North south divide

[Forum Admin]

...my copy arrived later on Saturday afternoon

I drove it down to Cornwall personally and slipped it through your letterbox, so you'd be able to post nice things today... [joke]

Seriously, that's good to know it arrived. Once mags leave our UK printers, it's up to the Gods (Royal Mail) that copies arrive with everyone.

[Drew Stephenson]

The divide has been bridged! The chasm crossed! The metaphor extended long past the point of necessity!
Magazine arrived this morning.
Cheers

[Hugh Robjohns]

[Drew Stephenson]

Good news! We don't need HS2! My subscription has arrived on time.
And 5 days quicker than Private Eye I note...

[Hugh Robjohns]

Still waiting for my copy in the middle lands... You win this month!

[MOF]

Still waiting for my copy in the middle lands... You win this month!

I live in the east of the middle lands, my copy arrived today, it’s probably down to slow trains, so until HS2’s first leg to Birmingham is completed you’ll have to put up with later deliveries Hugh.

[Forum Admin]

Not sure Royal Mail use mail trains any longer? Hope they do - but think it likely to be those large mail lorries one sees on the motorways.

[Hugh Robjohns]

It's alright! Recall the search dogs! My copy has just crashed through the letterbox.

[Forum Admin]

[Hugh Robjohns]

[Drew Stephenson]

I tell you what else, I've not seen any GIF-based apologies from Ian Hislop in my inbox!

[Hugh Robjohns]

He's just not in the same league as our Ian!

[Nazard]

Well, Ian Hislop won't be doing any programmes on the HS2 to York, ever!

I live in a village North-West of Drew, (apologies if it isn't Drew), and my copy arrived yesterday too

[Drew Stephenson]

Sadly it seems our new government is no more capable of bridging society's divides as the last one...
Looks like I'm stuck with the online version of the mag this month.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Don't lose all hope just yet. Mine only arrived today.

[zenguitar]

Mine only arrived this afternoon as well.

Andy

[Drew Stephenson]

Ah, I'll hold out hope that it gets passed onto the fast horse north of Watford...

[Wonks]

*Watford Gap. About 60 miles further north than Watford. Roughly where the M45 joins the M1, but still a few miles below Birmingham and Coventry.

But Watford Gap is a few miles north of Worcester, which puts Hugh safely in ‘the south’, but if you just say ‘Watford’, he’s in ‘the north’.

[Drew Stephenson]

I did not know this.
I assumed that that the Watford gap was near Watford and the whole expression was based on the idea that anywhere north of the M25 was barbarian wasteland in the eyes of Londoners.

[Wonks]

No, it's a common misconception. Laziness often gets the 'gap' bit dropped, and moves 'the north' a lot further down. This gets repeated by others and somehow becomes the norm for many people.

Of course Watford may well be some people's perception of where the north starts, but the Watford Gap has marked a North/South divide apparently dating back to Viking times.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... atford-gap

[tacitus]

Yes, it’s always been Watford Gap. I live a few miles due East of there, and I know this is in the midlands of some sort because people North of it reckon it’s in the South whereas Southerners reckon it’s in the North.

Mind you, I suspect most Londoners do reckon anything north of “their” Watford is the North. Nothing more parochial than a capital-dweller.

[Drew Stephenson]

I used to work with a Londoner in Amsterdam, and despite having a pretty good conceptual model of European geography (parents originally from Portugal, working on the mainland and liaising with suppliers in Germany, France and Poland regularly) he had an absolute blind spot when it came to the UK. England was basically London + Essex (as far as Southend).
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland didn't occupy a space in his mind at all.
So obviously we mocked him for it relentlessly.

But in other news, the fast horse has arrived and I am once again able to laze in the bath and read about expensive consoles and microphones that I shall never own.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Hurrah!