Northern Ireland is a law unto itself. Apparently it is the only corner of the UK that hasn't gone to the dogs yet

Can't speak much for the rest of the island. Outside of Dublin airport I don't know it too well.

I can't remember exactly how the thread had started out, but it got to the inevitable, "I'm not at all racist, but there are too many darkies in the UK."

Wasn't it that someone who had emigrated made the point that there were too many immigrants in the UK as one of the reasons they wouldn't go back?

I found that quite ironic

Are you aware that the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision ruled there was "a substantive constitutional right to own slaves"?

Ireland (including NI) is a absolutely beautiful country as the rest of the UK. We have spent a tremendous amount of time travelling throughout Ireland and the rest of the UK. Everywhere we have travelled the scenery and the people have been fantastic (albeit) the NA accent is confusing for them....

As Sally said though, there are other countries that have a great deal to offer. Certainly the UK would be one of the countries on my top five list where I could live; but Scandanavia and Croatia as well as a few others are very tempting.......

Im not slamming the UK here - so please dont take my comments in the wrong context.......

I thought they hated the poles?

That's as fair a question as could be asked. I'm sure many people have their own views on what might be considered a right, but to me a right is an abstract concept that is protected both by law and by members of the armed forces.

I think part of the problem here, is that people are confusing the terms "legal" and "right". Lots of things are legal and are allowed... or were legal (such as owning slaves) and are no longer allowed. There are very few things which are actual rights and are enumerated as such. Owning a slave, for example, may have been legal but it was never a right - because it was never included or added to the Constitution.


It certainly seems that the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments were set aside or ignored during WW2, and that was a travesty and tragedy of law. I wasn't alive at that time, so I don't know the mood of the country when Americans were rounded up and held in detention camps. It was a sad period in US history. Hopefully, things have changed since then... but it's very easy to look back in hindsight and determine that things were wrong... it's a lot harder to live through it with the same moral justification!

Ian

Well that's one of the great BE cliches isn't it - like "Life's what you make it" except that doesn't apply to living in the UK, "We're doing it for the kids", "Just **** off if you don't like it" and "Will an NVQ get me into Florida?"

and the Scots

BE cliches! Brilliant

There are also a considerable number of people who are indifferent and just put up with things.

Pointing out flaws in either country is not a bad thing, better to be open about them than brush them under the carpet.

Do you know why? The Supreme Court held that they were not protected under the US Constitution. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution fixed that, fortunately.

As I have maintained throughout in this thread, rights have always been expanded and enumerated.

Ian

Technically, in the UK that right was removed last year. Slavery and all the means of slavery has been for years, but actual ownership of people was always over looked till last year

We really need a "Best of BE" so we can bookmark these

But that isn't "growing old". It is still part of your working life.

The fact that you can get stuck at anytime in your working life without insurance in the US is the problem which needs correcting. The problems that can cause can be at anytime. To say that growing old in the US is a bigger problem than the UK isn't so because once people reach 65 they are not worse off. I speak as someone who moved to the US at 58 to retire, and has found the cost of health care to be affordable and the treatment I have received when needed far exceeding anything I received in my life in the UK.

The US excludes people who don't have medical insurance, the UK includes everyone but doesn't charge enough in tax to pay for the NHS so everyone gets crap service.