles away from the SE. Culturally, well that depends on what kind of value you put on things - if you love theatre, an abundance of quality food and ever evolving "cultural events", then London is the place, but the SW has the rolling hills and I guess you could say more traditional culture.

Personally I think the N/S divide is just a media tool.
It would be easy to identify great changes in counties that border each other, but rather than see a divide we should embrace our differences.
 
Politically I don't think there is a north/south divide funnily enough, it's a miner/non-miner divide. Check out this map for the 2015 election

CEjit34WMAA0ohE.jpg:large

Pretty incredible to see how most of Labours seats outside of the capital are clustered around coal mining areas, one of Thatchers legacies. Of course this is just England, look to Scotland and Northern Ireland and the political picture is much more complicated.
 
They eat babies up North, why on earth would I want to go some where where that happens? nearly as bad as the Welsh and the sheep thing.
 
Well the SE definitely seems more prosperous but attempts such as HS2 that would at least be helping a little to bridge this seem to always be knocked back.
 
I used to like all this stuff and have a list of preconceptions about southerners, but people are people and once I had spent some time down there I realised how immature my view was. You can find a gobbrick wherever you go, a not everyone allows their surroundings to define them.
 
Are there any who are niaive enough to believe that there isn't?

It goes further; there isn't just a N/S divide. A further sub-divide has developed. The north can be sub-divided into two. West and east, with the former being the more prosperous. The east of the north are the big concentrations of people, i.e. Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley, Sclamhorpe, Hull, Hartlepool, Teesside and Tyneside. All heavily populated, and 'old' industrial areas hammered in the 1980's.

Watch. Time Shift. The absolute definitive article. Never shown on mainstream BBC1/2. I wonder why? Dorling is the countries' leading academic on the subject. The full programme is 1 hour and is grim watching, if you are in the 'wrong' bit.



england2410_468x816.jpg



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...southwards-recession-widens-economic-gap.html

http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/maps/nsdivide/

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/oct/24/britishidentity.socialexclusion

http://www.dannydorling.org/wp-content/files/dannydorling_publication_id2881.pdf

http://www.dannydorling.org/?page_id=2938

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7724573.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Dorling
 
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