Editorial Apology

It has come to my attention that there were some factual errors in the blog entitled ‘Crossing the Great Divide’ (September 2nd) and I would like to make a formal apology to The Father for misrepresenting him. He has pointed out to me, and I quote, “Though mum may never have been north of Watford before meeting me, I had then already been to Scotland (as far north as John O’Groats), Lake District, Yorkshire Moors, etc. many times with my parents on caravanning holidays.” I was actually unaware of this great pioneering spirit in the Reed family – John O’Groats is the furthest north you can venture in mainland Britain – but then they did emigrate to Australia, which is a pretty long way to travel. Of course, although it may be thousands of miles from the UK, Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere so perhaps that merely supports my argument about Southerners. The Father has always been at great pains to highlight the fact that his family were ‘salt of the earth’ kind of people (though I’m not sure that many of the working class lived in a five bedroom detached house in the wealthy Home County town of Beaconsfield) and therefore, I’m sure, was deeply offended by the insinuation that he turned his nose up at the North. All I can do, in recompense, is offer him my sincerest apologies.


Of course, to be fair to the facts, I must also add his second correction to the blog referring to my comment that his family would always by-pass Birmingham. “The reason for staying on the peripheral motorway and not going into Birmingham was not because my parents were trying to get somewhere else but because we were all too frightened to go into central Birmingham, though we did on that trip go into central Glasgow ... with the car doors locked!” He may be a stickler for the facts, but I don’t think this latter comment backs up his case for being a man of the people. Indeed, it supports my theory that Southerners are a totally different kettle of fish to Northerners. They just don’t get each other. I lived in Birmingham for many years and yet there were parts of the city in which I always engaged the central locking and, back in the Sixties and Seventies, Glasgow did have quite a violent reputation so I’m not sure I would have been brave enough to venture into the centre even in a locked car.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the fact that Brits are not one homogeneous people. It simply makes for an interesting, diverse mix. One thing’s for sure - there’s nowt as queer as folk.