Domino

thats National Service

Dick Dasterdly

....or my old grammar school, though that was seriously physical.
Reckon the amount of GBH that was dished out back then would see most of the teachers getting a fair dose of porridge in todays world.
I believe it was meant to be character building.

Domino

well it worked - by the character we see here

Domino

why, when Hong Kong island and subsequently Kowloon were ceded in perpetuity to Great Britain (New Territories were only leased) did we return Hong Kong to China in 1997 ? ?

is it due to Lord Palmerston saying Britain didn't need a rocky outcrop back in 1841 and the Foreign Office never actually thought we should have it ??

jimenato

You're expecting sense?

jimenato

Simply because Hong Kong is unsustainable without the leased land. That was always known.

jojojojojo

Yes, thats what I meant by us being less into human rights and the chinese being a little more into it! The UK is too soft and the chinese is a bit too harsh, maybe the two mixed together would be a good thing

Jo xxx

rugbymatt

Ah... THATS what you meant.... We all get it now, you weren't being ignorant about the plight of millions of piss poor Chinese, just trying to balance out the bad stuff.... OK... My bad.

Saxy

Exactly!!!!
The last Director to join the company I worked for, could 'Talk a Good Job'. When he joined the company my reaction was, that 'I would follow this man to the ends of the Earth'. He chose his managers by their hight ( over 6'4") rather than their abillity, and it seemed that they chose the workforce from the people less likely to pose a threat to their own jobs. Between them they destroyed the English branch of what had been a good company!!! It lasted about a year after I left.

John.

Domino

the island wasnt leased - it was ceded in perpetuity as an integral part of the Treaty of Nanjing. In 1860 there was a failed assassination attempt against the British Governor when he visited Kowloon. The emporor was so horrified that such a thing could happen to a representative of a soveriegn of almost equal worth as himself he ordered 5 sq miles of Kowloon, measured from the place where the incident happened, to be ceded in perpetuity.

It was only the New Territories that were leased in the 1898 for 99 years.
(hence the 1997 handover date)

rugbymatt

I think thats what he said... his point was that without the leased land, HK would not be viable....

Domino

AH but the British, under Victoria and until the 1920's, were known for their harshness.
To not have been they would never have won at Rourke's Drift (and received the only standing ovation ever given by the Zulu warriors)
It wasn't just the way they treated peoples from other countries, it was also the way they treated their own. This only came to an end after the bloody events of the 1914-18 war.

jojojojojo

Ah, When we were GREAT Britain!!! So is it coincidence that now we're known for our "softness" we seem to be failing miserably economically, financially and ethically

jo xxx

Domino

thats right Jo, before we allowed others to hijack the term "British" which is given to them for passing a tick-the-boxes test and receiving a certificate from the mayor. Presumably this is to assist us in our integration with them.

the last "ethnicity monitoring form" I had to fill in I couldn't find "English" anywhere just "White British". some forms don't even have that so I have to tick "White European"

can never understand why I have to be defined by colour

rugbymatt

That you are sat in Spain telling people that its the UK who is failing economically is irony at its best!