Posh southern family

[soulman101]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-BVgPeZR-Y

[Omegstrat6]

Find Catherine Tate a bit hit and miss but this sketch is quite funny-and telling too! The comments panel for this you tube clip say it all really!

A couple of years ago the better half (actually from Es*** 😀-though on the Cambridgeshire border) and our neighbour (originally from Lincolnshire) went on a shopping trip to London and were stunned by how 1) everyone was in a great rush and 2) everyone seemed to deliberately go out of their way to avoid eye contact with anyone else and certainly any form of greeting, yet alone conversation. At Liverpool Street they encountered a young mum struggling with bags and buggy at the escalators. Everyone else studiously ignored her plight and the woman was clearly shocked when my wife and neighbour offered to help her! Think she was initially afraid of them!

Also have a Scouse friend who , whenever visiting London for work, deliberately goes out of his way to speak to people just for their reactions😀

The village I live in is a very friendly one generally and everyone greets each and although I don't mind visiting London for what it has to offer in terms of its attractions I could never live there. Two of our kids work and live in the area but I couldn't do it now. I know it is our capital city but other cities aren't like that and, whilst I very rarely go these days, have always found people in Birmingham or Liverpool, for example, far more friendly.

[Joy_Division]

I worked in London for a short spell and I detested every single minute I was down there. The tube journey alone was enough to f*ck the day up before you even started work. Everyone only interested in their own needs and happy to shove you out of the way to ensure they got on the train.

[Omegstrat6]

The Londoners I have met or worked with have been generally fine and friendly and I'm sure there are also many areas of London that have a sense of community but I certainly find that the culture in central London is different to other city centres I've been to. Not only is everyone always seemingly in a rush with no time for anyone else, but there seems to be this almost fear of speaking to strangers? Guess, in most cities you might encounter the odd "nutter on the bus" you'd rather avoid but they do appear to take this attitude to the extreme!

It's not just this difference in culture between the North/South divide that Tate is taking the p iss out of though. It's about the general divide in wealth. When you have more money you can become more insulated from "real" life where you only mix socially with those on your financial level and contact with others is limited to "trades people" as Mrs Bucket might say😀

Of course there are poorer people in the "home counties" and Tate uses the tropes of the richer and aloof Southerner and the poorer but warm and friendly Northerner. Doesn't mean there isn't a big dollop of truth in it though -and not difficult to see which side the majority of the upper echelons of the Tory Party come from either😀

[SwedishBaggie]

London - my favourite city in the world, Berlin close as # 2.

Mind you, I said ”city” not place, and I did not say that I would like to live (and work) there on a permanent basis. 😎