A NEW poll has revealed that more than a quarter of Britons believe they have been discriminated against because of the way they speak.
The new findings, from an ITV news study, suggest the Liverpudlian accent – where thousands of second generation Irish live – sounds the least intelligent.
28% of participants questioned by COMRES, who conducted the regional-accent questionnaire, felt they had been the victim of discrimination based on their accent.
When asked about how intelligent they found specific regional accents to be, 37 per cent (net) of survey respondents judged the Liverpool accent as being unintelligent, followed by Birmingham (33%) and the 'Cockney' London accent (32%).
When it came to trustworthiness, Liverpool also ranked lowest, with 29 per cent (net) finding the accent untrustworthy followed by Cockney London (24%) and Belfast (20%).
Belfast ranked fourth in people's perception of intelligence, with 23 per cent (net) of those surveyed rating Belfast as smart, while Edinburgh ranked second (38%) and Queen's English (Received Pronunciation) was first with 62 per cent.
Separate research conducted by the Manchester-based law firm Peninsular also showed that 80% of employers admitted to making discriminating decisions based on regional accents.
No legislation is currently in place to protect people from discrimination because of the way they sound.
