Wrote a piece about British accents in French about 30 years ago. It started with Mrs Thatcher's and Edward Heath's accents and ended (something like)
"When two Englishmen, gazing into the distance, appear to be discussing the weather, each is listening not to the comments of the other but to his soul, via the architecture of his vowels. This characteristic must date from a time before history, before language itself, when beings who were not yet fully human were still uttering simple cries, like apes or parrots,' followed by a reference to the linguistics professor who had first commented on Mrs Thatcher's accent.
I still feel a bit smug about that after all these years. The Frogs adored it anyway.
Regional accents are great in my book. Of course they mutate over time - faster and faster - but they will still be there into the future. I really hope so anyway.
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