Reply To: [unofficial weekender] Kids all over the place

[blinky465 17028xp 0]

I’m not a Brummie! I’m a Potter!

I love this. I presume it’s the same in other countries? How local rivalries (and slights on a person’s character) are all the more strongly felt if there are just a few miles between them.

I moved to Brighton from “up north” about 12 years ago. Until then, anyone south of Birmingham was basically “southerner”. It also works in reverse. When my friends and neighbours hear my flattened (some say gutteral) vowels, we’ll happily agree it’s because I’m a “northerner”. But to them, there’s no difference between Lancashire northern and Yorkshire northern (though locally, that’s an animosity greater than between forces of good and evil).

When I lived in Wales, my accent was mistaken for “scouse” (Liverpool). But in my home town of St. Helens (roughly midway between Liverpool and Manchester) the only insult worse than being called a scouser would be to be accused of being a “manc” (there are less than ten miles between these places). Similarly, here on the south coast, for my friends in Worthing to be mistaken for “one of those tree-hugging vegan snowflakes” from Brighton, no insult could be greater!
(fwiw I don’t know of anyone from St.Helens who is proud of our geographical nickname “woolyback”).

To mis-place someone by a great distance doesn’t seem to be a major cause for offence.
But misplace someone by just a few miles is about the worst insult you can give!

@pagan8th – oatcakes, yay or nay?