Proud to be British?
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15811246

Would your list be different? I think The Beatles beat Shakespeare to the top for sure!

Re: Proud to be British?
 

I agree with you about Shakespeare. I know that Americans seem obsessed by him, I'm surprised that the British care a toss about him... I thought British people were generally proud of being total philistines. I personally find his plays a tad boring, although some excellent operas have been derived from the plays.

Me, I'd put the National Trust, the BBC and the NHS at the top of my list, I'm not sure in what order. That is an interesting group of three great institutions, since one is government, one a quango, and one a charity.

Re: Proud to be British?
 

When I think of the UK, I think of the Westminster parliament. I'm surprised it was so low on the list.

Re: Proud to be British?
 

Well, I think they asked if you are proud of it. Shakespeare and the National Trust are relatively uncontroversial, compared to parliament where some people may have pushed it lower on their lists because of scandals, incompetence etc.

Re: Proud to be British?
 

I'd agree with that...and the scientific research, especially from the universities, and some of the tech achievements.

Re: Proud to be British?
 

To the NHS, NT, BBC and scientific research, I"d also add, art, literature and (historic) architecture also not just limit it to Shakespeare.

Re: Proud to be British?
 

Looking at the article... Classic correlation-causation misunderstandings. It's a huge stretch to say that the act of forcing people to do volunteer work will consequently make them more patriotic. :lol:

Re: Proud to be British?
 

Surprised Churchill wasn't up there - also surprised that "sporting achievements" are ranked highly. I presume they weren't thinking of football.

I think countryside/the right to roam beats countryside access in a lot of countries and is maybe an underappreciated aspect of life in the UK.

The BBC.

Freedom of speech (though this seems to be getting too liberal lately).

The rail system (despite Beeching's attempts to destroy it back in the 60's)

Re: Proud to be British?
 

As a national side, sure...but the club teams are great, the rugby, cricket, hockey, athletics and quite a few other sports, not to shit...and then the arm chair sports like darts and snooker etc :lol:

I also agree about the public transport, it really isn't to bad of a network, despite the issues it suffers, at least it is a viable option for many people.

Also quite impressed with the start of the computer age and the games industry back in the day. It's a bit dire now, unfortunately, but it had achieved a lot and was great.

The automotive industry. Sure it's a bit pants now, but it did bring the world the mini, E-type Jag, DB5 Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, Lotus, TVR and Triumph motorbikes are still really nice.

F1...it's still the home base for many teams and a great achievement, as is the motor sport in general, rallying, GT racing, touring cars etc.

Re: Proud to be British?
 

No votes for the amazing British cuisine?

:rofl:

Re: Proud to be British?
 

I am proud to be British for many many reasons, some really simple but mostly for the sciences....... all really came to the fore in the UK........

Someone mentioned Churchill? I'll call your Churchill and raise you a

Cavendish
Newton
Wren
Hook
Haley
Faraday
Buckland
Davy
Darwin
Dawkins
Lyell
Joule
Dalton
Kelvin
Boyle
Franklin
Mantell

Re: Proud to be British?
 

Plus

Babbage
Turing
Flowers
Berners-Lee
Bell
Lovell
Baird
et al.

Re: Proud to be British?
 

indeed.

Re: Proud to be British?
 

Something quite unique to Great Britain...there really is no equivalent anywhere esle in the world, apparently......Prime Minister's Questions (or PMQs for short) held each Wednesday at twelve noon, lasting about half an hour, during which the PM replies to a host of questions posed to him by Members of the House of Commons...it seems that he has no prior warning about what the questions will refer to, but he invariably seems to answer them to the satisfaction of the questioning MP....obviously the PM is well briefed beforehand.

The entire proceedings, as with all Parliamentary debates, in both the Commons and the Lords, are broadcast live on the Parliamentary TV Channel 81 on digital Freeview.

PMQs 26/10/11:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O8iq...feature=relmfu

Past moments of PMQs in the House:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O8iq...feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bhpXhxP-WU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bhpXhxP-WU

As for other aspects of the British scene of which to be proud I certainly wouldn't include the BBC in this category at all - absolutely no way! It is now blatantly biased politically, is governed by all sorts of "...isms" riddled with political correctness, and is run by left wing muppets following their own agenda.

William Shakespeare is probably the most well known of all playwrights the whole world over...he is known to practically everbody on this planet over the age of ten or so and a true exponent of about the greatest export from this little island nation of ours to the rest of the world - our own English Language. The genius of the Bard of Avon coined a whole host of expressions which now form part of our everyday speech in English...all of them sprang from the pen of Shakespeare and are now used by all of us at one time or another without us giving a thought to their origin.

Other British wordsmiths of very high regard are also known the world over...such as Charles Dickens and Jame Austen to name just two out of hundreds.

Something else of which Britons should be proud is the tremendous variety contained in such a small land area - a group of islands which are smaller in size than a fair number of individual US States...a variety of scenery and landscape, a very varied coastline, different cultures and even languages bearing in mind the inclusion of Scotland and Wales, and even little Cornwall, which really is quite different in many respects from the rest of England...then we have the smaller individual islands - the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands - all British but independently governed.

Very many things which people now take for granted all over the world first saw the light of day in this little country of ours floating in a grey choppy sea off the coast of Continental north west Europe...the dawn of the industrial revolution and all the inventiveness and innovation associated with the world's first industrial development on a large scale, the world's first Parliamentary democracy, railway system, postal service, organised police service, tarmac roads, medical advances and discovweries, including penicillin, TV service, and the blueprint for the computer and the internet. And heaven knows what else.

I quite like what my country has done over the centuries that has been for the common good. The bad I sort of overlook.....naturally.

All in all I'm quite proud of us.

I also like our unwritten Constitution and our historic heritage - I like all the priceless jewels we have scattered right across our green and pleasant land...all our magnificent castles and stately homes and relics of the Roman occupation from Hadrian's Wall and the Antonine Wall to villas and amphitheatres....Londinium, Colchester, Chester, Cirencester, the wonderful baths at Bath, our glorious medieval cathedrals and minsters and ruined abbeys destroyed by a monster of a cruel selfish English King....even down to our seaside piers and promenades & the scenic walks along the coastline...the South Downs Way, the Pennine Way, the South West Coastal Path, Offa's Dyke separating Wales from England, preserved railway lines such as the Bluebell Line and one down in Yorkshire running through the village of Haworth, home to the Bronte sisters......the Derby, tennis at Wimbledon, the Grand National (the most famous horse race in the world) the Test at Lords, Henley regatta, cheese rolling down in hilside in Gloucestershire, Morris dancing on the village green outside the Dog and Duck pub...bloody hell, the list is endless......oh, and the world's longest running TV and radio "soap operas"......on the radio - "The Archers" still running after 60 years - on BBC Radio 4 - Ambridge is still alive and kicking....and on ITV3 - "Coronation Street" - now 51 years old next month.

We have a Head of State - Queen Elizabeth II - who may well be "powerless" in the true sense of the word, no longer having much of say when compared with her forebears on the throne, but at least she, and the entire Monarchy, is very much a stabilising factor in the way this country of ours operates. The Queen may well have some skeletons in her family cupboard, and some of her family members have been shown to be a wee bit less than "perfect" (whose family is anyway?) but at least her position as Head of State in Britain and the Commonwealth is very much a stabilising factor in the way this country operates as a soverign nation, and no way can she be compared with the Heads of State of some other countries - such as ......George Bush, Bill Clinton, Silvio Berlusconi, and that funny little French bloke Nicholas Sarkozy.

Re: Proud to be British?
 

I would have loved to see "W" have to answer questions like that, just once. He'd have been crucified.

The coverage of politics and current affairs in the UK media can be fantastic. I love "This Week" - the host Andrew Neill has an ascerbic wit, and it's great to see politicians like Michael Portillo able to have a little argy-bargy in an intellectually stimulating discussion, and to see them recognise quite objectively the good points of their opponents. In comparison, most US politicians look like half-wits.

Here's the Web site for This Week: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programme...ek/default.stm

Re: Proud to be British?
 

There's no end to great Radio Four programmes. I just listened to yesterday's From Our Own Correspondent .. Brilliant. That approach really brings some unknown corners of the world to life for the listener. It really is tragic for American radio listeners that there is no equivalent to the BBC here.

Re: Proud to be British?
 

No match for...

Chapman
Cleese
Idle
Jones
Palin
Atkinson
Rhys Jones
Smith
Fry
Laurie
Barker
Corbett
Milligan
Cooper
French
Saunders
Mayall
Edmondson
Morcambe
Wise
Henry
Hill
Whitehouse
Enfield
Skinner
Sayle
Gervais
Reeves
Mortimer
Walliams
Lucas
Coogan
Bailey
Evans
James
Pegg
Frost
Baron Cohen
Morris

I'll even go with...

Brand

Re: Proud to be British?
 

You missed Izzard!!

Re: Proud to be British?
 

and included French and Saunders :lol:

Re: Proud to be British?
 

Or the Americans who are really Brit Expats.

Charlie Chaplin

Stan Laurel

Bob Hope

Cary Grant

And a few others

Re: Proud to be British?
 

Jennifer Saunders is a brilliant comedy actress. You can't include one without the other though.

Similarly I also included Wise with Morecambe. And I missed Izzard. But I was bound to miss a few!

Re: Proud to be British?
 

I like what everyone has sad so far but I have to add my two pence. I would have to say what makes me proud to be British is the BBC. Yes I know that a lot of people on BE hate the BBC with a passion but I think that the BBC has made some great shows over the years and they is nothing quite like it any where in the world in my opinion. The varied and beautiful countryside.. The small and beautiful villages. Something that the Americans (America is the greatest nation on earth if you ask a lot of Americans) never got off the ground the SST. I am of course talking about Concorde with the British did with the France. This is old school but do not laugh at me I would also say Test Card F. Test Card Music. Pages from CEEFAX. PMQs, F1, the great scientists that Britain has produced over the centuries, London, The Yorkshire Dales, the books by James Herriot, the NHS, the History that Britain has and I could go on and on but I will stop now. :rofl:

Re: Proud to be British?
 

And I was thinking about saying Bob Hope but he would say when he was alive that he was American not British and he renounced his British Citizenship so he is not British so I did not include him.

Re: Proud to be British?
 

Luckily he wasn't funny.

Re: Proud to be British?
 

Yeah that one was iffy, but he was born in Liverpool.

Re: Proud to be British?
 

Hopkins would have to be a new addition to the classics...now that he's donkeys old :D

Re: Proud to be British?
 

:lol::lol:

Re: Proud to be British?
 

but he did do a lot of good stuff for the "troops"....then so did Jim Davidson, so probably not great company :lol:

Re: Proud to be British?
 

Chaucer
Wycliff-various spellings
Thomas Wyatt Snr

Re: Proud to be British?
 

T.S. Eliot
Terry Gilliam
Bill Bryson
Thomas Hutchinson

Re: Proud to be British?
 

I thought I was the only one who liked those :eek:

I'd definitely have the BBC on there as well. Manc and Zargof were right on the money with their lists of British scientists. Also the history, architecture, engineering, NHS, National Trust and all the rest.

Re: Proud to be British?
 

Bill Bryson is American isn't he ? Although I consider him an honorary Brit.

Re: Proud to be British?
 

Thank you for including American ex pats. :) Hutchinson, a no win situation though.

Re: Proud to be British?
 

These four people stand for all the hundreds of thousands (millions, maybe?) of Americans who have emigrated from America to Great Britain over the last four hundred years.

As a matter of interest, for a good part of the twentieth century, the number of US citizens who migrated to the UK far exceeded the number of British citizens who migrated to the US annually.

Re: Proud to be British?
 

Some for love, like my DH coming here, :wub: and some likely for health care and some who like the green, green grass of "home."

Re: Proud to be British?
 

All part of our exceedingly cunning plan, eh Black Adder. A slow buildup, then one day, wham!: BRITYWORLD, the 51st Sate. White picket fences, apple pie, Fox News,.....

Re: Proud to be British?
 

Love his books and what he is doing for the Keep Britain Tidy campaign but ... British?

[Oops, looks like I'm about 5 posts behind]

Re: Proud to be British?
 

:)
and I thought that I was the only ones that liked these. By the time I was born and was a little kid through it was Test card F with a test tone and Pages from CEEFAX with Test Card Music.:sunglasses:

Yes he is American but he did write the funny book about England Notes from a Small Island

Like my dad did in the early 1980s and again in the late 1980s and early 1990s while serving in the United States Air Force at RAF Alconbury. This is one reason why I am a duel British and American citizen. well that and the fact that that my Mum was a British citizen when I was born.

:rofl::lol:
Well critics of the United States and of our foreign policy including some Republicans say that the UK along with Canada and Israel have been named 51st states because the US has such close relations with these nations. well that and many other reasons:)
I do not a agree with calling the UK, Canada, and Israel 51 states by the way.
But lest not get into politics with this forum because I do not think that this is the place for politics.

Re: Proud to be British?
 

Same here - Test Card F was the only one they really used when I was watching TV. I always loved days off school, when you got to watch Ceefax AM, cheesy music and all. I was a saddo even then ...

Re: Proud to be British?
 

You must be older than me because by the time I was a kid Test Card F and pages from CEEFAX were only used during the early hours of the morning because by then BBC1 had daytime TV and BBC2 had schools TV and sports so no Pages from CEEFAX or Test Card F during the day on BBC1. and the Music was mostly synthesizer and all non classical by then as well. This was the early 1990s. By 1997 all this was gone from BBC1 replaced with BBC news 24. But I was in the states by then so I do not remember BBC 1 airing BBC news 24 throughout the night.