A LEADING Tory think tank is urging people from cities in the north of England to move south if they want a better life.
Cities such as Liverpool are beyond revival and millions of their residents should move to London and the South-east instead, the Policy Exchange think tank claims
Is this another sign of neglect for the northerners from the Tories if they ever get back to power or a realistic fact?...
Now, being a proud Northerner born and bred, who has however lived and worked down South, I have tried to stay away from this thread for fear I may have trouble stepping down from this particular soapbox...
Alfred Lord Tennyson once wrote that:
"bright and fierce and fickle is the South
And dark and true and tender is the North".
Give me the truth and the tenderness of England's northern regions any day. Dark? Well, if you mean dark as in weather then we're a hardy bunch and we're not going to melt, drown or otherwise capitulate. In fact, we'll laugh it off...
Or maybe these journalists say it better than I could:
"To go north is to be checked by salutary experiences: the shopkeeper who, when asked the way to a particular street, steps out of his shop the better to direct you; the woman on the train who gives you a conspiratorial smile as you tell some feeble joke to your children. If the north ever does become economically unviable, it might at least function as a standing moral corrective to the south."
Andrew Martin
"Policy Exchange's is a different order of foolishness: not a glib and badly timed faux-pas but vapid opinion, masquerading as research. We may never make ships or dig coal again - which is a tragedy - but anyone who has walked along the new Tyne riverscape, stayed at the Lowry Hotel, Manchester, or lounged at the fabled pavement cafes of Leeds will know that, as the Fall once predicted, the north has risen again."
Stuart Maconie
"I have left behind the dissembling, overblown, grubby, stuck-up south and arrived back where I belong; where it's clean, spiky, tough, straightforward, unpretentious and beautiful. Pay northerners to move south?
As Prince Charles might say, count me out."
Jenni Murray
I used to live and work in London, and whilst I appreciate London is not the epitome of all things 'south' I can only speak from my own experience. I told myself, after months of being looked at oddly when I said 'thank you' to the bus conductor every time I got off the bus, that the day I stopped this peculiarly northern habit (or so I was told on several occasions by fellow passengers) was the day that I had been in London too long.
Strangely enough, that's what happened. I returned home to the North where, in my opinion and to paraphrase Tennyson, it may be dark but the people are tender and true.
It's my home. I'm proud of it.
Nola x
Nola you've forgot to mention Liverpool is the 2008 European capital of culture
I was born in Yorkshire, and moved to the south when I was 13. I have popped up periodically, and was up there lots three years ago when my brother was terminally ill from cancer.
The difference is astounding.. you smile at people up north, and they smile back. In Oxford and London they look at you like you have a mental illness... a couple of weeks ago when my other half and I went to London, we went on the underground, and a lady was struggling with a pram and kids. We carried the pram down the steps for her, and waited at the bottom. The look on her face told me that she thought we were going to nick her pram. When she said thank you, we said "no problem.. we don't live here so we're friendly"! she giggled then and nodded!
Even though the economy is really bad in the North, I think I would rather live on beans on toast and be happy, than move down south and get ignored. I lost my temper last week when six people in a row walked straight into me.. I wacked the last one with my backpack...
Whereas last time I went up north, I got bumped into a couple of times, and both people asked if I was ok... don't get that down here...
I am not going to get involved with the polish debate as I have had nothing but good workers in my house, and they did charge the going rate for a job well done.
The thing is... and I will defo be shot down in flames for this... look at this for an example:
Take an employer, looking for a manual worker. He has a Polish guy there willing to work double the hours per week on less pay, and then you get a guy sent along from the jobcentre who really doesn't want to work but has to go for the interview to keep his jobseekers allowance.
Who would you employ?
I'm not taking sides here at all. From the employers point of view they want staff who are going to carry out a job to 100% satisfaction and as long as the employees work it matters not to them their origin and to be fair you can't blame them.
Oh and I wouldn't swap living in the North for moving down South. I would consider a move abroad though.
wasnt this ment to be about jobs? and the availability of them?
i know people from north will praise the north etc etc, and alot of people when thinking south think only of london, but im in cornwall and take offense to this turing into a we're better than them debate.
people from different cultures,geographcally,religiously,how/who raised them will all contribute to how they act/ react.
there are twats all over the country as well as nice people.
xx fem xx
Its pretty neat that we can debate this issue cos it wasnt that long ago that we might feel a bit uncomfortable speaking our minds. But at least new labour now says that your not raving nazi if you are concerned about immigration.
People have always migrated from the north to the south for economic reasons its nothing new, I would rather be served coffee,taken by cabbie,sold a car by someone who speaks english and is emotionally connected to this country than the alternative. If someone comes down here from say manchester at least the wealth stays here and is not sent to prop up someone elses economy. And I must say that using cheap labour from eastern europe is hardly a new idea hitler did it back in the thirties which says reams for new labour (old nazi perhaps).
I wonder who really gains from imported labour from eastern europe anyway,cos if employers are using cheap workers they are not passing the savings onto the customer they are keeping the money as profit, exploiting the poverty of migrant workers who then claim family tax credits and send it back home.
Even frank field labour mp says "we did'nt remove the economic borders so people in hampsted could have a cheap polish gardener."
The hypocrosy of the ruling class in this country is asolutely breathtaking.
Ignoring the Polish argument - this thread was about Northerners being told to move south.
The idea that Northerners need to move south is moronic - I'm sorry, I'll say that again - MORONIC!!!!!!!!
Are they saying that:
Only N cities have people living on the breadline.
Only S cities are growing economically.
Cities in the S would be as 'wonderful' if those hundreds of thousands of N'rs moved S.
That those of us from the N have never actually been S and therefore are not capable of making our own judgement? Any idea why we haven't moved S????
For crying out loud - we are bombarded with complaints about the S - too expensive, no water, no land. And it isn't just news reports - we're neither blind nor stupid.
I live in a 5 bed detached in the country in the Midlands. And it would cost £200k to buy. What would I get for that in the S? A garage? A shed? Get real. It takes me 20 mins to drive 10 miles to work. That would be an hour+ in London - through smog and tax divers' abuse. There is nothing there that I need that I can't get down here in the Midlands.
These 'think tank' people are certifiable cretins.
on subject.....the south is a cold impersonal place
off subject ...Poles
In a country where the super rich decide for themselves how much they owe in tax,in a country where Richard Branson can take 24 million pounds in one year from Virgin trains whilst lobbying for higher subsidies from the government can I suggest we take some of these taxes we're not paid and give them to the Polish migrants so everyone else can have jobs.
Or perhaps we could have a go at implementing a little social justice,there is more than enough wealth for everyone,there are more than enough jobs,perhaps some of the great and good could make do with just one directorship and let everyone else have a go at the others