Grim up North?
A friend from London who came up to visit me recently in Manchester got off the train and said 'oh, so you have shops up here then?' Most northerners in Oxford or indeed anywhere in the South will have heard comments like this as well as the old joke about the student who was amazed to find that life actually did exist north of Watford. Does a North/South division really exist or is it merely a myth, stoked by light-hearted banter between the two areas? Typical images of a Northerner usually involve Coronation Street, flat caps, baths full of coal, an uncouth manner and an incomprehensible accent or dialect. Indeed, Liverpool is a prime example of false stereotypes, which northerners are as guilty of propagating as southerners. It seems that Liverpudlians are willing to support the notional comments of a certain Cabinet Minister about their propensity for stealing. Such stereotyping is, of course, a two way process. Southerners, equally, are the subject of northern japery, but if these light-hearted distinctions do affect society in a more serious manner, it is arguable that the perception of northerners is damaged to a greater degree.
The pronounced nature of the North/South divide is certainly a political issue. Various people and institutions are castigated for the perpetuation of the South's affluence and its higher employment. The Bank of England, in signalling the imminence of interest rate rises in January 2000, implied that job issues in the North were less important than the fight against inflation. There are pockets of wealth, however. Wilmslow, the home of the so-called 'Cheshire set' which includes the likes of the Beckhams, and areas of Durham and York, are very prosperous: any comparison between the two areas has to be something of a generalisation. Nevertheless, the North of England is well below the European average as measured by poverty and unemployment. It is much easier for a graduate to find a well-paid job in the South, even accounting for the cost of living: to work on a national newspaper, become a stockbroker or just earn pots of money the south is the better option.
Moreover, as the best quality opportunities for employment are in the South and particularly in London, the population of the Southeast naturally increases, along with house prices, further widening the gulf. The south does not have the monopoly solely on employment but on such venerable institutions as the national football stadium. When the plans for demolishing the Twin Towers and building a new national stadium arose, the idea of having a more central arena in Birmingham or Manchester was considered but, is apparently still not seen as a desirable option.
Nevertheless, the idea of North versus South needs to be put into perspective, and this can be accomplished by making a comparison with Italy, where the same derisory stereotypes are more deeply entrenched and viciously displayed. For example, in Milan, part of the triangle of Italy's most prosperous cities in the North with Turin and Bologna, this division has certainly spilled over into politics in a more forthright manner than in England. Umberto Bossi, leader of the 'Lega Nord', ('Northern League') campaigns for separation from the South, or the 'mezzogiorno' in derogatory Milanese. Bossi is not an extremist on the fringe of Milanese politics, but is incredibly popular. Whilst younger Italians may hold more liberal attitudes, the amount of graffiti adorning Tuscan motorways in support of 'Padania', the putative name for Northern Italy and for the 'Lega Nord' is emblematic of militancy than liberalism. The older generation certainly fuels the antipathy; southerners are known as 'terroni'. Literally 'people of the earth' in the North. In contrast, it is reassuring to note that whilst inhabitants of England's more prosperous South may derive amusement from laughing at 'northern monkeys', they do not wish to secede from the North.
Is the North/South divide actually harmful? The recent Channel Four series, 'Faking It', featured an episode in which a 'Yorkshire lass' was thrust into London high society. Obviously one of the main ways in which she had to change was to disguise her thick accent, which she eventually refused to do. She passed the 'Faking It' test by deceiving the majority of men at a dinner party who failed to identify her as the impostor, with one bachelor stating that he would have much preferred it if she had been herself, albeit a working class northern girl. The idea of having to change in the manner that was originally intended in the programme emerged as being an offensive concept. Distinctions between regions are entirely acceptable as differences in cultural identity are healthy and should be welcomed but they should be respected rather than derided. The more serious problem, however, is the difference in terms of the standard of living and affluence, especially as this appears to be growing.
8th Jun 2001