"I clearly am missing something - I thought it referred to a river in the far north of England and another in the far south west, i.e. the greatest distance between two major rivers and still be within England. I'm not particualarly keen on it as a song, and wouldn't want to learn it, but I hadn't noticed offensive anything in it!"

I hadn't seen any slight on Northumbria either, but now Alec has made that comment I realise that Steve might have better said Tweed, if he were including all of Northumberland. The Cornish (ie West of Tamar) might argue whether they are or aren't in England, but most folk living North of the Tyne would probably say they are (at least South of the border).

But hey, Steve started to lose me at line about the song about Buddy Holly and the 1960s and he definitely lost me when he decided he didn't like how all my family speak. Fortunately I still like lots of his other songs. Indeed I still quite like Roots itself, even if I do mildly grimace at several of the lines.