The Scouse and wool debate could be put to bed by an alternative name for people in this region
People in Liverpool have many different ways to define a Scouser. For some, the best test is based on the colour of your wheelie bin, for others it's defined by postcode and for some it's a matter of accent.
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the term Scouser means "a person who comes from the Liverpool area in North West England". The crucial word there is "area", suggesting you do not necessarily have to live within the Liverpool city limits to be a Scouser, just the area.
For example, places like Bootle, Crosby, Kirkby and Huyton are technically not in Liverpool. The city of Liverpool, defined by the area governed by Liverpool City Council, does not stretch to those places.
READ MORE: How Liverpool's pride and status meant the Scouse accent spread and became 'stronger'
READ MORE: 10 things we learnt from the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool
It means the aforementioned towns do not have purple wheelie bins. For Bootle and Crosby - as they are in the borough of Sefton - their general waste is collected in grey bins. In the Knowsley towns of Kirkby and Huyton, the bins are maroon.
You would, however, have a hard task telling someone from Bootle that they are not a Scouser. But if you are from Merseyside and you're not a Scouser, what does that make you?
Some people might class you as a wool (short for woolyback, for the non-initiated). But again, wool is a rather contested - and usually a pejorative term. There is some dispute as to whether it is more likely to relate to people from rugby league town of St Helens, as well as our Cheshire neighbours of Warrington and Widnes, or can it also be applied to people from Knowsley, Sefton or Wirral?
One man is making the argument that a catch-all term could solve these many problems of defining identity. Writer Richie Wright, 44, believes the term ‘Liverpolitan’ should apply to anyone from the Liverpool City Region (LCR) - the combined authority led by Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, covering Liverpool, Wirral, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens and the Cheshire borough of Halton.
The term does have some historical precedence. In a recent piece on the regional identity for Liverpool Museums, Richie pointed out the term Scouser has only really been used widely since the mid-20th century, taken from the Scouse dish.
In that piece, Richie wrote: “Historians have written about Victorian 'Liverpolitans', proud inhabitants of one of the world's most important centres of trade, a growing global port metropolis that boasted new grand architecture and technology. Records from the 1900s in the British Newspaper Archive show people questioning whether Liverpolitan was a more appropriate term for local people compared to Liverpudlian, because Liverpool was increasing in size and importance.”
Politan comes from the Greek word polis, which means ‘citizenship’, or ‘body of people’. Liverpolitan is currently used as the name of an online politics magazine but Richie would like it to make a comeback as a term for the 1.6m residents of the LCR.
Richie, originally from the Scotland Road area of Liverpool, told the ECHO: “The city region has been on a journey over the last 50 years - politically and economically. 2024 is an important year.
“It’s 50 years since Merseyside was created, 20 years since the LCR was first defined and it is also the year that we were given Level Four devolution. It's also 10 years since the LCR Combined Authority came into being.
“I think the term Liverpool City Region is becoming more and more common now. We've got the likes of Merseytravel changing its name to Transport for the Liverpool City Region, the region will soon have its own crest and flag.
“Some people confuse LCR with Merseyside, but they are not the same thing. It's the Halton dynamic, so I think the term Merseysider no longer really applies to the region.
“I think there's a space there and a new way of thinking - maybe a space where a new noun can come into it, or a new adjective can come into the situation. I think that's where the Liverpolitan term kind of makes sense.”
LCR and Mayor Rotheram’s branding are seen throughout the six boroughs it covers. The mayor has addressed the complexity of bringing his entire region into one identity.
Earlier this year, he told BBC Radio Merseyside: “We speak with many accents but because we have devolution and a Metro Mayor, we can now speak with one voice. It's not universal that we all feel that we are part of this Liverpolitan identity. I would love everybody to feel that they are part of a city region though”.
As the Scouse identity carries some debate with it - many would not consider those from Wirral as Scousers, Wirral has a proud identity itself and some people on the peninsula still prefer their historical link with Cheshire. Likewise, Southport still has strong links with Lancashire and some in the town would welcome a move from Merseyside to the red rose county.
Add to that, the use of wool (whether it is pejorative or humorous) means the Scouse identity is not always extended to everyone from the city's surrounding areas. Richie thinks the use of Liverpolitan could go some way to solving this, without diminishing the existing Scouse, Sandgrounder, Wirralite, Runcornian or many other local identities.
He explained: “The LCR is basically 30 miles wide by 30 miles long, roughly. Anyone from the region could be classed as a Liverpolitan if they so wish. We're all under this common administration.
“Obviously it's down to how people want to use it. It doesn't necessarily have to apply to everyone at every moment in time, but it's a word that could be used in certain contexts - for example the Liverpolitan Elections.
“I would say that Liverpolitan complements identities like being from Wirral - it doesn't have to overshadow it. I think Liverpolitan completes the city's identity, it completes the continuum of names that are already on offer. It doesn't have to overshadow them, it doesn't have to undermine them, but it can definitely complement it.
“There are 1.6m people who live in the city region, so I think there is plenty of space and plenty of room for different ways of thinking. I definitely Liverpolitan could turn the (wool) argument on its head - it's definitely giving people a different angle to think of and a different way of thinking.”
The LCR is one of many devolved institutions across the UK. Greater London was established in 1965 and our neighbours in Greater Manchester are led by Merseyside’s Andy Burnham. But Richie believes our debate about identity is different and is affected by the growth in the Scouse accent, about which Professor Tony Crowley spoke to the ECHO recently.
Richie said: “I picked up on a recent ECHO article, where Professor Tony Crowley spoke about the Scouse accent as a proud indication of identity and how it's now spreading more and more into the surrounding areas - like St Helens, Runcorn and Widnes - particularly amongst younger people.
“I think this demonstrates the influence of the city and the trend of our communities coming more into contact with each other and mixing. I think the Scouse identity could apply to people who speak the Scouse dialect - as it's a dialect as well as a demonym.
"I think Scouse could apply to people who speak Scouse, but there's debates about the wheelie bins and things like that. It is very debatable but the likes of Huyton, Kirkby, Bootle and Crosby are as Scouse as Scotland Road.”
The word Liverpudlian could also be used in this scenario, but its usage has fallen in recent years and is probably more of a synonym of Scouse. As such, Richie thinks Liverpolitan is a better alternative for the entire region.
“A lot of people may think that it (Liverpolitan) is a push to gentrify the city, but I don't think it has to be that way”, he said. “I think it's the 'politan' part of the word, which is from the Greek and just means citizen or body of people.
“We use it in cosmopolitan. Five of the LCR boroughs are called metropolitan boroughs, so I think Liverpolitan doesn't have to be connected to social class - It's a word that I think the media or business could use.
“Liverpool people are proud of Liverpool growing as a city and it being cool. The LCR is real and the accent is spreading. I don’t know why people prefer the word Liverpudlian though.
Referencing the Monty Python film ‘Life of Brian’, he said: “It’s like the People’s Front of Judea versus the Judean People’s Front. It’s old fashioned and I can’t get my head around why people prefer ‘pudlian’ to ‘politan’.”
What do you think about the use of Liverpolitan? Let us know in the comments.