Lookin2Oz

Question please:

Whilst we can change school plays to whatever to please whoever what is Christmas based on

Personally this is bigger than school plays and events like 9 / 11 explain that we have a very serious religious war on our hands.

Every time I go to an airport I am reminded of that war yet people create policies that will shift what is the essence of Britain and America and and and .

This is not about other cultures feeling uncomfortable.

Try saying ANYTHING or for that matter drawing a cartoon about “other religions” and see how the PEOPLE will get behind their belief and stand up , fight etc etc for their belief.

There is an old saying – united we stand divided we fall.

Celtic Princess

That sort of expression makes me chuckle. I know what you mean, but to my simple mind there seems to be something really daft about wanting to do something to celebrate Christmas without actually celebrating Christmas.

It's like at our millenium party. A Christian friend jokingly said to a non Christian friend, "Well I know what I'm celebrating, but what are you doing here?".

lobby lou

what ever Tilboy!!!!!!!I guess ure a genius!!!!!O NO just a winger!!!!!

yes i agree...recently a teacher in another uae emirate was facing severe punishment for calling a teddy bear mohammed(after the profit)

fact was she asked the class to name it...but she was sent to prison,etc......

Fleaflyfloflum

My husband used to house share with that lady many years ago... but what the hell has she got to do with English schools?

Tr1boy

The former actually, and I was too busy learning how to use my keyboard to worry about playing football.

Pollyana

Can we please keep the personal remarks out of this thread, and just stick to having a discussion, with due respect for other people's views.

rabsody

I think what LL may be trying to say in her somewhat incoherent, rambling, uneducated fashion is that in other countries such as UAE they don't accommodate other nationalities' cultures to the detriment of their own as they do in the UK (such as the whole thing about culling nativity plays, xmas celebrations).

backagen

Here's my list of ways the government should go about solving this problem. Maybe they could call it something really inspiring like say a "17 point plan". Of course it's not something the government by itself can solve, but it does need to take a strong lead and here's how I think it could be done:

1. The Prime Minister needs to make it clear to all senior politicians that they should be proud of Britain and they should advertise that fact at every opportunity. If they're not proud of Britain then at least they must not publicly say so. The Prime Minister (if we could actually have a decent one for a change it would be nice too) needs to lead by example on this, by taking every opportunity to promote Britain both locally and internationally.

2. A lot more government funding made available to any organisation which has as part of its core aims to promote Britain and all that is good about it.

3. Create something akin to the organisation we have here in South Australia called "SA Great", a government sponsored organisation with the sole aim of encouraging British people to be proud of their country. Part of the role of this organisation would be (as it is here) to produce TV advertisements promoting the country and encouraging national pride)

4. Do what it takes to stamp out any hint of government corruption or sleaze and if any media organisation infers INCORRECTLY that such things exist, take legal action against it (create new law for this purpose if necessary).

5. Introduce a new annual public holiday for the purpose of celebrating Britishness (similar to Australia Day). I suggest calling it simply "UK Day", or maybe "UK OK Day"(

6. Make it compulsory for all schools to teach citizenship as a seperate subject, with a very strong focus on British culture, and what is good about the country, as well as encouraging children to imagine how they could make Britain even better in the future.

7. Do what it takes to fix the economy. Obviously a complex global issue now, but for a start stop funding stupid unnecessary wars, stop dishing out free money to dole bludgers, stop WASTING taxpayers money on unnecessary stupid **** full stop!

8. Get tough (as in really get tough, not just talking) on law and order so that the media can finally stop telling us everyone's getting stabbed.

9. Do something about the media negativity because it has to be the number one cause of making people feel negative about the country. I certainly wouldn't want government censorship of the media, but I'm sure with a little creativity a few things could be put in place to encourage less negative miedia reporting.

10. Ban publications and TV shows that routinely encourage the idea of emigrating from Britain. Ok this might be bordering on the censorship I just said I wouldn't want, but I think it's necessary.

11. Start an ongoing major program to target British people living overseas and try to encourage them to return to Britain.

12. Vastly improve border controls to stop illegal immigration, and think again about the open border policy of allowing anyone in Europe to permanently settle in Britain. Develop strict criteria for all intending immigrants as Australia has done.

13. Put some measures in place to make it much easier for ordinary people to make suggestions / complaints to politicians and force politicians to take notice! Perhaps the UK parliament website is already a good start on this path, but I still think it can be dramatically improved.

14. Start some sensible national debate and hold public forums about what else should be done to make people feel more positive about Britain. Encourage as much input as possible from a cross section of the public.

15. Stamp out political correctness that potentially disadvantages British people (such as so-called "affirmative action" recruiting that gives preference to people of a particular race). Also wherever possible stamp out other forms of political correctness, such as organisations refusing to celebrate Christmas because "it might offend minorities".

16. Put some much more sensible measures in place to address overcrowding and traffic congestion (2 of the things I've heard a lot of people cite as reasons to leave the country). Instead of new congestion charges (which just act as yet another bad thing to drive people away) address traffic problems through a carefully thought out combination of new roads where appropriate, really encouraging car makers to produce cars that are smaller and cheaper to run (and use environmentally friendly fuel), and invest heavily in improving public transport to make it genuinely more attractive than using cars.

17. Do something about the fact that a large proportion of houses in Britain are old and very ugly. A good start would be to have a company like Urban Splash or Bovis Lend Lease do what Delfin Lend Lease does in Australia and develop some large scale highly attractive new suburbs on greenfields sites (and before anyone complains there are plenty of suitable locations that could be used in Britain without making it so that there's no countryside!) This would then encourage smaller home developers to think again about the sort of designs they come up with (as it has here).

I'm sure there's more that should also be done but if all this was actually happening I certainly wouldn't be having such a hard time trying to decide if I should move back, I'd be there asap!

northernbird

I think you will find that it was actually in Khartoum (in Sudan if you didn't know ) not any of the UAE countries.

PS. It's PROPHET, not profit!

lobby lou

i am not uneducated...i do tx spell and was having a few probs with my keyboard ..now have a new laptop......

Black Sheep

Oohh, I am glad I didn't say anything - I knew it wasn't 'another UAE emirate', but I could've sworn it was Egypt. Yes, Sudan makes more sense.


Sorry, this is not intended as a 'personal remark' BUT : that 's funny!!

Marmalade

Do us all a favour and stop text spelling, so we can at least half understand what you are saying

Bevm

Snipped excellent ideas.

4. Do what it takes to stamp out any hint of government corruption or sleaze and if any media organisation infers INCORRECTLY that such things exist, take legal action against it (create new law for this purpose if necessary).

Yes to the second, but is the first possible? Not joking. When we first came to Canada, to Nova Scotia, I was shocked to learn that if a new party was voted in in provincial politics a lot of public servants lost their jobs so the new lot's friends got them. And this was considered normal. Don't know if it's still the case.

And Britiain still seems to have remnants of minister responsibility, so that they resign if things go badly amiss, or if they're caught in something bad. Over here it's "I didn't know" or "I'm sorry (I got caught) and I won't do it again."

5. Introduce a new annual public holiday for the purpose of celebrating Britishness (similar to Australia Day). I suggest calling it simply "UK Day", or maybe "UK OK Day"

Absolutely on the national day, but I'm looking at this and thinking "UK sucks". Not as a motto but as a name. UK has no soul. It doesn't tug at the heart strings.

Canada has Canada Day. The US has 4th of July. I suspect we should go with countries and make a big deal of St. George's day for England. And adopt the English Rose symbol -- see left.

6. Make it compulsory for all schools to teach citizenship as a separate subject, with a very strong focus on British culture, and what is good about the country, as well as encouraging children to imagine how they could make Britain even better in the future.

Absolutely. History! It's easy to fire kids up with Agincourt and the Armada, and there's lots of other good stuff.

17. Do something about the fact that a large proportion of houses in Britain are old and very ugly. A good start would be to have a company like Urban Splash or Bovis Lend Lease do what Delfin Lend Lease does in Australia and develop some large scale highly attractive new suburbs on greenfields sites (and before anyone complains there are plenty of suitable locations that could be used in Britain without making it so that there's no countryside!) This would then encourage smaller home developers to think again about the sort of designs they come up with (as it has here).

Being a person who dislikes suburbs (lived in a couple of nice ones over here but hated it) I don't support this, and I think you'll find there's zero unused and available greenspace in England.

As for ugly old houses, if they're really ugly and unsafe, demolish and build something really nice there, but lots of us love old houses, even terraces. And lots of people go to France, Spain, etc and walk down narrow streets of old houses oohing and ahing.

So I'd encourage pride in older housing, caring for gardens if there are any, hanging baskets of flowers in the summer, street parties and all that.

Bev

Hertford

Boom! That's what I like to hear! I'm in 100% support of backagen and Bevm. I was wondering why there seems to be no celebration of being british. I know St. George's day is when all the churches fly the England country flag and all that, but there's no real celebration in it. Everybody should have the day off that day and do something which they feel good about doing. I'm all for it!

hippichickuk

Hi.
I am currently living in NZ - One of the things I have noticed about being here is they are so proud of their country. So in a way YOU ARE RIGHT, if we had more national pride in the UK maybe we could improve things. I guess the fact that there has been so much migration leading to a hugely multi-cultural society in such a short space of time has had an effect on society. In NZ there appears to be that old fashioned atmosphere of help thy neighbour, which I think most of us like?