20 Things That Really Make Britain Grate (The Mirror 25/02/04)
Feb 25th 2004, 12:18 pm
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20 Things That Really Make Britain Grate (The Mirror 25/02/04)
Sue Carroll (The Mirror)
YOU'D go a long way to find anyone more patriotic than me. I love Britain. I love the people who live here.
I love our irreverence, humour and spirit. I like the fact we form orderly queues, share a common sense of fair play and put up stoically with lousy weather.
I like being British, but I don't like the way this country is changing before our eyes. The way standards have dropped, disillusion has set in, and a sense of weary acceptance has replaced optimism and hope.
We've learned to live by the maxim "expect nothing and you won't be disappointed". So we swallow half-baked promises, fall for empty pledges and adhere to meaningless guidelines.
Meanwhile, kids are bored and dispirited, the elderly are bitter, and the rest of us wait till a tax is slapped on fresh air.
Fewer young people than ever can afford new homes, overworked doctors are deserting the NHS, and even the simple pleasure of owning a car feels like a punishable offence.
Everywhere I go, people tell me they're disillusioned with a Britain from which they feel detached, disenfranchised and without a voice. Their reasons are many. I have only 20. They are:
1. The perception that to be "cool" means it's acceptable to be rude, aggressive and scruffy. I've lost count of the number of people I've seen dropping litter, discarding food wrappers and treating city centres like municipal dumps. Spoiling the environment shows a selfish disregard for others. Sadly, we live in a climate where to challenge anyone is ill-advised. Britain's not just dirty, it's also dangerous.
2. The continual denigration of our history and culture, compared to the cringing "respect" we're supposed to show to everyone else's.
A Christmas carol service is banned for fear of upsetting Muslims, yet the BBC is making a cartoon satire on the Catholic Church called Popetown.
Will there be a cartoon satire on Islam, called Mullahville or Start The Jihad Without Me? About the time hell freezes over.
3. It's easier (and often cheaper) to fly to Spain than to make trips to cities around Britain by train.
4. Cretinous, ill-educated teenagers gobbing in the street, pouring Hooch down their necks and roaming in gangs like knuckle-trailing Neanderthals terrorising the innocent and elderly.
5. A Prime Minister who insists that MMR is safe - and who has removed the choice of single vaccines on the NHS - but who refuses to confirm or deny that his son Leo had the triple jab. At times, playing the privacy card is just a bit rich.
6. The emergence of Susan Moore, who hasn't worked for 16 years, has shocked the nation. Why? The blame doesn't lie entirely with the 34-year-old who refuses to leave her remote North Yorkshire village to find work. Equally culpable is a welfare system that gives the idle just enough income to stay at home, eat chocolate and watch telly. They haven't given Susan a life, they've robbed her of one.
7. Military prats who give the armed forces a bad name. I thought senior officers were supposed to set an example to those they lead? Instead we have a cavalry of bonking majors and willie-waving colonels. It's a wonder the MoD hasn't formed a new regiment - the Queen's Own Fornicators.
8. Our lenient courts and a legal system which persecutes motorists, but goes soft on burglars. Is it any wonder the idea of justice in this country is now a national joke?
9. Endless sound-bite politics from a government winging it. If venom-spewing Abu Hamza is still here - along with an untold number of illegal immigrants - how does Mr Blunkett propose to deport those Eastern Europeans who come here as "welfare tourists"?
It stands as much chance of working as Mr Blair's promise to fine lager louts on the spot. (They are too drunk to understand the charge.) Or his crazed proposal for random drugs tests in schools after virtually decriminalising cannabis. It's all part of the New Labour "narrative". The dictionary definition of which is "storytelling". Precisely.
10. The insanity of the politically correct who pull out the racist card and scream "xenophobia" when a sensible debate on immigration is so much as suggested. Do they know what an easy ride they are giving the BNP?
11. The British stiff upper lip, so admirable when we're up against it in wartime, but so maddening when it means we'll put up with things that other countries wouldn't tolerate.
"Mustn't grumble" should be our national motto - maybe we could have it inscribed on our coins.
Imagine the French government telling greengrocers not to pile up fruit and veg by the road because there must be room for two wheelchairs to pass down the pavement. (Imagine telling the French they can't park on the pavement, come to think of it.)
12. An increasing invasion of our privacy from companies who bombard us with hard-sell offers - "free" mobile phones, accident and death policies, and time-share flats in Spain.
13. The compensation culture, fuelled by greedy, ambulance-chasing lawyers. Someone else must always be to blame, no one wants to take responsibility for their own actions. We seem to have long forgotten the saying "accidents will happen".
14. The creation of public sector jobs whose purpose remains a mystery. Breast-feeding co-ordinators, diversity managers and outreach workers for dysfunctional lesbians are paid for by our council tax. Are the halcyon days when we paid rates to have rubbish removed and roads gritted just a figment of my imagination?
15. A lottery fund that invests £1million in unfunny, box-office flops like Sex Lives Of The Potato Men starring Johnny Vegas. If someone wanted to write a pornographic novel would the public be expected to fund it?
16. Trinny and Susannah. If insecure women want to be bossed into unsuitable frocks by these trumped-up hooray frumps, that's their business. But being told what coffee to drink by the Sloaney slappers in a TV ad is beyond the pale.
17. The appalling way we treat old people who have paid into the system, but are let down at every turn. Care homes are under-funded, council taxes rise unabated, and the new Pension Credit is means-testing by any other name, so thousands - like 83-year-old council tax rebel Elizabeth Winkfield - don't apply for rebates. This country has untold wealth which we spend on wars, hangers-on and ne'er-do-wells, while the old are forced to beg. They say old age comes at a bad time. Never worse, it seems, than in 2004.
18. Cyclists ride on pavements, jump red lights and scream at pedestrians. Exempt from congestion charges, traffic wardens and speed traps, they're a law unto themselves. Why can't they carry licence plates and pay tax like motorists?
19. The health fascists who nanny us into submission with statistics. They want to fat-label food, calorie-count menus and put warnings on bottles of Scotch. What next, a surcharge on sex? Don't count it out.
20. Couples who want fertility treatment will get one free go at IVF, making the chance of having a baby on the NHS higher than having a tooth out. Can there have been a bleaker sight than 300 Brits queuing to join an NHS dental surgery in Scarborough?
If that doesn't tell immigrants this isn't the land of milk and honey, I don't know what will.
YOU'D go a long way to find anyone more patriotic than me. I love Britain. I love the people who live here.
I love our irreverence, humour and spirit. I like the fact we form orderly queues, share a common sense of fair play and put up stoically with lousy weather.
I like being British, but I don't like the way this country is changing before our eyes. The way standards have dropped, disillusion has set in, and a sense of weary acceptance has replaced optimism and hope.
We've learned to live by the maxim "expect nothing and you won't be disappointed". So we swallow half-baked promises, fall for empty pledges and adhere to meaningless guidelines.
Meanwhile, kids are bored and dispirited, the elderly are bitter, and the rest of us wait till a tax is slapped on fresh air.
Fewer young people than ever can afford new homes, overworked doctors are deserting the NHS, and even the simple pleasure of owning a car feels like a punishable offence.
Everywhere I go, people tell me they're disillusioned with a Britain from which they feel detached, disenfranchised and without a voice. Their reasons are many. I have only 20. They are:
1. The perception that to be "cool" means it's acceptable to be rude, aggressive and scruffy. I've lost count of the number of people I've seen dropping litter, discarding food wrappers and treating city centres like municipal dumps. Spoiling the environment shows a selfish disregard for others. Sadly, we live in a climate where to challenge anyone is ill-advised. Britain's not just dirty, it's also dangerous.
2. The continual denigration of our history and culture, compared to the cringing "respect" we're supposed to show to everyone else's.
A Christmas carol service is banned for fear of upsetting Muslims, yet the BBC is making a cartoon satire on the Catholic Church called Popetown.
Will there be a cartoon satire on Islam, called Mullahville or Start The Jihad Without Me? About the time hell freezes over.
3. It's easier (and often cheaper) to fly to Spain than to make trips to cities around Britain by train.
4. Cretinous, ill-educated teenagers gobbing in the street, pouring Hooch down their necks and roaming in gangs like knuckle-trailing Neanderthals terrorising the innocent and elderly.
5. A Prime Minister who insists that MMR is safe - and who has removed the choice of single vaccines on the NHS - but who refuses to confirm or deny that his son Leo had the triple jab. At times, playing the privacy card is just a bit rich.
6. The emergence of Susan Moore, who hasn't worked for 16 years, has shocked the nation. Why? The blame doesn't lie entirely with the 34-year-old who refuses to leave her remote North Yorkshire village to find work. Equally culpable is a welfare system that gives the idle just enough income to stay at home, eat chocolate and watch telly. They haven't given Susan a life, they've robbed her of one.
7. Military prats who give the armed forces a bad name. I thought senior officers were supposed to set an example to those they lead? Instead we have a cavalry of bonking majors and willie-waving colonels. It's a wonder the MoD hasn't formed a new regiment - the Queen's Own Fornicators.
8. Our lenient courts and a legal system which persecutes motorists, but goes soft on burglars. Is it any wonder the idea of justice in this country is now a national joke?
9. Endless sound-bite politics from a government winging it. If venom-spewing Abu Hamza is still here - along with an untold number of illegal immigrants - how does Mr Blunkett propose to deport those Eastern Europeans who come here as "welfare tourists"?
It stands as much chance of working as Mr Blair's promise to fine lager louts on the spot. (They are too drunk to understand the charge.) Or his crazed proposal for random drugs tests in schools after virtually decriminalising cannabis. It's all part of the New Labour "narrative". The dictionary definition of which is "storytelling". Precisely.
10. The insanity of the politically correct who pull out the racist card and scream "xenophobia" when a sensible debate on immigration is so much as suggested. Do they know what an easy ride they are giving the BNP?
11. The British stiff upper lip, so admirable when we're up against it in wartime, but so maddening when it means we'll put up with things that other countries wouldn't tolerate.
"Mustn't grumble" should be our national motto - maybe we could have it inscribed on our coins.
Imagine the French government telling greengrocers not to pile up fruit and veg by the road because there must be room for two wheelchairs to pass down the pavement. (Imagine telling the French they can't park on the pavement, come to think of it.)
12. An increasing invasion of our privacy from companies who bombard us with hard-sell offers - "free" mobile phones, accident and death policies, and time-share flats in Spain.
13. The compensation culture, fuelled by greedy, ambulance-chasing lawyers. Someone else must always be to blame, no one wants to take responsibility for their own actions. We seem to have long forgotten the saying "accidents will happen".
14. The creation of public sector jobs whose purpose remains a mystery. Breast-feeding co-ordinators, diversity managers and outreach workers for dysfunctional lesbians are paid for by our council tax. Are the halcyon days when we paid rates to have rubbish removed and roads gritted just a figment of my imagination?
15. A lottery fund that invests £1million in unfunny, box-office flops like Sex Lives Of The Potato Men starring Johnny Vegas. If someone wanted to write a pornographic novel would the public be expected to fund it?
16. Trinny and Susannah. If insecure women want to be bossed into unsuitable frocks by these trumped-up hooray frumps, that's their business. But being told what coffee to drink by the Sloaney slappers in a TV ad is beyond the pale.
17. The appalling way we treat old people who have paid into the system, but are let down at every turn. Care homes are under-funded, council taxes rise unabated, and the new Pension Credit is means-testing by any other name, so thousands - like 83-year-old council tax rebel Elizabeth Winkfield - don't apply for rebates. This country has untold wealth which we spend on wars, hangers-on and ne'er-do-wells, while the old are forced to beg. They say old age comes at a bad time. Never worse, it seems, than in 2004.
18. Cyclists ride on pavements, jump red lights and scream at pedestrians. Exempt from congestion charges, traffic wardens and speed traps, they're a law unto themselves. Why can't they carry licence plates and pay tax like motorists?
19. The health fascists who nanny us into submission with statistics. They want to fat-label food, calorie-count menus and put warnings on bottles of Scotch. What next, a surcharge on sex? Don't count it out.
20. Couples who want fertility treatment will get one free go at IVF, making the chance of having a baby on the NHS higher than having a tooth out. Can there have been a bleaker sight than 300 Brits queuing to join an NHS dental surgery in Scarborough?
If that doesn't tell immigrants this isn't the land of milk and honey, I don't know what will.
Feb 25th 2004, 12:35 pm
#3
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Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2002
Location: Sunshine Coast
Posts: 424
Originally posted by joem
If it's from (The Mirror) it must be true
joem
If it's from (The Mirror) it must be true
joem
Feb 25th 2004, 2:50 pm
#4
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 9,397
Why are we queueing to get out?
Use extra paper if required............
Use extra paper if required............
Feb 25th 2004, 3:07 pm
#5
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Mar 2003
Location: Going Home
Posts: 1,215
Wish I could say its better here but its not.
Not sure who uses this quote but its so apt. Same shit different bucket.
Not sure who uses this quote but its so apt. Same shit different bucket.
Feb 25th 2004, 3:31 pm
#6
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Joined: Oct 2003
Location: Nappyland
Posts: 2,886
Originally posted by Rog Williams
Why are we queueing to get out?
Use extra paper if required............
Why are we queueing to get out?
Use extra paper if required............
which utopian land are you headed for then?
Feb 25th 2004, 4:27 pm
#7
Seriously Senior Member
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 106
Re: 20 Things That Really Make Britain Grate (The Mirror 25/02/04)
Where to start - some I agree with, most I don't.
Sounds like Sue Carolle is just having a winge - everyone one moans their heads off nowadays, but rarely does anything about it. We are living in one of the most apathetic times, no wonder though because the criminal justice bill put the downers on anyone wanting to protest and we are represented by middle aged, upper class toffs in Parliament. There must be better ways of illiciting public opinion, now that we have the internet. But then again, if people are going to rely on the mirror for unbiased opinion, on which to inform their choices, we don't stand a chance of changing things.
Hey, what the heck, blame it on the "illegal immigrants", after all, they look a bit hairy, swarthy and they're all on the dole (hmmm... isn't that a contradiction, seeing as they can't claim the dole?).
Anway, lets all go to Aus, because there aren't any illegal immigrants there and because of the geographics and demographics etc. all of the aboriginies are living in the rougher parts of town or in the bush, so you won't have to look at them too often.
Sorry, but I'm just fed up with people who blame all the ills of society on a few foreigners who have come here for want of a better life. Many of them have come to fill jobs, which British people don't want to do.
Isn't that what we're doing?
Larissa
PS I don't actually think it's all as bad as she makes out, but then positivity doesn't sell papers.
PPS Agree with her about the dole bludging issue though... maybe its time to scrap it and get something more radical?
Sounds like Sue Carolle is just having a winge - everyone one moans their heads off nowadays, but rarely does anything about it. We are living in one of the most apathetic times, no wonder though because the criminal justice bill put the downers on anyone wanting to protest and we are represented by middle aged, upper class toffs in Parliament. There must be better ways of illiciting public opinion, now that we have the internet. But then again, if people are going to rely on the mirror for unbiased opinion, on which to inform their choices, we don't stand a chance of changing things.
Hey, what the heck, blame it on the "illegal immigrants", after all, they look a bit hairy, swarthy and they're all on the dole (hmmm... isn't that a contradiction, seeing as they can't claim the dole?).
Anway, lets all go to Aus, because there aren't any illegal immigrants there and because of the geographics and demographics etc. all of the aboriginies are living in the rougher parts of town or in the bush, so you won't have to look at them too often.
Sorry, but I'm just fed up with people who blame all the ills of society on a few foreigners who have come here for want of a better life. Many of them have come to fill jobs, which British people don't want to do.
Isn't that what we're doing?
Larissa
PS I don't actually think it's all as bad as she makes out, but then positivity doesn't sell papers.
PPS Agree with her about the dole bludging issue though... maybe its time to scrap it and get something more radical?
Feb 25th 2004, 4:38 pm
#9
Seriously Senior Member
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 106
Originally posted by WBB
larissa, why are you logged in as blim?
larissa, why are you logged in as blim?
society must be coming to a standstill with people like me about!
Lar
Feb 25th 2004, 4:44 pm
#10
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Oct 2003
Location: Nappyland
Posts: 2,886
Re: 20 Things That Really Make Britain Grate (The Mirror 25/02/04)
Originally posted by Blim
Where to start - some I agree with, most I don't.
Sounds like Sue Carolle is just having a winge - everyone one moans their heads off nowadays, but rarely does anything about it. We are living in one of the most apathetic times, no wonder though because the criminal justice bill put the downers on anyone wanting to protest and we are represented by middle aged, upper class toffs in Parliament. There must be better ways of illiciting public opinion, now that we have the internet. But then again, if people are going to rely on the mirror for unbiased opinion, on which to inform their choices, we don't stand a chance of changing things.
Hey, what the heck, blame it on the "illegal immigrants", after all, they look a bit hairy, swarthy and they're all on the dole (hmmm... isn't that a contradiction, seeing as they can't claim the dole?).
Anway, lets all go to Aus, because there aren't any illegal immigrants there and because of the geographics and demographics etc. all of the aboriginies are living in the rougher parts of town or in the bush, so you won't have to look at them too often.
Sorry, but I'm just fed up with people who blame all the ills of society on a few foreigners who have come here for want of a better life. Many of them have come to fill jobs, which British people don't want to do.
Isn't that what we're doing?
Larissa
PS I don't actually think it's all as bad as she makes out, but then positivity doesn't sell papers.
PPS Agree with her about the dole bludging issue though... maybe its time to scrap it and get something more radical?
Where to start - some I agree with, most I don't.
Sounds like Sue Carolle is just having a winge - everyone one moans their heads off nowadays, but rarely does anything about it. We are living in one of the most apathetic times, no wonder though because the criminal justice bill put the downers on anyone wanting to protest and we are represented by middle aged, upper class toffs in Parliament. There must be better ways of illiciting public opinion, now that we have the internet. But then again, if people are going to rely on the mirror for unbiased opinion, on which to inform their choices, we don't stand a chance of changing things.
Hey, what the heck, blame it on the "illegal immigrants", after all, they look a bit hairy, swarthy and they're all on the dole (hmmm... isn't that a contradiction, seeing as they can't claim the dole?).
Anway, lets all go to Aus, because there aren't any illegal immigrants there and because of the geographics and demographics etc. all of the aboriginies are living in the rougher parts of town or in the bush, so you won't have to look at them too often.
Sorry, but I'm just fed up with people who blame all the ills of society on a few foreigners who have come here for want of a better life. Many of them have come to fill jobs, which British people don't want to do.
Isn't that what we're doing?
Larissa
PS I don't actually think it's all as bad as she makes out, but then positivity doesn't sell papers.
PPS Agree with her about the dole bludging issue though... maybe its time to scrap it and get something more radical?
