The North South Divide in England: Interview with a Northern student in the UK
- Clara Morate
- Feb 19, 2021
- 8 min read
The North South divide is used to describe the socioeconomic inequalities and differences experienced by these different geographical zones within England. Much of the divide in the past century has resulted from processes such as deindustrialisation and regeneration of which are not exclusive to the UK. For example deindustrialisation in the rust belt of the United States has been a significant process that has resulted in large exacerbation of socioeconomic inequalities across geographical areas. In the same way parts of England that previously relied heavily on industries such as mining in the North were left to go into decline without the appropriate support needed to ensure that they were not left with lasting socioeconomic damages as they have been.
Many studies have been conducted into this North South divide. A Cambridge econometrics report from 2006 revealed that any above average economic growth in the UK was only found in Southern regions of the UK in comparison to parts of the North that showed the least growth. There are also a variety of indicators that researchers have used to research the divide between the North and South. Some of these include: house prices, health conditions, political influence and average earnings. In general the studies show that the North fares worse than the South in terms of health and other variables. Post austerity this year in the North east of England there have been around 2500 cases of rickets and extreme malnutrition. However, it is important to remember that some more Southern areas of the country contradict this geographical pattern through the same process of deindustrialisation. For example there are former industrial areas in London, such as Hackney and Haringey, that suffer with poor health and education like deindustrialised regions in much of the North of England.
In recent months the socioeconomic divide between the North and South of England has again been brought into the spotlight due to the coronavirus pandemic. A particularly evident example of this was the conflict between the city of Liverpool and the Prime minister Boris Johnson over the reopening of schools in Liverpool.
In addition to Northern cities seeming to suffer more in terms of cases and rates of transmission, some would argue they may have also suffered with stricter regulations at times when not necessarily appropriate or fair. At the time of which Manchester was brought into tier three and London remained in tier two, London had a higher R rate of 1.2 whereas Manchester was at 0.8
In recent months the socioeconomic divide between the North and South of England has again been brought into the spotlight due to the coronavirus pandemic. A particularly evident example of this was the conflict between the city of Liverpool and the Prime minister Boris Johnson over the reopening of schools in Liverpool. Joe Anderson, the mayor of Liverpool refused to obey Johnson’s request for schools to begin to open up again after the first national lockdown from March 23rd until restrictions began to be eased around early June when non-essential shops were given permission to reopen.
The city of Manchester, another Northern city displayed defiance in the face of Boris Johnson with their argument that Johnson was dealing with the pandemic through a London centric attitude and perspective. They claimed that Johnson was holding London to a more relaxed standard. Manchester also rebutted Johnson’s economic plans for their city after being placed into tier three which meant non-essential shops had to remain closed. The tier system consisted of three tiers of which a region would be placed depending on the severity and rate of the pandemic in that area. Each tier had slightly different restrictions with tier being the most relaxed and three the most severe although the system did result in much confusion for people in England. Mancunians (residents of Manchester) fought this judgement on the government's behalf arguing they were not receiving enough financial support from the government to sustain livelihoods if forced into the strictest regulations in England at that time. Again the people of Manchester argued that it was unfair to be placed into tier three unlike other large cities such as London that had rising Covid cases at the same time.
Interview (26th November 2020):
Thanks for doing this. Could you tell me a little about where you grew up in the UK?
Hi Clara, yeah I grew up in Chester, which is a small town, well it’s a city but it's more like a town atmosphere up North and it’s about half an hour from Liverpool and forty-five minutes from Manchester. So you can go to exciting cities if you want, but yeah the cities are quite small. If you go to a club you will bump into everyone you know and it's quite pretty.
Aw, that sounds nice, never been North. What would you say makes you proud of where you have been raised?
I’m very proud of the friendly atmosphere that's associated with the North, how everyone chats to everyone, and you know you don’t have to know them but you will give everyone a friendly smile or a friendly hello when you walk past them. And I really like where I am from because I like being around the countryside and things like that as a child.
That's so different from London. You don’t even look at people on the tube or anything. If you were then when would you say you were made aware of regional differences in the North and South of the UK?
I wasn’t personally aware of them but I heard my friends say things that were to do with stereotypes. A lot of my friends were adamant that they wouldn’t go uni down South because they thought they were too posh and difficult to engage with. But I didn’t feel that way and I’m happy to speak with people from everywhere.
That’s actually shocking I didn’t know that people thought that about Southerners to that extent.
Yeah they just thought that they wouldn’t be able to relate to people from down South.
Yeah. Is there much difference if anything at all from the midlands to more up North that you have noticed since moving to the midlands?
Definitely. I don’t know if this is just a Northern thing but I find that people here are more accepting and open minded of people from all walks over life. back in my school it wasn’t very diverse at all. And here people are more open to people from different areas and different everything. How welcoming it is in terms of new ideas.
Oh good, that’s good. I guess that’s what university is for as well. Okay, next question. Are there any particular stereotypes of Southerners and Northerners that you find to be common or accurate in a humorous or malicious way?
I did find it quite funny when I went to London as I got trapped in the tube doors because I was confused where to go and I literally had one leg in the tube and one leg out and I was expecting someone to come to my rescue but all the Londoners just stared at me blankly. Another experience I had on the tube, someone had a really cute dog so I started speaking to her about her dog and she turned to me and went ‘you’re clearly a Northerner because no Southerner would speak to me’ and it turns out she was from Manchester, so not too far from me, and so we were speaking about the North and how exciting London is and how friendly the North is.
Aw, that’s so sweet! Yeah that is very true. Have you ever felt personally not taken seriously or mocked due to any regional accents or differences you might have or seen this occur? I know I have actually spoken to people about this and they have said they don’t speak up in seminars because they have like, like one of my one friends has a Wolverhampton accent and in first year she would be scared to speak up in seminars because of her accent being thick. Yeah it’s an actual thing.
I think my accent is relatively neutral but as I said Liverpool is quite close and I do know that a lot of people mock the Scouse accent, I know of people. But that being said a lot of people from Liverpool are very proud to be like Scousers so yeah no I haven’t experienced it. I get mocked in a friendly way by my friend from Reading, I sometimes say bus and she says bus. But yeah.
Aw okay. Have you seen evidence of regional differences in institutions like the University of Birmingham? Like in treatment or attitude to Northerners to Southerners like by societies.
Not at all. I would say I have met many more Southerners than Northerners here. I don’t know if the uni manages to attract more Southerners more than Northerners or… I don’t know but um I have met people from everywhere and they seem to be treated the same.
Loads of Northerners have said that as well when they came down from the North, that there are no Northerners about in Birmingham basically, yeah. Due to the current coronavirus pandemic regional differences have been exacerbated and illustrated through the numerical data showing that the North has been more vulnerable and affected by the pandemic. Do you have any opinions or thoughts as to why the North may have been hit harder?
I haven’t really looked into it enough to give a complete answer but I do remember there being a bit of an uproar when Liverpool had to enter into another lockdown before other cities because it seemed from what I had seen, it seemed like it was a bit unfair that there was other cities in a similar situation like London that were being protected, like the businesses were being allowed to stay open longer. So I’m not sure how true this is but I know that people from Liverpool did feel that personally hurt by this decision. And this could give an indication that there was a bit of unfair treatment.
Do you think there is a London centric attitude in the UK in general?
A lot of decisions do seem to be made up from outcomes that are happening in London. But I suppose it makes sense because it’s the most populated, uh dense area, so that’s where more people are, so that’s where the effects are going to have a bigger impact on more people, so.
Okay so I don’t know if you heard about this guy called Jake Berry, he’s an MP, he said, so obviously some MP’s do believe there is a cultural difference between the North and South, he said in a speech in Westminster that people in the South prefer ballet and those in the North prefer football. Do you agree that there is a cultural difference or do you believe that that’s just classism.
I think that would just be classism. How can where you have been raised change what you enjoy in terms of sports other than what you had accessibility to. So higher income families will probably have more access to things like ballet, horse riding etc etc and lower income families will have either have no access to extracurricular things or cheaper sports that are found in school like football and things like that. So yeah I wouldn’t say that it changes what people like.
Knowing what you know and with your own personal experience if you were to have a family one day would you be inclined to live in a particular region of the UK more than another?
I would probably be inclined to go down South but only because I have tried the North now and want to try something new, so there is no deep reason for that
The primary motivation behind conducting this interview was to investigate how personal the North-South divide is to the people in England and whether it is more than an abstract socioeconomic concept used by academics. The interview strongly indicates that for whatever reasoning people do believe and feel on an interpersonal level that there is a larger and more London centric attitude in the UK from institutions like that of parliament and politicians. Although differences are seen by those hailing from the North of England, it is refreshing and joyous to be reminded that they are proud to be Northern. It must be true that the North does hold its own charm.
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