Regional Identities in the UK - A short guide for Americans

by besty 56 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  besty

  So the UK is divided into 4 separate countries - the big bit called England that has Wales on the side and Scotland at the top with Northern Ireland off on its own island.

  Each country has multiple cultural identities. Broadly speaking (and I generalize) the wealth of England (and the UK generally) is concentrated in London, the 'rust belt' is in the middle namely Birmingham and Manchester and the North of England tends to be poorer.

  Scotland - where I'm from - is culturally rich but economically poor. There is a long-standing argument about how wealthy Scotland could have been if it had been able to keep all the North Sea oil revenue instead of sending it to London. Scotland does get disproportionately more economic aid than other UK 'regions'. Glasgow the rightful capital of Scotland :-) was the engineering heartbeat of the British Empire and has been in lockstep decline with the B.E. unfortunately. Edinburgh <the Athens of the North...pause....NOT!> is more beautiful than Glasgow, but with beauty and money comes a certain affected air - come on Scotsman - say i'm fibbbing....:-) Most of Scotland's 5,000,000 population is in the Central Belt between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

  For many years Edinburgh was the location for the District Convention and included some of the Geordie towns in the North of England. Sometime in the early 90's this was moved to the snooty little market town called Perth, where I grew up. The Geordies didn't come to the DC in Scotland from that time on and the soulless little 10k capacity stadium was a dim reflection of the fun and excitement of the much larger Murrayfield - combined with the JW drive for simplification the fun was being strangled out of being a young Witness.

  Any other UK posters want to chime in with thoughts on their 'region'?

  Paul <live from Los Angeles>
• 

  snowbird

  So, what about Wolverhampton?

  Are there any Black people in Scotland?

  Sylvia
• 

  wobble

  I was born and bred, and still live in Kent,down in the South-East. there is this weird idea that we are richer than those from T'north, which is rubbish, at certain times in the property cycle our houses fetch more money, but that is illusory, you cannot access that money unless you up-sticks and leave for a cheaper area, and everything is more expensive here than further up the country, so really us plebs in the South are poorer than the Northeners and the Scots !

  We are also a weird amalgam of cultures, and recently many more cultures have joined us due to immigration,so we don't have a very noticeable identity here in the S.E

  The only thing that is certain is that people from other regions have accents, we do not, we speak English as She should be spoke.

  Love

  Wobble
• 

  snowbird

  So, what about Wolverhampton?

  Are there any Black people in Scotland?

  What is meant by Geordie?

  Sylvia
• 

  leavingwt

  Here is the origin of my Wolverhampton remark...

  While at Brooklyn Bethel, a District Overseer from the UK was visiting my department. In the conversation, it came up that I was from Down South. Eventually, someone in the group compared Southerners to folks from Wolverhampton. The implication was, "country folks", uneducated and unsophisticated, etc. All in good humor, of course.

  -LWT
• 

  besty

  lol @ snowbird

  Wolverhampton is in the Midlands - which is the Rust Belt of the UK - its like Detroit or something I guess....you can see the Black British population distribution here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_British Wolverhampton enjoys 6.7% of its population being black, so 3 times more than the 2% national distribution.

  Most of the 1,100,000 black folks in the UK are in London - with decreasing numbers as you go North until you get to Scotland which has very few. I didn't see a black person that i can remember until I was seven.

  My hometown Perth population 50k had one - for real, just one - black guy who worked in the library. Nice chap he was. I later found out that 'black' hair doesn't work too well with getting wet so Scotland (high rainfall) doesn't work for the sistas :-)))) Perhaps you can confirm as I'm maybe being ignorant? The most recent census figures for Scotland are 2 in 1000 black, compared to 2 in 100 for the rest of the UK.

  It was only when I moved to London that I got to know a lot of black people - at work and at our local KH which was split 50/50 black/white. I would generalize (from a male white middle class point of view :-)) and say that the UK feels more racially integrated than the US. The UK invited mass immigration from the former colonies after WWII so the UK black population doesn't have the same dysfunctional relationship with the host country as the US.

  From a JW point of view (and I assume this represents the UK in general) black and white are well integrated on the surface, BUT, when it comes to socializing away from the KH, its pretty much divided on racial terms. Amongst JWs mixed marriages are not widespread but still raises eyebrows to some extent, just because you don't see much of it.

  From a work perspective black people are typically in lower paid jobs or paid less for the same job. So same story as the US there I guess.

  strawberry cake can maybe help me out here with a more informed viewpoint than mine :-)
• 

  snowbird

  I later found out that 'black' hair doesn't work too well with getting wet so Scotland (high rainfall) doesn't work for the sistas :-)))) Perhaps you can confirm as I'm maybe being ignorant?

  You are absolutely correct.

  I'm wearing my hair au naturel because of the high humidity down here.

  Thank you so much for that information.

  Sylvia
• 

  besty

  I wouldn't sterotype Woverhampton like that - its very much an urban area, albeit in decay.

  No - uneducated and unsophisticated is reserved for the Oirish - they are <were> our whipping boy for the 'did you hear the one about the Irishman that went into a bar....' jokes

  if you go here and scroll down you can see Barb and Joe with UK DO Dennis Dutton - he is on the UK Branch Committee now - perhaps Barb will renew their friendship while she is in the UK next week :-)
• 

  snowbird

  I didn't see a black person that i can remember until I was seven.

  LOL.

  What is meant by Geordie?

  Sylvia
• 

  drwtsn32

  It's fun to walk the streets of Derry in the middle of the night yelling "I'm a proddy! I'm a proddy!"