We may not have as much money as Londoners - but Northerners have a far greater quality of life: Yorkshire Post Letters

Glorious countryside is just one advantage of living in the North, argues a letter writer. Pictured is the Hole of Horcum on the Levisham Estate in North Yorkshire. Picture: Marisa Cashill.

I wonder if many of your readers are as irritated as I often am by the sloppiness and fallacies often implicit in the North/South divide debate?

'The North-South divide caused Brexit, now leaders must come North to win the election'It now seems the default position of every northern politician and business person to decry the lack of investment in the North and to suggest at least by implication that things are far rosier down south.

Firstly this is geographically very sloppy at best. If there is a privileged part of the UK, it is more narrowly defined and might be better seen as the area within the M25. Moreover, is it really so grim up here? What strikes me most about much of the South-East is how congested, polluted and over-developed it is.

Perhaps it has far higher incomes than we do but they pay a high price for them. Also, we have by far the more glorious countryside right on our doorsteps.

It is not so much the whole of the UK north of Watford that is deprived and under-funded but distinct areas across the whole country, be they east Hull, west Cornwall, south Bristol or east Glasgow.

The last words should go to that most erudite of northern characters Peter Tinniswood’s Uncle Mort: ‘The best thing about the north, it’s not the blooming south!’