Sir - I read the article (Limited Edition, February) with dismay, as your reporter heaped stereotype on prejudice to produce an image of Northern people as arrogant, obnoxious, selfish, stupid morons.

Though, we all admit that a North/South divide still exists in this country, along with a highly divisive class system, such representations suggest that the writer is nostalgic for an era when people knew their place and common folk, from the North, would never have had the means to stay at such an establishment and would have confined themselves their stinking cellars and garrets in a Salford slum, rather than disturbing the equanimity of respectable middle-class people at play in an exclusive hotel.

I was so offended by the imagery that I wondered if it was a suitable case for the Commission For Racial Equality and certainly for the Press Complaints Commission. If an Asian business party was portrayed as a convention of corner shopkeepers, conversing loudly in Urdu and destroying the ambience in the process, there would be an outcry. Accusations of racism would undoubtedly be levelled at your publication.

Finally, I would like to point out (it's a shame it seems necessary) that arrogant, obnoxious morons come from all points of the compass. Nasty yuppies did not originate in the North of England, never made up a considerable constituency of its population and are universally held in contempt there, as in other regions of the country - hopefully. Yours, furious and married to a working class Northerner.

Tracy Ellicott, Oxford