[darraghenright]

To add something coincidental to this subject that happened yesterday:

I'm in Nottingham in my holidays at the moment — I spoke to an elderly man who was originally from the north of England and he happened to bring up accents.

He was in the army for a few years and he said he had to change his accent because [putting on a strong northern accent] "if oi talk loike this, people thought oi was a blimmin' idiot".