North south divide

[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!