The scenario of a Conservative north versus a liberal south, envisioned by John Harris, is being treated as a bizarre inversion of normality (Could England’s future be a left-leaning south facing off against a conservative north?, 16 May). But if anything it’s a return to the mean: the robust traditionalism of provincial England versus the febrile changeability of metropolitan England has a much deeper history than the collapse of Labour’s “red wall”. After all, during the civil wars, it was northern England and Wales which supported the conservative King Charles – the wealthy grandees of London and the gentlemanly south still declared for the roundhead radicals of parliament.
Robert Frazer
Stockport, Greater Manchester
• John Harris offers a challenge to those of a liberal/left persuasion who wish to integrate their politics and lifestyles. If you want to be an agent of change, one way – should the opportunity arise – is to go and live somewhere where most people are in many respects not like you. It was good to see JB Priestley quoted, although from his early 20s he spent his life living and working well south of Bradford.
Geoff Reid
Bradford
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