ARE you fiercely proud of your regional identity even though it’s totally arbitrary and extremely tedious? Here’s how to be a twat about it.
Be really into Essex
Confusing phenomenon whereby Essex dwellers genuinely celebrate Essex things like shit nightclubs, fake tan culture and knowing someone involved in the Brink’s-Mat robbery. (Who always “seems like an alright guy”, until he’s on the news for murdering someone.)
Develop a tedious interest in local history
Local history is fine if it’s in small doses and about worthwhile things like ghosts and murders. However if your friends are openly weeping with boredom they may not be that interested in Lichfield’s role in the Victorian-era salt mining industry.
Try to be from the ‘hardest’ place
If you come from somewhere ‘gritty’, pathetically try to get some street cred out of it even if you only go there once a year to visit your parents, who live in the nice bit and are both university lecturers.
Note: This works best with places like Moss Side, bits of Glasgow and Peckham. Don’t try to claim you’ve seen the dark underbelly of St Ives, unless you want to sound like Jay from Inbetweeners.
Be a professional Northerner
Probably the most annoying regional identity ever since the Cockneys – rightly – became extinct. Professional Northernism appears to be based on an exaggerated love of pies, romanticised working class bollocks and being ‘straight-talking’, ie. ‘rude’.
Have a bizarre hatred of other places
Don’t limit yourself to slagging off London or having a weird dislike of Liverpudlians or Lancastrians. Try some other places. People from Oswestry are the real bastards.
