A Foreign View of Britain

Stoo · 05 June 2007, 22:36

Over here in Canada, one of national news magazines is Macleans. There was an article in this week's edition which I read at noon today, and it made me think of my Rib.net friends. I frequently read of your concerns of your political leadership and the general direction your country is heading. I thought you might find this article of interest as it represents one outsiders view...

Incidently, we are bombarded by US media here in Canada, and the frequent observation is that the US is following much the same route. Sadly, I'm not sure Canada is far behind, although I think we benefit from being able to observe the results of a neo-conservative government to our south... Of course, one might argue that we have a similar one here, but it is kept in check by virtue of a minority government!

Here's the link:

http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?c..._106150_106150

codprawn · 06 June 2007, 00:18

Thanks for the concern STOO

Firstly I see that the article is as ignorant about BRITAIN as most foreign publications. There is more to Britain than just England - Wales, Scotland and Northen Ireland are also part of the same country!!!

I agree with many of the points but they need to be taken into perspective. Compared to the US for example I sometimes think things aren't so bad after all. At least our Police aren't as bad as the Yank ones - you don't get tasered for being a bit slow getting out of your car - yet......

When they say about child poverty they apply different scales for different countries. I have lived in some very poor countries and have seen people living in carboard shacks without even food to eat and no medical help when needed. That is poverty. In the UK even the poorest kids still have Playstations and Nike/Reebok trainers etc.

i always used to be so proud of living in Britain. Now I hate what Blair and his cronies have done. My best mate moves to Perth/Australia in September - another friend is going to New Zealand - another lives about 100 miles from you - they have all said they are going because of what Britain has turned into.

The biggest evil is the destruction of our civil liberties and the fear that has been instilled in the population so that kids are no longer allowed out to play. Blair has turned neighbour against neighbour and petty croimes are now more important than major ones.

Shoplifting now carries an on the spot £80 fine. Put you rubbish out a day early and you get fined £100 - something very wrong somewhere.

It seems to me the decent people are all leaving and what is left???

Blair and Bush have just scored another major success - Maggie and Reagan brought about the end of the Cold War - they are starting a new one!!!

Spike · 06 June 2007, 01:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by codprawn

Thanks for the concern STOO

Firstly I see that the article is as ignorant about BRITAIN as most foreign publications. There is more to Britain than just England - Wales, Scotland and Northen Ireland are also part of the same country!!!

I agree with many of the points but they need to be taken into perspective. Compared to the US for example I sometimes think things aren't so bad after all. At least our Police aren't as bad as the Yank ones - you don't get tasered for being a bit slow getting out of your car - yet......

When they say about child poverty they apply different scales for different countries. I have lived in some very poor countries and have seen people living in carboard shacks without even food to eat and no medical help when needed. That is poverty. In the UK even the poorest kids still have Playstations and Nike/Reebok trainers etc.

i always used to be so proud of living in Britain. Now I hate what Blair and his cronies have done. My best mate moves to Perth/Australia in September - another friend is going to New Zealand - another lives about 100 miles from you - they have all said they are going because of what Britain has turned into.

The biggest evil is the destruction of our civil liberties and the fear that has been instilled in the population so that kids are no longer allowed out to play. Blair has turned neighbour against neighbour and petty croimes are now more important than major ones.

Shoplifting now carries an on the spot £80 fine. Put you rubbish out a day early and you get fined £100 - something very wrong somewhere.

It seems to me the decent people are all leaving and what is left???

Blair and Bush have just scored another major success - Maggie and Reagan brought about the end of the Cold War - they are starting a new one!!!

Here-Here 100%,
There is a lot more i could add to that but you covered most points, current UK goverment.....in my opinion CRAP bring back Maggie, but im sure many will dissagree

But im still proud to be BRITISH & wouldent change that for anything or anyone im just hopeing the next goverment is better...we can all hope cant we....
Mike

Stoo · 06 June 2007, 01:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by codprawn

Thanks for the concern STOO

I trust you folks appreciate that I was only passing this along for your interest. I purposely avoided commenting simply because I haven't been over there since I was 13 years old...

pathalla · 06 June 2007, 02:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by codprawn

Thanks for the concern STOO

Firstly I see that the article is as ignorant about BRITAIN as most foreign publications. There is more to Britain than just England - Wales, Scotland and Northen Ireland are also part of the same country!!!

I agree with many of the points but they need to be taken into perspective. Compared to the US for example I sometimes think things aren't so bad after all. At least our Police aren't as bad as the Yank ones - you don't get tasered for being a bit slow getting out of your car - yet......

When they say about child poverty they apply different scales for different countries. I have lived in some very poor countries and have seen people living in carboard shacks without even food to eat and no medical help when needed. That is poverty. In the UK even the poorest kids still have Playstations and Nike/Reebok trainers etc.

i always used to be so proud of living in Britain. Now I hate what Blair and his cronies have done. My best mate moves to Perth/Australia in September - another friend is going to New Zealand - another lives about 100 miles from you - they have all said they are going because of what Britain has turned into.

The biggest evil is the destruction of our civil liberties and the fear that has been instilled in the population so that kids are no longer allowed out to play. Blair has turned neighbour against neighbour and petty croimes are now more important than major ones.

Shoplifting now carries an on the spot £80 fine. Put you rubbish out a day early and you get fined £100 - something very wrong somewhere.

It seems to me the decent people are all leaving and what is left???

Blair and Bush have just scored another major success - Maggie and Reagan brought about the end of the Cold War - they are starting a new one!!!

Hey Cod, you forgot Southern Ireland, if there is a North of Ireland there must necessarily be a South no?
If things get too bad for you over there we could probably squeeze you and your rib in over here... lots of room on these Great Lakes right Stoo?

Stoo · 06 June 2007, 03:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by pathalla

Hey Cod, you forgot Southern Ireland, if there is a North of Ireland there must necessarily be a South no?

There is.. but I believe it's just regular old "Ireland"...

And of course we can fit Cod in over here... I'm just not sure it's any better!

codprawn · 06 June 2007, 04:13

I could think of a lot worse places to live than the Great Lakes - and I LOVE snow!!!

The reason I said Northern Ireland was because the rest of the Irish would never admit to being anything to do with Britain. Then again we seem to have most of their gyppos over here!!!

wavecrosschris · 06 June 2007, 09:07

that article points out just about all of the problems with England I can think of (and the stuff that annoys me most about this government), but it only highlights the negative sides to living here with nasty looking statistics. I'd hate to think what people reading that from outside the uk imagine it's like to live here!

codprawn · 06 June 2007, 12:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by wavecrosschris

that article points out just about all of the problems with England I can think of (and the stuff that annoys me most about this government), but it only highlights the negative sides to living here with nasty looking statistics. I'd hate to think what people reading that from outside the uk imagine it's like to live here!

It's NOT just England - it happens to effect the rest of the UK as well...........

Biggles · 06 June 2007, 12:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by wavecrosschris

that article points out just about all of the problems with England I can think of (and the stuff that annoys me most about this government), but it only highlights the negative sides to living here with nasty looking statistics. I'd hate to think what people reading that from outside the uk imagine it's like to live here!

Maybe somebody could list some positive points of living in this country !

But your not allowed to say the fact that we are surrounded by lots of RIB friendly water.

wavecrosschris · 06 June 2007, 12:11

Harry Enfield got it on the head with Labour...

This was from his golden era...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnxPuidq1qQ

Stoo · 06 June 2007, 12:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by wavecrosschris

... it only highlights the negative sides to living here with nasty looking statistics. I'd hate to think what people reading that from outside the uk imagine it's like to live here!

...And I think that the emphasis on the negative is to be expected. These folks are trying to sell magazines of course. Living fairly close to Toronto, I visit there often for business and pleasure. It's a wonderful, clean, safe city. But if one reads the daily papers, you would swear it's full of crime with weekly murders. In reality, these sorts of serious crimes are pretty much limited to a particular neighborhood. Of course it is not politically acceptable to track crime by racial group, but it's pretty apparent who's involved in these crimes 95% of the time.

I spent a week in Chicago a few years ago and I was shocked to read the morning paper where reports of murders were almost daily events. (Of course, it might have just been the week I was there.) What was surprising about it was that nobody seemed to care, and in fact, the reports weren't even worthy of front page coverage. When I commented on this to a local, his response was simply that the people involved in these crimes were almost exclusively involved in the drug trade, and as far as he was concerned, the faster they killed each other off, the better... Public outrage only surfaced when an innocent bystander was killed. This is what happened in Toronto last year when a 15 year old girl was caught in the cross-fire of a gang-related shooting on Toronto's main street. Those involved are before the courts now. Mercifully, that was very much an isolated event.

I was chatting with my SO last night about the article, and the references it made to the education system. She is an elementary-school Principal and sees similar changes here. The integration of classes where no one is excluded is great in theory, but the reality is that when you have classrooms that includes kids with special needs, the teaching will need to be geared toward those less "gifted". As a result, the particularly bright kids, and even the "average" ones are left wanting for challenges...

Stoo · 06 June 2007, 13:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by wavecrosschris

Harry Enfield got it on the head with Labour...

Who the hell is Harry Enfield? Those clips are hilarious...

wavecrosschris · 06 June 2007, 13:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stoo

Who the hell is Harry Enfield? Those clips are hilarious...

lol -
Harry Enfield is a british comedian who has had multiple success comedy shows on the BBC and sky since the early 1990's. He is part of a sort of ratpack of comedians who were all friends from university I think, and went on to produce some brilliant comedy characters that took off stereotypical english types to an hilarious extreme! (such as the example above!)

Here's his wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Enfield

His name is worth Youtubing - it drags up some hilarious characters he has invented - and if you find all that funny try The Fast Show too!

This is one of my favorites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjxY9...elated&search=

Sixy_the_red · 06 June 2007, 13:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Biggles

Maybe somebody could list some positive points of living in this country !

But your not allowed to say the fact that we are surrounded by lots of RIB friendly water.

That's about the only positive I can think of Nick. Reading that article reminded me why I've decided that I'm emmigrating within 10 years (hopefully).

I WANT to be able to tell things as they are and I expect the government to do the same. I WANT to be in a country that is actually run for the benifit of its own people, not some remote central wannabe superpower (the EU) or a Texan oil barron with less intelligence than the average dairy cow.

codprawn · 06 June 2007, 15:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stoo

Who the hell is Harry Enfield? Those clips are hilarious...

http://tv-links.co.uk/

One thing Britain does better than any other country in the World is comedy - this site has loads of classics.

Here is a list of must watches

Bottom

Absolutely Fabulous

Black Adder

Mr Bean

Will add more when I have time but please Stoo just watch 1 episode of Bottom - it is VERY silly but I love it.

Spike · 06 June 2007, 16:01

Quote Biggles: Maybe somebody could list some positive points of living in this country !

Im sat in my office looking out of the window....
The sun is out sky is blue i can see the sea, i dont have to really worry about someone stealing my car or boat off the drive or running into the house & shooting me & taking all my stuff away to sell to buy crack, my two boys are happy in a good school with good education, if i get rundown by a car tomorrow i know that the emergency services will take good care of me. We live in a beautiful country with a great coastline & huge heratage. Where else would you want to be?....the grass is always greener on the other side, but getting mugged / raped / robbed or abducted is in reality quite rare in this country even more so if you compare us to other countrys, we only notice it more now than in the good old days because of the media coverage. Ok it's not perfect here but where is, & our goverment aint all that, but again it could be worse. We all moan about this country & it politics but in some countrys you would get shot for moaning about it, we do have a choice we can move out if we want to, i would like to retire else where myself & will but not because i hate the place i live in, no i dont agree with a lot of what the present goverment has done, but personaly i think there is still quite a lot of 'GREAT' in 'BRITAIN'

It's only my humble opinion....
Mike.

wavecrosschris · 06 June 2007, 16:02

so here's the start of a list that Britain excels in or does better at than any other country

1) Comedy

2) Design - everything, from boats to graphics, I think we lead here too.

3) ...

Biggles · 06 June 2007, 16:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by wavecrosschris

so here's the start of a list that Britain excels in or does better at than any other country

1) Comedy

2) Design - everything, from boats to graphics, I think we lead here too.

3) ...

I'm waiting for something substantial. 1 & 2 are hardly things that make me want to consider that Britain is 'Great'.

wavecrosschris · 06 June 2007, 16:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Biggles

I'm waiting for something substantial. 1 & 2 are hardly things that make me want to consider that Britain is 'Great'.

there's loads that is great about the uk, OK a list of things is a bad example because people will pick holes in it... but just because we have a bunch of as**oles running the country (as most countries do) (and admittedly they are, slowly ruining it) doesn't mean we live in a place that doesn't produce or do anything well or 'great' or, depending on where you come from how nice it is to live in - The uk is a much more pleasant place to live still, than probably 90% of the rest of the world - I even visited Brussels the weekend before last and I felt safer on the London underground than I did on theirs - We had beggars and really odd people hanging round us on the platforms asking for money and 'checking us out' - if it wasn't for my friend who is a 19stone martial art trained Chinese body guard I would have taken a taxi!