A woman’s unpopular opinion about where exactly ‘the north’ of England begins has made some people online quite upset.
To be quite honest, ‘The North’ is more of a mindset thing than anything geographical – there’s no argument that you can make that will get everyone to agree 100 percent.
Some people think that it’s more to do with whether or not you think it’s cold all the time, or have a certain sauce on your chips, or even who you vote for in Parliament, although recently that has been shown pretty categorically to be wrong.
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Also, let’s just remember that everyone in Scotland can correctly call everywhere in England ‘The South’ – and that’s exactly what people in Orkney and Shetland do to them.
Still, few people have misjudged the situation like this woman, who shared a picture dividing England into three parts - the North, The South and The Midlands.
Unfortunately, she drew the line right underneath Leeds, meaning that cities such as Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Salford, Hull and Nottingham were left out.
OK, Nottingham is a bit of a battleground, with many believing that it is the city that starts The North, but few are arguing against those other cities claiming Northern-ness.
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The Twitter user, a woman called Michelle, shared the image with the caption: “Can we all agree that North is Leeds and above?”
Unsurprisingly, no we cannot.
She also said: “North of London doesn’t mean North.”
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She’s right about that, at least.
Obviously, this post – much like famous ones about what people call bits of bread – has generated lots of engagement.
One person commented: “I think the idea that Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and Hull aren’t in the North is slightly mad.”
It seems that Michelle, who works as an actor, was annoyed at companies that call themselves ‘The North’ when they clearly are not.
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She also wrote: “It’s really annoying seeing The North such and such company or something artsy North and for it to be in Birmingham etc.
“There’s also a middle…the midlands. Be the midlands.”
That’s understandable, but it hasn’t stopped others firing criticism back at her.
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“Lol imagine complaining that Londoners don’t know where the North is and then putting out a map that put Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield in the Midlands – incredible stuff,” one said.
In the end, Michelle had to make a bit of a climbdown, updating her followers: “After deep thought and consultation I have decided to scrap my map of North, Middle and South and instead go with the popular opinion that if you have gravy on chips or scraps and mushy peas with fish and chips then you are Northern and if not then not (no matter the geography).”
As we said at the beginning – Northern-ness is more of a state of mind than anything else, but chips definitely do have something to do with it.
Tom Wood