No North/South divide when it comes to both football and ballet - Jayne Dowle

Has the MP for Darwen and Rossendale never heard a brass band playing Mozart and Bach? Has he not seen Brassed Off or Billy Elliot? Or heard of our world-class ballet and modern dance companies, including Phoenix Dance and the Northern Ballet in Leeds, or the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester and the Liverpool Philharmonic?

I grew up watching grassroots football with my grandad on the rec. I could tell you the offside rule before I learned long division. I also loved dance, art and going to the theatre.

And I wasn’t alone. Every northern town or city has a theatre or performance space, a choir or am-dram society. It probably also has a football or rugby league stadium. And a cricket pitch for that matter.

What Mr Berry should appreciate is that art and sport are not mutually exclusive anywhere in the UK. They both play a colossal part in the national psyche, and economy.

One of my dear friends, a retired primary school teacher, once persuaded the Royal Shakespeare Company to come and perform at the secondary school in Darton, South Yorkshire. She is also a lifelong Barnsley FC fan with an East Stand season ticket. Go figure that one Mr Berry.

He was right to point out during a Parliamentary debate that ‘Northern culture’ has taken a severe hit from the Covid-19 crisis. He was wrong, however, to presume that “for many people who live in London and the south of England, things like the opera house and ballet will be at the heart of their culture. But in the north of England, for many of us it is our local football club”.

Apparently, our “Glyndebourne, Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House or Royal Shakespeare Company will be Blackburn Rovers, Accrington Stanley, Barrow, Carlisle and Sunderland”.

This divisiveness does no good at all. It’s bad enough tackling the already skewed perception of the North held by many in Westminster.

If certain judgmental MPs and ministers need further ‘proof’ that up here we huddle in caves munching bones, they need look no further than Mr Berry, who now heads the Northern Research Group of Tory MPs apparently committed to the ‘levelling-up’ agenda.

Perhaps he would like to come to our house for his tea. It’s likely that Classic FM would be on in the background. I’ve been a fan of this radio station since my son was a newborn. I’d read somewhere that classical music was good for a baby’s cognitive development, so I would turn the dial to soothe him to sleep every evening. Not sure how successful that was, but classical music became our constant companion; there’s a lovely photograph somewhere of Jack giggling and kicking on his play-mat to Figaro! Figaro! Figaro! from Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.

This early inculcation into the world of opera and classical music was no barrier to my son kicking a football before he could walk. At 18, he still plays in goal for a local team. Throughout his childhood he was a Barnsley fan; I took him to Oakwell and all over the country to away games.

These days Jack’s first team is Liverpool. Mr Berry, who was born in the city, might be interested to learn that we included a family stadium tour of Anfield on our ‘UK tour’ summer holiday this August. On the drive afterwards, we listened to Classic FM on the car radio as we reflected on what had been a moving afternoon. I haven’t forgotten about ballet. How could I? My daughter, Lizzie, who is 15, has danced since she was three; ballet, tap, modern, musical theatre. Mr Berry should come and watch a show or a competition some time.

He would see row upon row of parents, mothers and fathers from all kinds of backgrounds, entranced and moved by the ability of dance to transform and inspire every generation.

I don’t suppose Mr Berry knows this either, but dear old Blackpool is the UK dance mecca. Would you believe it, they even hold international ballet championships in the Winter Gardens?

He might also like to know that not all Southerners would prefer a ticket to Glyndebourne over a front-row seat at Stamford Bridge. Each to their own. Our personal and communal appreciation of football and opera and ballet and everything else proves that, really, there’s no need for a North/South divide at all.

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