Matt,
T t t t traditional T t t tetley is a bloody g g g good p p p p pint and make no m m m m mistake. Not as good as Tim Taylors landlord tho, one of the best.
But I hate that " Traditional, newly invented, nitrokeg, Smoothpour" piss, which tastes like something out of the pickled onion jar.
I do not know to which filthy Southern brews you are refering tho. Beer in this area is pretty good IMO. Even in London! What is wrong with Youngs or Fullers? Or a miriad of others? If you get a poor pint down here, you can be sure it was brewed oop north. eg Boddingtons, Tetly nitrokeg or John Smiths (the nations top selling beer BTW).
But just to kill the thread off once and for all, the finest beer in the world, bar none, is Harveys Sussex Bitter, a drink on it's own. Fully hopped, fruity and very very bitter, it's still brewed in wood and copper and unchanged for centuries. A proper English yeomans pint.