American Reacts to England's Evil North vs South Divide!

[@ThornyLittleFlower]

You really are what a reaction channel should be. There's no one else that takes the time to ask questions (often the ones we are all asking), then instantly research an answer to then enlighten us all. You literally could pick any subject. You have your own unique genuine formula.

[@AlBarzUK]

@@ThornyLittleFlower I so agree. JJLA is the dog’s bollocks.

[@markmanhetherington1]

The only reaction channel worth watching.

[@wolfen210959]

The problem with the coal mine closures was that they were a personal decision made by Thatcher, because the miners had "embarrassed" her by going on strike for a better wage, dressed up as an economic decision. A large amount of propoganda surrounding the cost of digging out UK coal, versus importing cheap coal from Asia, when the Asian coal was only cheaper because Thatcher removed the tariffs that had made UK coal competitive. The irony was that once the UK mines began closing, the price of the Asian coal imports skyrocketed.

[@G0Lg0Th4N]

Looks like you're a Northerner mate. We all hate Maggie Thatcher the Milk Snatcher.

[@wulfgold]

There's plenty of us Southerners that hate that "person" too.

[@gemmasem]

I'm a working class southerner, and I only know a few people through my life who admit to not hating her.

[@owenfitzgerald5928]

​@@gemmasem which is a few more than I know

[@geoffos42]

Greatest post-war PM we had, maybe even in the 20th century.

[@owenfitzgerald5928]

@geoffos42 no She is probably the worst. Not sure who i would say is best probably Attlee

[@SideQ-rr6my]

Transport connections in the North are so far behind the South. For some reason Westminster thinks us Northerners are only interested in getting to London faster. We aren't. We want better connections between Northern cities and Scotland.

[@computerbob06]

The problem is the mountains! I live in Wales and all the cities and infrastructure are around the coast because it would cost too much money to build road and rail links through the mountains! It is the same for the North I'm afraid. Trying to travel around the South and West Yorkshire areas (apart from the motorways) is a nightmare - I was born in Barnsley, with all the mountains and, of course, rivers, lakes and reservoirs everywhere!

[@SideQ-rr6my]

@computerbob06 where I live, we have an old rail line which used to connect Manchester and Sheffield. There is an existing tunnel that was drilled through the Pennines (many of the workers died digging the tunnel). There have been many campaigns over the years to reopen the line to improve links between the two cities and to ease traffic through the valley. It will never happen but traffic and air pollution continues to increase.

[@chrisnorman1902]

Cornwall is as far south as you can get, but Cornwall has some of the highest levels of poverty, and doesn't pronounce things like the south East, so seems to be completely disregarded and ignored in this whole conversation

[@duncanretson8027]

Pretty much same thing with rural Devon really.

[@Anna-iq4yq]

Yeah sometimes the North-South debate annoys me because people use overall statistics to dismiss that there is plenty of poverty down South too

[@se4307]

That’s West Country. In the north we don’t think of them as southerners. They’ve got their own problems.

[@Draiscor]

People in the south east seem to always forget that the westcountry exists. We're a little closer to northerners than Londoners in the westcountry tbh

[@nolaj114]

Exactly.

[@gennytun]

What's stopping them moving south? House prices unaffordable for a start.

[@timtreefrog9646]

They aren't affordable for people who grew up in the South either. I've just had to move 50 miles north of my hometown.

[@horseysez]

House prices and they don't have gravy in Da Souf

[@meeshelle1397]

The reality of the mining villages and the strikes - a colleague of mine recalls her earliest memories of strangers leaving food on their doorstep or passing food stuff under their door, dad was striking, there were 4 young kids and no income. Still a strong sense of community. Sad times how it was played out in the media too.

[@timglennon6814]

We are very friendly people here in Manchester. Us Northerners build Britain, and along came Margaret Thatcher and ruined us.

[@brigidsingleton1596]

I hated her then and still... She could've gone before, she only had to ask... (we had the will)

[@Isleofskye]

That's why she got voted in 3 times. Why buy coal (I have 16 years of experience in the coal industry) for one price abroad when you can pay much more for it in your own country? You and I would do that, wouldn't we? Buy a car, for example, for £12,000 when we can pay £10,000 for an identical car elsewhere. Remember NO Government has ever had a penny of its own money.

[@garyrigby21]

@@timglennon6814 sounds like you're talking about Liverpool

[@leemalcolmson7852]

The industrial north and north east was in decline from the late 60’s and decimated in the early 80’s and nothing… absolutely nothing was done to replace the missing industry and manufacturing. The 90s started to show a turnaround but the damage was done. The south and London in particular became a focus for major transport infrastructure and investments whilst the rest of the country was ignored.

[@UNIONFEATURES]

Ironically that bread advert was filmed in the South in Shaftesbury but passed off as the North.

[@brigidsingleton1596]

In Dorset... Not a hill I would want to traverse - especially not nowadays as am confined to a fixed axle manual wheelchair (pushed by my daughter). ☹️

[@grabtharshammer]

And the old man narrating was also from Dorset, that is not a Northern Accent - Though some of the earlier versions of that same advert did have a Northerner narrating

[@stevebradley704]

Ashington (Northumberland) Colliery Band provided the music.

[@UNIONFEATURES]

@@brigidsingleton1596 Gold Hill is well worth a visit, there 's a twee little cafe at the top of the hill where you can sit and enjoy a scone with that incredible view.

[@AlBarzUK]

Big media likes to be within spitting distance of that London to do news or adverts. Either that or a fast motorway ride.

[@meeshelle1397]

The government remain very south-centric, investment in infrastructure is poor in the north. We tend to get a nod when there is an election looming, then nothing much.

[@johnritter6864]

Im from Tyneside and it was always a region of coal mining and heavy industry until the 80's. Historically we were used as a buffer from Scotland to keep the southern wimps safe.

[@jasonvardy991]

Isn't the north south divide where Greggs turns into Pret a Manger? 😉

[@CyanideSunshines]

We have both in East Anglia lol

[@_Professor_Oak]

Wtf is pret a manger

[@brigidsingleton1596]

​​@@_Professor_Oak It's a British chain of snack bars (like Subway) with a French name because manger ("Monjay") is "to eat" ... I don't know what "pret" means, sorry, I don't speak much French...just a _little_ and a _little_ Latin!!)

[@_Professor_Oak]

@@brigidsingleton1596 sounds pretentious

[@veroniquewolff8963]

@@brigidsingleton1596 Pret means ready, so Pret-A-Manger means ready to eat.

[@martinp8174]

Regarding posh accents:- a Northerner went to a hairdresser in the South and got into a discussion about pronunciation, “ no it’s pronounced Barth not bath, to which he replied “ well I say fat, what do you say ?” 😂😂😂

[@sticklebrick2003]

@JJLA Reacts - Theres a film called "Brassed Off" starring Ewan McGregor & Pete Postlethwaite that covers the north vs south, Thatcher closing down mines era that you may enjoy. Its based on true events in a real, yet unfortunately named place in Yorkshire called Grimethorpe. 👍

[@mariedodds6307]

Price of Coal, Kes, Full Monty all worth a watch to see the effects of the pit closures on communities.

[@AlBarzUK]

Grimethorpe meaning the farm belonging to Grym.

[@SideQ-rr6my]

@sticklebrick2003 Billy Elliott also touches on the miners strikes and how it affected families

[@stephenleader-s9x]

29:34 That plastic bag was a very convenient metaphor. The reason why HS2 was stopped was due to the greed, poor project scheduling and ineptitude of the company building the line.

[@AnthonyValentine-vm1yc]

That plastic bag was UKs version of tumbleweed.

[@Rasperdan]

You should watch the film "Pride" Its about the lesbian and gay activists from London who helped the Welsh miners during the strikes of 1984.

[@kentpont]

30:48 what was she doing? She didn't give a shit she didn't care. Heseltine trying to 'save' Liverpool cost him his job. You think Trump is bad - Thatcher - someone hold my pint!

[@tonytiger76ffs34]

i remember when i was kid in the 80's at primary school being asked what do you want to do when leave school every lad in the class stood up 'we going work down pit just like our Dads' how little did we knew back then by the time we all left school they were closed

[@Isleofskye]

This prevented them develop several illnesses, including Black lung disease: Also known as coal worker's pneumoconiosis, this disease occurs when coal dust is inhaled and causes inflammation and scarring in the lungs. Symptoms include coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath, but can take years to develop. There's no cure, but treatments can help manage symptoms. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): Coal miners are more likely to develop COPD than the general population. Mental illness: Coal miners may be more likely to experience mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL): Coal miners may experience hearing loss due to noise. Vibration white finger (VWF): Coal miners may develop conditions related to hand and arm vibrations, such as vibration white finger. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has safety standards to help prevent black lung disease. Health problems caused by mining: Coal mine dust causes a spectrum of lung diseases collectively termed coal mine dust lung disease (CMDLD). These include Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis, silicosis, mixed dust pneumoconiosis, dust-related diffuse fibrosis (which can be mistaken for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

[@tonytiger76ffs34]

@@Isleofskye Thats why they use SNUFF down pit to try to stop the coal dust going up there nose

[@conormurphy4328]

@@Isleofskyebut the mines 😢

[@Isleofskye]

@@conormurphy4328 Sorry, my friend " but the mines?"

[@whattiler5102]

The North was the great powerhouse of Britain's Industrial Revolution. It was the realm of the industrial innovators, and much of the raw materials, the transportation systems, and the fluid urban populations. But London was still in charge!

[@spursgog835]

You are right, in Germany for example they closed down out of date industries by using a system of transition to newer forms of employment. In the UK they just left it to the vagaries of the free market.

[@IanHopkinson-lu8xo]

When the south got things like their trains updated, often they would send the old ones to the north, like a hand me down to a poor relative, also what they missed when they mentioned villages being built around mines, was often because the wealthy would move the workforce to the mine itself, and build the houses for the workforce to live in, controlling the workforce that way, the locals money would then go back into the mine owners pockets through rent and the local goods shops, families would live their entire life around the mine for generations, that was why it hit so hard when they shut them down, some mines were hundreds of years old so it was all people knew, hard to move on when generations of your family lived and died round the mine

[@whattiler5102]

Part of Thatcher's outlook was based on the memory of the miners and their union bringing down a conservative government in 1974. So, she was determined to break the power of the miners' Union for good so that they could never challenge her new direction. This was accomplished during the bitter miners' strike of 1984/85, when she threw everything she could at them to make them give up their strike.

[@AlOh-2]

As someone from Birmingham I can confirm we say bath and definitely not ‘Barth’. We definitely don’t consider ourselves to be southern. We have much more in common with the north. 😊

[@garyrigby21]

True!

[@fredshred5194]

mmmmm... so how clever was it voting for Labour's Starmer ?

[@Galbonfilms]

I say baath like a sheep lol - Essex girl xx

[@chrisnorman1902]

Yeah, it's gotta be like Northampton or Coventry area up

[@GLYDR]

@@fredshred5194 Cleverer than voting tory for sure

[@adstitching]

We still live with the effects of Thatcher. The right to buy council houses which has decimated the council house stock. Selling off water, gas and electricity (all of which are a necessity) and are now in the hands in greedy corporations and the loss of that community feeling and this one is down to the 'loads of money' and looking after number one attitude she brought about and in doing so not caring about your neighbours. That woman ruined many parts of this nation. PS I am from the Midlands so not a Northerner or a Southener 😊

[@immoralreplicant1332]

HS2 is hilarious. When Johnson announced the full funding in 2020 I went straight to Twitter & FB & posted saying it was a shame there wasn't a bookmaker offering odds on the Northern portion being cancelled. I'd have lumped my life savings on it. & lo & behold look what happened. Utterly predictable. They never had the slightest intention of doing it. It exists for one reason only, to cut travel time from Birmingham to London to make it possible for Londoners to commute from there by using their higher pay to buy up all the housing. It's a con. They've already done the same thing in Bristol for over a decade (travel time to London roughly 1hr 15 mins by train) My ex lives in Bristol & more than half of the houses on her street have been bought by Londoners since she moved in in 2012. Birmingham is vastly bigger than Bristol so a prime target. Since the redevelopment of New St station in Birmingham lots of apartment buildings have been & continue to be built in the surrounding areas. According to a bloke I know from the football who works for a capital investment firm that's helping fund the developers of one of the largest projects, over 70% of enquiries for the new luxury apartments are from Londoners. It's basically an invasion. Sell a house in London or the Home Counties & buy one in Birmingham & you'll make an absolute fortune, saving around 30% on your mortgage. & as an added bonus you'll be living in a much cheaper city while still getting the London Weighting on your salary. Win/Win A con from start to finish.

[@speleokeir]

1) The North/South divide started much earlier than this video states. It began during the 9th century when the North and part of the Midlands was part of the Daneland and under viking rule. This lasted for several generations and during that time the local saxon population integrated with the Danish settlers taking on much of their language and customs. By the time they came under English rule they'd become cultural different to the South. 2) The bit where he says the North was richer in the industrial revolution is grossly misleading. The Northern Industrialists (Mill and factory owners) became mega rich, but kept this money for themselves. Most of the Northern population they employed worked long hours, were badly paid, had few if any rights and many lived in slum housing and suffered from poverty. This was the formation of Britian's working class. There's a famous saying of "It's grim oop North." Because both the weather and life in Northern England has historically often been harsher. Yorkshire folk have a saying" Life's tough - get on with it." In contrast during this time the South was more middle class and much of the population worked as small traders, shop keepers, clerks, etc so tended to have a better standard of living. 3) Because most of the Government has always lived in and around London, London and the S.East get most investment. This is especially true whenever the Tories are in power as they only care about themselves and their chums (people useful to then. Being greedy, selfish bastards they don't have any real friends). Historically they've never given a toss about the rest of the country. 4) When people speak of the South they mean London and the S.East, NOT the West country which is ignored by the Government as much as the Midlands & North. And Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland. People in the West loath the S.East just as much as Northerners for the same reasons. i.e. the Government ignores them and their needs and always favours London and the S.East. Similarly when the Scots, Welsh & Irish talk about England they're mainly referring to London & the S.East as that's where the wealth and power is and where the people who make all the decisions live.

[@meeshelle1397]

Indeed and following on from the 9th Century there was William the Conqueror’s harrying of the north, burning and salting the land which left it baron for many decades - people died or they fled. Huge population and wealth loss.

[@MrBulky992]

The Danelaw was everything north east of the road from London to Chester (Watling Street) and, until Alfred the Great, included London!

[@WookieWarriorz]

The issue wasnt getting rid of coal it was how she did it. A benefit in some regard is that the uk has the largest offshore wind farm in the world now Hornsea 2 which is just off the coast of yorkshire. The uk also has the 2nd and 3rd largest offshore wind farm too and were still building them out.

[@wolfen210959]

Unfortunately the windfarms are not a benefit to the consumers, who have to pay some of the highest prices in the world for energy produced by them, which was not the promise that was made when they were being built.

[@MrBulky992]

Also they are hardly generating any power this week because of lack of any strong winds.

[@nasheeds8218]

There is alot less funding in the North of England compared to the South since it doesnt concern the government. The North East of England has some of the poorest areas with lowest life expectancies but the government doesnt care because it doesnt affect them

[@AtheistEve]

Attlee didn’t nationalize carefully enough. All our shared infrastructure should have been solidly in the hands of the workers and users of those shared assets. There would have been no possibility of a government selling them off or defunding them.

[@Stannington]

How to tell the difference between a Northerner and a Southerner. A Northerner doesn't start bragging about their income and how much their house is worth within the first 20 seconds of meeting them

[@stephenleader-s9x]

I'm a southerner and I don't brag either.

[@pipercharms7374]

I’m a southerner and guess what I wouldn’t do that either

[@brigidsingleton1596]

I am a Southerner and I have never own my own homes and my only income are my PIP payment and my State Pension. Neither do I have any bank or building society (etc) accounts, and no cash either as my daughter is is in charge of my care and monies...and she only has cash or vouchers to buy / pay things. (I used to have a bank account, but my first husband spent it, before leaving me for the married neighbour in the flat in the storey above ours). "Cash remains king" in our household. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[@unpreparedwithacapitalf]

Neither do most Southerners because we're not all well-off. This is just proving that it's a class divide more than a geographical one.

[@capablancauk]

That is a fairly accurate take on the north south divide.

[@Galbonfilms]

As a ‘southerner’ I have no hate for the north. They are our fellow countrymen. The issues to me stems from London being in the south and therefore the government. So northerners feel less considered by government. Especially as the north relied on industrial jobs such as coal & steel. Which was put down by thatchers govt. I’d never complain about their accents and have lots of ‘northern friends’. In terms of richer they are referring to Londoners better off, being in the south. I certainly have lots of similarities with northerners with annoyance with govt shutting down my branch of govt department I had in Essex. I’m certainly no better off in the suburbs of London (Essex) and have had no greater opportunities than a Londoner I am struggling just as financially as anyone else in the country, just as my city is - Southend. Which relies an awful lot on seasonal business (which is decreasing). Especially with all the businesses shutting down and moving north or to London I kinda think of it like the north and south US states ‘divide’ but for different reasons. Those that still think were divided are still reeling from certain events in the 80’s. Like miners riots and Hillsborough stadium disaster and way govt again dealt with it. When labour came into power in 1997 things changed. NOW ITS 💩! My accent is often taken the piss out of by anyone in the country - not helped by TV show the only way is Essex. Biggest problem is Londoners are mainly rich people from other countries who build unaffordable housing or buy and rent for extortionate prices. The only brits that have benefited financially in London who are considered (old terms) as lower class are those that could buy out their council property and sell it for an absolute fortune with the rise of London living prices. I agree we don’t invest in any companies or industries big or small north or south (33%) xxxx luv as always Gill 🇬🇧 & 🇺🇸 friends foreva xx

[@CowmanUK]

Indeed, sometimes it's less of a north south divide and more of a middle class/working class divide, wherever in the UK it happens to be

[@tdurb0]

5:30 Adverts use Yorkshire accents to sound more trustworthy 😊

[@CowmanUK]

Excellent video. It seems spot on to me. I just subbed to Jimmy The Giant after taking a look at some of his other videos. I grew up in Thatcher's Britain, being 8 years old when she came to power, and I was nearly 20 years old when she left office. I'm from the north, Greater Manchester, and left a run-down dilapidated school at 16 with no qualifications, and went onto her 2-year Youth Training Scheme, where they "train" you for work, where I worked 40 hours a week for £17.50 a week. The second year it went up to £21 a week. After 2 years the scheme ended and the place I'd worked at let me go to take on another school leaver on the same slave wages. I hated, and still hate, that woman.

[@markgarforth279]

I’m from Yorkshire, from a small mining village, I too had to go on a Youth Training Scheme (YTS) we always said it stood for ‘Young Thatchers Slaves.’ Even after completing and getting some city & Guilds Qualifications there were no jobs, and the qualifications were only bits of paper… with no real meaning…

[@Tass...]

Regional social divides exist in every single country I have visited. That's 31 countries so far. It's just about the only thing that is consistent throughout the world that I have discovered.

[@debbielough7754]

That glint in Thatcher's eye - she was ****ing maniacal. But my family were miners on one side, and ship builders on the other. Loathing her is in my blood.

[@Hannah-pk6iq]

She knew exactly what was going to happen. Managed decline.

[@OldWolflad]

The Black Country in the Midlands used to be the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution - it wasn't just the coal mines it was the iron and steel plants that relied on the coal and iron ore, that also closed down. Unemployment rates in the 80s were up to 40% in some towns. Life was grim!

[@CowmanUK]

Manchester with its cotton mills was the worlds first industrial city, Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. The poverty in the working class slums of Manchester was shocking, houses thrown up quickly and cheaply without foundations to house the influx of workers, it was so bad that Karl Marx and Frederik Engels came here to write the communist manifesto. Birmingham was a major industrial city, but not the birthplace.

[@klaxoncow]

5:23 By the way, the director who filmed that Hovis bread advert, with the kid pushing the bike "to the top of the world" was Ridley Scott. Well, he had to learn the trade somewhere and he used to do TV ads before breaking into Hollywood. Of course, being Ridley Scott, it's visually stunning and epic. Just to sell you some bread.

[@noggintube]

It's also not a Northern town as it's portrayed, but in the South.

[@scotmax8426]

all of it was deliberate.

[@Chris-wz5yd]

FYI, the coal from our mines was of the highest quality, it burned cleaner and more economically , compared to the Russian stuff which was considered very poor.

[@Kissameassa538]

I am from Newcastle. Wahoo!!!!

[@harpingon]

howay

[@Kissameassa538]

@ nice one. !! 🤣🤣

[@nickismith1390]

I love your channel. Your reaction at 25:15 pretty much sums up a lot of us of here in UK (and I"m London since birth)

[@jamiewilson9280]

If Yorkshire was counted as a separate country it would’ve placed 12th in the Olympics!

[@Gabaja21]

I have so much to say on this subject. We were making some inroads into the issue during the last Labour government but the Tories scuppered all the good work and set us back to the 1970s on day one. Historically, all those inventions that made the south rich were invented by the north and Scots. Plus empire was built on the lives of northerners. FYI I’m a southerner living in Yorkshire so have seen both sides.

[@peterhill1367]

The 80s were horrendous as a change to British society and that witch was the cause of it. I don't know a single person who remembers her in any sort of respect

[@lynnejamieson2063]

As a Scottish person who has lived all over England (slight exaggeration but I’m sure you get what I mean), I obviously have no skin in this game but there is a lot of wrong clumping in when it comes to ‘The South’ pretty much everything he claimed about ‘The South’ is in actual fact just ‘The South East’ and he doesn’t really make clear the fact that though there was money in ‘The North’ generally that was money in profits made by people either from or moved to ‘The South’ from the labour of the northern men, women and children. So the money wasn’t staying in ‘The North’. The actual miners were always barely surviving, to the extent that if as soon as sons were deemed old enough, they were down the pits or in the mills. It was only (as is still the case today) the owners and managers who were getting rich. I know this video isn’t about Scotland but I grew up on the Firth of Clyde, my Dad’s family historically (the most recent family member being my Great Uncle, who was only around a decade older than my Dad) had worked down the mines in Ayrshire and my Mum’s family historically had worked in shipbuilding in Greenock (the most recent family member being my eldest brother who served his engineering apprenticeship in a local shipyard). My Great Uncle was on the picket line during the miners strike and my Dad was part of the Clydeside work-in’s which were a protest over yard closures when there were still orders on the books, so the workforce unions made the decision to complete the orders and physically prevent the yards from closing before their work was complete (there is a brilliant speech by union leader Jimmy Reid laying down the rules of the work-in). Thatcher’s policies decimated the area I grew up in to such an extent that Greenock went from being an area rife with industry and wealth (James Watt who was responsible for developing the steam powered engine to an extent that it could enable the Industrial Revolution, was born in Greenock as was Abram Lyle of Lyle’s Golden Syrup fame) with shipbuilding, rope works and sugar refining being just some of the major industries in the town but now it’s a permanent fixture in the poorest areas in Scotland. There was a mass exodus of the people of my generation (though a fair few have returned home) so there is a bit of an age imbalance as well as a wealth imbalance. It is a microcosm of the after affects of Thatcher’s Britain. I have now been in the North East of England for over a decade after a decade in the South West and almost a decade that included living in places like London, Kent, Cambridge, Oxfordshire and Bristol (as well as a period back in Scotland), the South West is technically a deprived area that still looks beautiful (though a lot of that was down to EU funding) but it is an area where the locals have to a large extent been priced out by people living in the South East buying up properties as investments and second homes. I used to live in the very touristy area of East Looe and when the summer season was over, most of the shops (including the small supermarket) would close a couple of hours earlier and many of the shops and restaurants didn’t open at all without the tourists there, there was no free residents parking and little to no off street parking in the town centre, so it was costly and almost inconvenient to own a car but impossible to not have one due to the distance you’d have to travel to get to any bigger shopping areas or supermarkets. The local council would even leave street lamps with blown lightbulbs until just before the Easter holidays because it obviously wasn’t as big of a concern to ensure the safety of the people paying their local count tax as it was for the tourists and second home owners. So basically the money in the South West is mostly from tourism, which is the case for many of the previously important industrial and agricultural hubs. Sorry I’ve gone on far too long here. Basically, if it wasn’t for Thatcher’s policies the issues that plague all areas of the UK outside of the South East could have been mitigated. As it stands, I’m not sure that there is either the funding, the know how or the urge to do something about it with those in a position to to so.

[@mac_mcguckin]

Good, considered, comment. 👍💪👏

[@lynnejamieson2063]

@ thank you…apologies for the spelling and grammar mistakes though. I find that if I end up doing a rambling comment I end up with far too many autocorrects and extra/wrong words due to changing my mind on the best wording mid sentence, then figuring I should just post before I write more 😬

[@JJLAReacts]

Wow, thanks for the firsthand account! The more I learn about Thatcher’s behavior, the more disgusted I feel.

[@Delicious_J]

As someone from the northwest of England I agree, and i think you do have a skin in this game thatcher affected scotland nearly as much as her policies affected us

[@lynnejamieson2063]

@ there are many people who benefited from her policies, from all walks of life. My Mum and Dad were able to buy their council house and a number of years later my Dad and his twin brother bought my Granda’s council flat for him which is great. Unfortunately though, this policy of making it easier to purchase your council house with a massive discount based (meaning that the council’s weren’t making enough money to actually replace the sold off housing stock) on how long you’d been a tenant, also kickstarted the housing crisis in the UK due to the market shift from most people living in homes rented from the local government, to mostly privately owned homes, to privately rented because of the artificially inflated market values of property and people being priced out of the housing market by perpetually increasing property prices and stagnant wages. People got rich by buying shares in the the many companies that she privatised but by privatising these companies (like British Gas, British Rail, British Telecom and British Airways amongst others), there was an initial boost to the national coffers followed by no income from these previously nationalised companies. Which has led to perpetual underfunding and subcontracting within the NHS, students no longer being able to have their fees paid and be allocated bursaries or grants on a means tested basis (everywhere but Scottish students in Scotland have to pay for their tuition and can receive loans to almost cover their needs with the occasional small grant) and a constantly in turmoil rail network due to too many companies now being involved. All she achieved was shafting this group of countries for generations. I remember the comedian Frankie Boyle once saying on Mock the Week (a comedy news panel show that’s no longer on the TV) that they shouldn’t worry about paying out for a state funeral for Thatcher but to just give everyone in Scotland a shovel and they’ll dig a hole deep enough to hand her to the devil in person. Probably a bit of paraphrasing there but it is definitely the essence of his remark, which gives an indication of how the majority of the working class feel about her even now.

[@user-blob]

Love your videos. From a proud northerner. I also wanted his vid to be more lighthearted 😁

[@Luna.Nova.2018]

There's a North & South divide in Wales too and the accents are completely different. As I'm from the part of North Wales close to Liverpool there is a little bit of a Scouse twang mixed in too 😅

[@dixonhutchinson2206]

I am 84 years old I am from the north east of England I have in the north of Scotland for 5o years and am very happy the London government can't think of anywhere outside the home counties boo bloody boo

[@mattpotter8725]

As a Northerner who moved when quite young to the Midlands, and after university for a job in a Midlands city, eventually i had to move to London to progress my career. It's not something i ever wanted to do, but there just weren't jobs with the skills i had in the tech industry where i was living. So i think i have a good perspective on the differences. Obviously there is a north-south divide, but i think it's much more nuanced than that. I don't think it's really as simple as a geographic divide, unless you call it a London v the rest of the country divide and the further you get away from it the less investment there has been since Thatcher. There is a lot of poverty in London, there's a lot of wealth as well, more than in the rest of the country, mainly because it's the capital city and an international city, a banking world centre. It gets a lot of investment because it is now seen as the powerhouse of the economy, which it is, so the infrastructure there has had massive investment. What Thatcher did, as far as the coal industry was concerned, was to basically stop subsidising British mined coal to be able to import cheaper subsided foreign coal, and by doing so the big cities in the Midlands and the North declined because there were no jobs in places previously reliant on heavy industry. People in these places traditionally didn't vote for her party so she didn't need their votes to get into, and stay in, power. It was also a way to try to turn parts of these areas into places that would vote for her party since no industry means no union reps, no organised political organisations, and so the media, controlled by Thatcher's friends could push whatever line they wanted directly to the voting public. I believe this decision is what has led to where we are today in the UK. Lack of investment in former industrial areas, much like in the rust belt in the US, has led, eventually, to distrust of politics, to the rise of the far right and populism, people being pushed into voting for things that are against their interests in the hope that what's working now isn't benefitting them so anything else, someone else selling snake oil, it's worth a shot, hence how Brexit came about, which only makes matters worse (though you can hardly blame people for doing this, many are desperate). The policies of Thatcher were almost identical, and from the same ideological thinking, to that if Reagan in the US, they were great friends, basically trickle down economics, which doesn't work (mainly because all the extra money in the hands of the rich will stay in the hands of the rich, who will just end up buying all the assets and pushing up the prices for everyone else). Finally George Osbourne's push for Northern Powerhouse investment to "level up" the country sounds great to anyone not familiar with what was going on at the time, but it didn't happen, and the massive austerity after the global financial crash in 2008, basically took all the institutions and help that people in the North had available to them in order to pay back the money payed to bail out the backs, so the working people had to bail out those wealthy bankers in London, in the City (the financial district of London) who has caused the problems in the first place, yet the country still blamed Labour for the global crisis and the support for the banks, but voted in the party that was also completely in favour of doing this (and if it hadn't been done things would have been a lot worse than it was). Just like in other countries we needed to grow our way to repay the debt over decades rather than making those that could last afford it foot the bill.

[@mariedodds6307]

Wasnt just the coal mines, it was the heavy steel industry too. Decimated Sheffield and Birmingham, and now all we see on the landscape are vast warehousing complexes.

[@ekatep6362]

Our railways are moving product(freight) and people. HS2 would mean freight could move quicker as well as commuters, as they wouldn't be sharing the same lines as much. It would make commuting between the north and south easier, cheaper and faster, benefiting not only trade, but international trade and national productivity in all sectors

[@sarahwaterfield1428]

I vividly remember my Dad getting really annoyed whenever Thatcher was on television. My Mum nearly banned him from watching the news through fear for his blood pressure 🙈🤣

[@ChrisShelley-v2g]

I live in one of the villages which had a cole mine, there were 16 villages I believe in the immediate area which relied on the mines and coal. Because we are in the center of England or Britain (I can never remember which, if you put an imaginary box around England or Britain and draw a line across and top to bottom you will find Conisborough in the middle), but no coal mines, being central has meant that it is a great place to put warehouses which hold a shit ton of whatever and employ 10 people, this is what the north has become, fantastic rail and road links "except for HS2 of course" and employs 10 workers when we used to make more things than you could shake a stick at. Now I walk my dog on what used to be the spoil heap for the mine and those worse off than me "live" in the woods on the spoil heap and take drugs, my dog went into one of the tents and nicked the blokes biscuits, she didn't even share them with me :/

[@matt-fh6hb]

Grimethorpe, Bolton on Dearne, Mexborough, Thurnscoe, Swinton, Frickley… etc etc. Absolute shit hole now.

[@ChrisShelley-v2g]

@@matt-fh6hb I was born in Bolton on Dearn but now live in Armthorpe, so nothing much changed in my life.

[@davidberesford7009]

JJLA The coal miners went along time ago now, it is the following generations that need the careers to go into. Keep Reacting!

[@waydomriver2186]

You should ask map men ,map men ,map men I miss them .

[@n.c.3607]

The North/South thing is a load of rubbish anyway because here in Bristol, we're all hard working commoners too 😂

[@vaudevillian7]

No the north is more industrial, it has rural elements too of course as that’s where I grew up. The industrial / rural divide doesn’t apply in quite the same way here as the US

[@marvinsmith8624]

Imagine growing up in the north during MT doing that stuff. Hence the music themes etc. Tbf the knock on effect changed the world.

[@CowmanUK]

Yep I grew up in the north during MT time, and I still hate her to this day.

[@fredahopper573]

Loved this

[@ClaireWainscott]

I was born in the mid 70’s in an area called Stoke on Trent, we had 3 industries- coal, steel and ceramics !!! All the males in my family were coal miners and the ladies were in the Potteries, we saw the mines close throwing families onto the streets- I went to work on the pots in a factory of 1800 highly skilled people- when I left 7 years later there were 300 people in that factory and that was only one of hundreds of pot banks . I relocated down south and retrained in aerospace technology. I moved again to the East of England (Thatcher’s home town)following the work just like my ancestors did !! The best thing about where I am now is the railway to that there London, my hubby works in the city so he benefits from more job opportunities.

[@helensomeone6167]

Great video..TY🇬🇧❤️

[@steven54511]

Anyone south of Durham is a softy southerner to my thinking being from Newcastle. The SE corner of England is full of toffs and odd people in general (and that includes the guy who made the video despite him (probably) being from London) and think that the north is Manchester but it's not, there's a hell of a lot more country ABOVE Manchester that they probably don't know about and have never visited.

[@matt-fh6hb]

Go to Yorkshire, stand in a working men’s club full of blokes and stand on a table and loudly proclaim your above statement and you’ll get free dentist treatment.

[@Luckipete]

I'm from Northumberland, north of you Geordie Southern Softy.😉 In jest.

[@steven54511]

@Luckipete LOL

[@Luckipete]

@@steven54511 If I lose my bearing's I end up in a Scot's lassies scratcher.🙂

[@keithweelands5822]

I live in rural north east. Once the mines closed people had no money hence shops garages and other service buisnesses got fewer customers and also closed. Whole town centers are decimated to this day. Been rural there have been times (sorry to say) I've raided farmers fields for veg to eat. I do have a job now in the north and I am doing ok, but most of the shops are charity ( good will in USA ), take aways and gambling. Public transport in London if you miss your tube there will be another shortly. If I miss a bus it is 1hr wait till the next, no rail line that went with the mine closures. Hospital status we had 5 hospitals in our area now only 1, that is 1 hospital for 439000 people. On the brightside I live amounts some of the most glorious country side you'll see the area is graded as AREA OF OUTSTANDING BEAUTY.

[@charlottewebster4233]

I'm a Northerner (Lancashire) and was in a grocery down South and said to one of the staff “Sorry to bother you but - where do your eggs live?” He looked at me like I'd just shit on his child. A couple even looked me up and down either disgusted or just perplexed. He leaned closer to me and slowly repeated it back to me “Where.. do the eggs... LIVE??” with the most blank, none-smiling bastard face I ever saw he pointed and went “Over there near the baking section” Made me really laugh.

[@billyjones9482]

Also add in the area I come from Swansea, it’s the same to a T wherever there were mines and that traditional industrial industry…My home Swansea, all the Welsh Valleys, the North From Liverpool to Newcastle, Blackpool…Including Scotland and Ireland and Northern Ireland. The whole sequence of events still is evident today in all of these places…

[@stevehartley7504]

Much of North was invaded by Viking culture which influences words language South is French/ Norman influence

[@85stace85]

I'm from derbyshire, East Midlands. I'd say the North starts around Sheffield, South Yorkshire, and the South anywhere south of Gloucester and across is the south. All in between is the midlands

[@davidberesford7009]

The road signs tend to tell you which direction the north, or the south, is but until you are almost there they tend to neglect the midlands, which comes in two flavours, the west and the east. The west is basically Birmingham and the east is all the rest from Kettering up to Chesterfield.

[@nolaj114]

Then there's the Cornish in the south (my heritage on my mother's side): "On 24 April 2014, the UK Government recognised the Cornish as a national minority under the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCPNM). The decision to recognise the unique identity of the Cornish now affords them the same status as: the Scots the Welsh and the Irish Being recognised as a national minority means that the Cornish have "the right to: express preserve share and develop their distinct culture and identity." "

[@barryfeagan3969]

When I was young, in the Dark Ages, even London was culturally divided by the North and South, separated by the River Thames.

[@abbzehx]

a lot of the historical animosity that we in the north have with the south (personally, i am in lancashire) can be stemmed back to 1066. the northerners were the last to accept william as the king of england, plus the north had spent a couple of centuries under danelaw so of course they weren't going to accept a norman coming in and telling them that he was king. william decided to decimate the landscape and go scorched earth, even killing people inside churches. entire towns were wiped off the map in his campaign to quell the north. in more recent times, it comes from things like thatcher and the south/westminster taking money from us yet giving nothing back. some of the most deprived towns are in the north. a lot of our local dialects are disappearing as the 'standardised' english creeps up more and more, which i almost find more offensive than the money thing. a lot of our dialect comes from old norse and is older than even middle english, and you presume to think you can strip it from us in the name of standardising based on the south? absolutely not.

[@Jamie_D]

Leicester, thats me :) but we are Midlands, the no mans land between North and South,lol

[@TheCakeIsNotaVlog]

Yeah, it might take 20 years. The mines were closed 40 years ago

[@robertgrant4987]

Shocking 😢

[@conollytom7049]

1:47 i think you’d like and appreciate Turd Towns… all about UK Towns and there interesting ways inum.

[@gennytun]

Would a high speed rail really help? That's a complicated question, and the HS2 project has been very polarising for all sorts of reasons. But in general there is a big probkem when all transport links (roads as well as rail) facilitate getting to and from London, but travel between other major cities and regions is hampered by poorer infrastructure, inhibiting work and development of all kinds. It all helps maintain the London-centric vicious circle.

[@JJLAReacts]

Oh interesting! I guess even now the physical infrastructure is crucial. You’re reminding me of the “All roads lead to Rome” concept of the Roman Empire. It still applies! 🤦🏻

[@JamesLMason]

The north has historically been more industrial.

[@noggintube]

Not just the North. The Midlands was the heart of the industrial revolution. There's a reason it's called the Black Country.

[@irreverend_]

And like the idiots we are, most of those nationalised industries have since been privatised again.

[@firstnamelastname-bu1xm]

16:50 is interesting, kinda like trumps idea

[@SteveRGash]

It’s uncannily like the divide of the Dane law in the first millennium

[@martyjones1413]

Born in 67 I grew up 20ks from Liverpool

[@Jai_Skorpio]

I'd just like to state for the record - it's West-MIN-ster, not West-mini-ster as our boy keeps saying. I hear it a lot actually. Maybe because Minister's work there?? I'm a Southerner but I've got a lot of Northern work colleagues and they're brilliant! I think a good mix is the key.

[@legend9335]

When the Romans occupied GB they said the North began north side of the river Trent just south of Nottingham.

[@steveaga4683]

The coal wasn't cheaper, though. The British miners were the most efficient in Europe. Welsh coal was perfect for the industrial revolution needs because it burned cleaner and hotter. The reason why German coal was imported was because it was heavily subsidised following WW2.

[@philiprowney]

20:39 - I live in the top of the A in BREXITLAND, only 20 miles East of Peterborough. We say ain't and they say ent for isn't ;-)

[@dennisd7]

20:53 can confirm: I've lived just south of Elephant & Castle together with three recent graduates with poorly paid jobs

[@jillybrooke29]

3 bedroomed house in Bolton, Manchester up North (my friends' house) £100,000 ..my 3 bedroom house on South Coast £300,000 and that is a lot cheaper than London, 60miles away from me 😮

[@tomski120]

I moved south in 84, took Norman's advice, and "got on my bike" (I got the train really, lol)

[@col4022]

Basically, rich people from the South built factories in the North. They also built tiny little houses like rabbit hutches called back to backs and forced poor people to live in them and work back breaking, menial jobs in said mills and factories while paying them very little. There's two massive parks in my city that started off as huge hunting estates with huge expensive, fancy buildings that the rich created to live in while the poor lived like rats working themselves to death. Then came the coal mines as this video explains.

[@grabtharshammer]

Not completely true. A lot of Mill owners were from the North, Most of my Ancestors worked in the Mills. Yet in two cases they went from working in the Mills, to opening new mills or buying old mills and rebuilding them. Very few Mill owners were from the South.

[@kdog4587]

As someone from the Midlands, Leicester to be specific, id consider us the Midlands hahaa butttt between the two id much rather be considered northern.

[@Chris-wz5yd]

She said, "if your out of work, get on your bike".... Apologies for my earlier, jump the gun.

[@timtreefrog9646]

Bristol won a friendliest city award 😂

[@CyanideSunshines]

Where i am in the East , we are struggling to find open shops. Theyre all either derelict or betting shops. It has beautiful scenery but thats about it now lol

[@SamTurtonsamsamsam999]

I think a good example in the US would be the city of Chicago which was once booming but declined like many of the northern cities

[@xKynOx]

The North is our Rust Belt.

[@JayKughan]

And this is why Black Sabbath is a force to be reckoned with. Northerners with the fight in their bellies to climb out of their situation.

[@richardanderson8696]

No, the South is more rural overall, aside from London, the other big metropolitan areas are all in the Midlands and North. The South does have more medium sized towns though.