It's been an age since I last toured the Northerner's online world, though I've been scooting around the real thing in the last week. Helvellyn, Sheffield, Hadrian's Wall, Oldham, Cockermouth ... It's a tonic, for all that you feel like a human yo-yo. Roll on the weekend.
I'm not complaining, though. The Guardian's civilised practice of a four-week sabbatical every four years took me in February to Sri Lanka, a country where the cultural merriment over north and south, which we enjoy in the UK, turned sour years ago. Maybe, fingers crossed, things are beginning to change for the better now; but there is a lesson in what can happen when a region becomes seriously resentful against its nation's centre. Continue reading...