Is the British Isles long past it's better days or not?
Aug 16th 2009, 12:24 am
#32
Retired
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 34,649
Re: Is the British Isles long past it's better days or not?
I have never met an American who did not enjoy visiting, being relocated to or stationed in the UK. Today I still hear conflicting opinions about life in general with regards to immigration, taxes, opportunity, the longterm economy etc and would like to hear your opinions.
Thanks
Thanks
If the latter, I notice a distinct lack of comment about the Isle of Man or Republic of Ireland.
Aug 16th 2009, 12:35 am
#33
SUPER MODERATOR
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 88,023
Re: Is the British Isles long past it's better days or not?
Having just moved from the UK, even though I'm only 21 I'm quite glad I left.
We were promised a referendum on the EU and we never got it.
We have an inept leader who we didn't vote for.
The ordinary man is fed up and voting for the disgusting BNP.
Expense FRAUD + THEFT, is widespread in government across most parties.
Criminals have more rights than ever before (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...er-heaven.html)
15% VAT was a complete waste of money + time in reality.
Bin collections every other week.
Just a few things that irritate me in the few months before I left!
On the flip side:
NHS has vastly improved over the past few years!
I'm too annoyed by the bad points to think of any good points now!
We were promised a referendum on the EU and we never got it.
We have an inept leader who we didn't vote for.
The ordinary man is fed up and voting for the disgusting BNP.
Expense FRAUD + THEFT, is widespread in government across most parties.
Criminals have more rights than ever before (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...er-heaven.html)
15% VAT was a complete waste of money + time in reality.
Bin collections every other week.
Just a few things that irritate me in the few months before I left!
On the flip side:
NHS has vastly improved over the past few years!
I'm too annoyed by the bad points to think of any good points now!
I think many Brits take the UK and all it has to offer for granted...you don't realise this until you become an expat.
Aug 16th 2009, 1:07 am
#34
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Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2009
Location: Arizona
Posts: 4,130
Aug 16th 2009, 1:17 am
#35
Banned
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 225
Re: Is the British Isles long past it's better days or not?
Toss chops Brown always has been and always will be a complete plonker who can only ride the coat tails of others to get anywhere.
Gordy face is NOT a leader - he's a backroom wannabe but without the key ingredients to be one.
That's why he hid under the shadow of Tony for so long, thinking Tony's leadership qualities would rub off on him, - they didn't and can't!
Aug 16th 2009, 1:33 am
#36
Banned
Joined: May 2008
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 214
Re: Is the British Isles long past it's better days or not?
I have never met an American who did not enjoy visiting, being relocated to or stationed in the UK. Today I still hear conflicting opinions about life in general with regards to immigration, taxes, opportunity, the longterm economy etc and would like to hear your opinions.
Thanks
Thanks
However, even without the war, the country never kept pace with the rest of the changes in the world and retained old and destructive attitudes.
Hence why it is a sad and pathetic state today.
Not being born there but growing up and spending most of my life there, I am very happy to see the back of it to be honest, as it was a miserable life for me.
While I like some things about the country and have some English habits/attitudes, aswell as some of my all time fave TV progs being British (One foot in the Grave, Only Fools & Horses, Its a Knockout, etc), I won't return under any circumstances.
The USA, even though it may be a little foreign to some people, suits me so much better than Britain and I love it here, even though I don't like how they drive and you have to temper your discussions sometimes, because people here have guns.
Aug 16th 2009, 1:40 am
#37
A lion in your lap
Joined: Jul 2003
Location: Sparta NJ
Posts: 7,605
Re: Is the British Isles long past it's better days or not?
That's because John Major wasn't a Tosser, didn't pick his bogeys and eat them live on national television and he had genuine widespread suppot of his party.
Toss chops Brown always has been and always will be a complete plonker who can only ride the coat tails of others to get anywhere.
Gordy face is NOT a leader - he's a backroom wannabe but without the key ingredients to be one.
That's why he hid under the shadow of Tony for so long, thinking Tony's leadership qualities would rub off on him, - they didn't and can't!
Toss chops Brown always has been and always will be a complete plonker who can only ride the coat tails of others to get anywhere.
Gordy face is NOT a leader - he's a backroom wannabe but without the key ingredients to be one.
That's why he hid under the shadow of Tony for so long, thinking Tony's leadership qualities would rub off on him, - they didn't and can't!
If Brown didn't have the widespread support of his party then why did he have no serious challengers when he stood for the leadership?
Last edited by elfman; Aug 16th 2009 at 2:13 am.
Aug 16th 2009, 1:42 am
#38
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jul 2007
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Posts: 8,497
Re: Is the British Isles long past it's better days or not?
Details Elfman, details. You're such a stickler. Sheesh.
Aug 16th 2009, 2:52 am
#39
Democracy advocate
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 12,460
Re: Is the British Isles long past it's better days or not?
That's because John Major wasn't a Tosser, didn't pick his bogeys and eat them live on national television and he had genuine widespread suppot of his party.
Toss chops Brown always has been and always will be a complete plonker who can only ride the coat tails of others to get anywhere.
Gordy face is NOT a leader - he's a backroom wannabe but without the key ingredients to be one.
That's why he hid under the shadow of Tony for so long, thinking Tony's leadership qualities would rub off on him, - they didn't and can't!
Toss chops Brown always has been and always will be a complete plonker who can only ride the coat tails of others to get anywhere.
Gordy face is NOT a leader - he's a backroom wannabe but without the key ingredients to be one.
That's why he hid under the shadow of Tony for so long, thinking Tony's leadership qualities would rub off on him, - they didn't and can't!
Aug 16th 2009, 2:55 am
#40
Democracy advocate
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 12,460
Re: Is the British Isles long past it's better days or not?
Britain has been in decline for a long time and never recovered after the 2nd world war.
However, even without the war, the country never kept pace with the rest of the changes in the world and retained old and destructive attitudes.
Hence why it is a sad and pathetic state today.
Not being born there but growing up and spending most of my life there, I am very happy to see the back of it to be honest, as it was a miserable life for me.
While I like some things about the country and have some English habits/attitudes, aswell as some of my all time fave TV progs being British (One foot in the Grave, Only Fools & Horses, Its a Knockout, etc), I won't return under any circumstances.
The USA, even though it may be a little foreign to some people, suits me so much better than Britain and I love it here, even though I don't like how they drive and you have to temper your discussions sometimes, because people here have guns.
However, even without the war, the country never kept pace with the rest of the changes in the world and retained old and destructive attitudes.
Hence why it is a sad and pathetic state today.
Not being born there but growing up and spending most of my life there, I am very happy to see the back of it to be honest, as it was a miserable life for me.
While I like some things about the country and have some English habits/attitudes, aswell as some of my all time fave TV progs being British (One foot in the Grave, Only Fools & Horses, Its a Knockout, etc), I won't return under any circumstances.
The USA, even though it may be a little foreign to some people, suits me so much better than Britain and I love it here, even though I don't like how they drive and you have to temper your discussions sometimes, because people here have guns.
Aug 16th 2009, 3:41 am
#43
I'm off to find a spanner
Joined: Feb 2008
Location: Maine
Posts: 2,867
Re: Is the British Isles long past it's better days or not?
Aug 16th 2009, 4:08 am
#44
Banned
Joined: May 2008
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 214
Re: Is the British Isles long past it's better days or not?
The Pacific region countries have been walking all over the UK for decades now.
Britain is sad and pathetic because it lost its power & position in the world and didn't know what to do when that power started ebbing away.
People like to live in the past and hold onto the notion of what the country used to be like a long time ago, rather than what it is like now.
What is Britain like now?
A country full of parochial/impersonal/indifferent shop keepers, benefits scroungers, chavs, mums who drive 4 wheel drive vehicles (who don't know how to drive them) & which effectively turn them into road blocks, driving a single 5 yr old child 500 yds to a school, along with millions of others and who cause most of the traffic congestion in many British cities.
"Leaders" with no backbone or real ideas.
Schools are now more or less war zones, with teachers held in very low regard by parents and children (thanks to Labour) and who are sworn at, attacked and who no longer carry authority.
Neighbors who don't know/don't talk to each other, councils seeking to bleed every tiny bit of money from residents for things that should be provided through the ever rocketing and fraudulent system called "council tax", & also charging residents to park in front of their own homes.
Empty headed, vacuous and immoral minded people being held up as model men & women in every newspaper, magazine and on alleged television "programmes".
British society is obsessed with media, celebrity bollocks, denigrating, highly destructive and depressing soap operas, plus wall to wall football talk whatever station I tune into.
The BBC is a terrible and destructive organization, a type of parasitic organization that exists nowhere else in the free world - maybe North Korea has a similar organization?
Minor colleges now being called universities.
There never seems to be any money for anything worthwhile, but plenty of money is being squandered on immoral purposes, "expenses" and sheer wastage on a daily annual basis for decades.
Parks and recreation places falling apart.
Graffiti is everywhere, some drug culture references being accepted as OK.
People have sex in clubs, bars and in school and this is not challenged.
Children seen as OK to be given mobile phones.
The 1993 murder of little Jamie Bulger marked a turning point in my mind of how sick and immoral British society had become.
All sorts of people are allowed to enter the country for any bullshit reason and with nothing asked of them in return and who are then willingly given lots of money and a home/car/phone and these same people then give the country the finger, attend demonstrations to try to bring down the country and also insist on wearing full face scarfs and other "garments" to cover up their faces because "its part of their religion" and because it "makes them free".
Britain is a country that is merely "used" now by many millions, rather than like being loved or liked and treated with respect - but you can't get respect if you don't respect yourself first and Britain, through an acquiescent population, hasn't done that for decades.
Now I hear that they don't collect rubbish every week but every 2 weeks.
You know, much poorer countries collect everyone's rubbish and the streets are washed, every day.
Car owners, certainly in London, being treated as cash cows and almost like criminals for owning a vehicle.
There is a lot of money taken/stolen from people in one form or the other by the pathetic government, but there's nowt to show for it and the country is crap - so where's it all going then?
The biggest problem for me is that no-one really complains about all these things and so the population just grit they teeth while seething venom underneath.
And of course, the class system, which turns everyone against each other and erects walls & boundaries between one class and another and how we are all "subjects" and not citizens.
There's a lot wrong more with Britain but it that list enough for you?
Last edited by Anthony919; Aug 16th 2009 at 4:16 am.
Aug 16th 2009, 4:14 am
#45
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 41,518
Re: Is the British Isles long past it's better days or not?
Production methods, technology, economic reform, investment and permitting a brain drain to take place.
The Pacific region countries have been walking all over the UK for decades now.
Britain is sad and pathetic because it lost its power & position in the world and didn't know what to do when that power started ebbing away.
People like to live in the past and hold onto the notion of what the country used to be like a long time ago, rather than what it is like now.
What is Britain like now?
A country full of parochial/impersonal/indifferent shop keepers, benefits scroungers, chavs, mums who drive 4 wheel drive vehicles (who don't know how to drive them) & which effectively turn them into road blocks, driving a single 5 yr old child 500 yds to a school, along with millions of others and who cause most of the traffic congestion in many British cities.
"Leaders" with no backbone or real ideas.
Schools are now more or less war zones, with teachers held in very low regard by parents and children (thanks to Labour) and who are sworn at, attacked and who no longer carry authority.
Neighbors who don't know/don't talk to each other, councils seeking to bleed every tiny bit of money from residents for things that should be provided through the ever rocketing and fraudulent system called "council tax", & also charging residents to park in front of their own homes.
Empty headed, vacuous and immoral minded people being held up as model men & women in every newspaper, magazine and on alleged television "programmes".
British society is obsessed with media, celebrity bollocks, denigrating, highly destructive and depressing soap operas, plus wall to wall football talk whatever station I tune into.
The BBC is a terrible and destructive organization, a type of parasitic organization that exists nowhere else in the free world - maybe North Korea has a similar organization?
Minor colleges now being called universities.
There never seems to be any money for anything worthwhile, but plenty of money is being squandered on immoral purposes, "expenses" and sheer wastage on a daily annual basis for decades.
Parks and recreation places falling apart.
Graffiti is everywhere, some drug culture references being accepted as OK.
People have sex in clubs, bars and in school and this is not challenged.
Children seen as OK to be given mobile phones.
The 1993 murder of little Jamie Bulger marked a turning point in my mind of how sick and immoral British society had become.
All sorts of people are allowed to enter the country for any bullshit reason and with nothing asked of them in return and who are then willingly given lots of money and a home/car/phone and these same people then give the country the finger, attend demonstrations to try to bring down the country and also insist on wearing full face scarfs and other "garments" to cover up their faces because "its part of their religion" and because it "makes them free".
Britain is a country that is merely "used" now by many millions, rather than like being loved or liked and treating it with respect - but you can't get respect if you don't respect yourself first and Britain, through an acquiescent population, hasn't done that for decades.
Now I hear that they don't collect rubbish every week but every 2 weeks.
You know, much poorer countries collect everyone's rubbish and the streets are washed, every day.
Car owners, certainly in London, being treated as cash cows and almost like criminals for owning a vehicle.
The biggest problem for me is that no-one really complains about all these things and so the population just grit they teeth while seething venom underneath.
And of course, the class system, which turns everyone against each other and erects walls & boundaries between one class and another and how we are all "subjects" and not citizens.
There's a lot wrong more with Britain but it that list enough for you?
The Pacific region countries have been walking all over the UK for decades now.
Britain is sad and pathetic because it lost its power & position in the world and didn't know what to do when that power started ebbing away.
People like to live in the past and hold onto the notion of what the country used to be like a long time ago, rather than what it is like now.
What is Britain like now?
A country full of parochial/impersonal/indifferent shop keepers, benefits scroungers, chavs, mums who drive 4 wheel drive vehicles (who don't know how to drive them) & which effectively turn them into road blocks, driving a single 5 yr old child 500 yds to a school, along with millions of others and who cause most of the traffic congestion in many British cities.
"Leaders" with no backbone or real ideas.
Schools are now more or less war zones, with teachers held in very low regard by parents and children (thanks to Labour) and who are sworn at, attacked and who no longer carry authority.
Neighbors who don't know/don't talk to each other, councils seeking to bleed every tiny bit of money from residents for things that should be provided through the ever rocketing and fraudulent system called "council tax", & also charging residents to park in front of their own homes.
Empty headed, vacuous and immoral minded people being held up as model men & women in every newspaper, magazine and on alleged television "programmes".
British society is obsessed with media, celebrity bollocks, denigrating, highly destructive and depressing soap operas, plus wall to wall football talk whatever station I tune into.
The BBC is a terrible and destructive organization, a type of parasitic organization that exists nowhere else in the free world - maybe North Korea has a similar organization?
Minor colleges now being called universities.
There never seems to be any money for anything worthwhile, but plenty of money is being squandered on immoral purposes, "expenses" and sheer wastage on a daily annual basis for decades.
Parks and recreation places falling apart.
Graffiti is everywhere, some drug culture references being accepted as OK.
People have sex in clubs, bars and in school and this is not challenged.
Children seen as OK to be given mobile phones.
The 1993 murder of little Jamie Bulger marked a turning point in my mind of how sick and immoral British society had become.
All sorts of people are allowed to enter the country for any bullshit reason and with nothing asked of them in return and who are then willingly given lots of money and a home/car/phone and these same people then give the country the finger, attend demonstrations to try to bring down the country and also insist on wearing full face scarfs and other "garments" to cover up their faces because "its part of their religion" and because it "makes them free".
Britain is a country that is merely "used" now by many millions, rather than like being loved or liked and treating it with respect - but you can't get respect if you don't respect yourself first and Britain, through an acquiescent population, hasn't done that for decades.
Now I hear that they don't collect rubbish every week but every 2 weeks.
You know, much poorer countries collect everyone's rubbish and the streets are washed, every day.
Car owners, certainly in London, being treated as cash cows and almost like criminals for owning a vehicle.
The biggest problem for me is that no-one really complains about all these things and so the population just grit they teeth while seething venom underneath.
And of course, the class system, which turns everyone against each other and erects walls & boundaries between one class and another and how we are all "subjects" and not citizens.
There's a lot wrong more with Britain but it that list enough for you?