I was talking about this subject the other day.
On my drive back down to Surrey, after having collected my furniture from my original house near Wigan, I started to think about the North/South divide. I came to the conclusion that it wasn't such a North vs South divide but more of a Everywhere else vs South East divide.
The South-East feels to me like a huge expansion of London. I suppose that is reasonable as, like me, many people just live in satellite towns and commute in. This makes the South-East feel like a collection of London 'suburbs' servicing the main city. Each fine as it goes but without an identity.
A logical progression of an expanding capital city I guess.
Having lived down in Woking for a number of years, as well as other locations in Surrey and Berkshire, I definately feel that there is a different atmosphere to a lot of the towns I have visited. It is as if the areas are used purely by commuters. I don't know how but this generates a different 'feel' to places in the South East. Not necessarily good or bad - just different.
People have, perhaps mistakenly, in the past used the famous line that "it's friendlier up North". I don't agree with such a generalisation but I agree there is definately more of a sense of community.
Of course this all comes from the industrial heritage where people lived and worked in or around their respective towns, knew all the other people in the village, left the doors unlocked...and so on. Now things are moving on this is changing up North but obviously not at the rate seen in London. Areas such as Manchester have attracted some big business out of London. Whether thats a good or bad thing, I dont know.
I thought long and hard about where I prefer to live, having lived in a total of 6 geographical dispersed cities/towns in England, and have come to the conclusion that, IF there was the industry for me up North and other practicalities in place, I would definately relocate.
The trouble is, there just isn't the business for me.
For me, the regeneration of cities and towns up north is a great thing. There is a lot of pride and passion held by many a resident of these towns. Having moved a lot in the last decade it has made me realise that it is this pride and passion that makes these places far wealthier than areas in the South East.
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