The BBC’s Alex Scott is right to take pride in her accent, but sometimes it’s good to compromiseI appreciate Alex Scott’s pride in her local accent but not her commitment to its use on every occasion (“BBC’s Alex Scott is ‘proud’ of her accent, despite call from peer for ‘elocution lessons’”, News). I was born and brought up in the north-east of
England. We were encouraged to speak both standard English and the regional dialect, for the sake of clarity and courtesy.
![It’s not what you say but the way that you say it | Letters](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2db483f7d55c703d465865a3fa785f09b27cbbac/0_80_3500_2101/master/3500.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdG8tZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=8395ce6f46ed5cda3708a46cbb0c4372)
This bore fruit when I moved from a
London teaching hospital to my home town for midwifery training. Under the expert guidance of supervising midwives, I was proud to learn to calibrate according to individual mothers between “Please push towards your tail, Mrs Higgins” and “’Ave a big shuv, luv” to produce the best results and satisfaction of all concerned.Ann CorsellisCambridge