Englishmum

Please help me with this challenge!

Can you assist me in listing things about the UK which show that we British are a tolerant society?

A snobby Bush voter wants to know why I think my home country is tolerant...and at the time I could only think of the fuss about Janet Jackson's nipple showing at the Superbowl and it would be a total non-event in the UK.

I also said that the UK admits a far higher proportion of Asylum seekers than the US (at least I could prove that as the statistics are on the Unesco website).

She wasn't impressed. Needless to say, she's never been outside the US.

I know there are more reasons but my mind has gone blank!

Bob

Well it's more generally a cultural mix, being smaller, get less seperation like over here.
We've put up with the French for years *l*
We support our losers, Timmy Tim Tim Henman
More willing to import and not impose stupid taxes on them, well less so...

Hmmm...

half-pint

You only need to take a look at the BBC news coverage to work out why. When we interview people we have both sides, and we interview people well. Our news coverage is in-depth and non-sensationalist like it is in the USA. We see a wider spectrum of people who don't talk crap to each other, look at the differences in our political campaigns.

People in the UK have been exposed to cultural diversity on a huge scale, we have visitors from many countries and we like to visit other countries, nearly everyone in the UK holds a passport as opposed to less than a quarter of all americans.

There's some for starters.

Ellie

NC Penguin

There are neighborhoods in the UK where Muslims and Jews (for example) communities live side by side. I'm thinking specifically of Edgware Road/Regents Park and St. John's Wood in London.

We have homosexual and lesbian celebrities who have their own TV shows and have had for years.

Religion can be taught in schools and it includes many of the World's religions, not just Christianity.

Sex education taught in schools is more than just abstinence. Contraception is not taboo.

The legal drinking age in the UK is 18, not 21 as in the US.

There's probably tons of others but that's all I can come up with now.




NC Penguin

Patrick

Because we taught to be tolerant!!!!!

We are tolerant of the human body and of other nations and races where as americans are tolerant of violence of death!!!!!

I found it strange that the reasons americans voted for Bush this month was for moral values but they do not care about integraty. I have been ripped off twice while I been here and both times by conservative republican christians because they beleive gays are evil, abortion is the devils work but screwing people over, lying and cheating so they can get a couple of bucks is acceptable.

Dont show me a breast it may kill me but I have no problems lying, cheating and stealing - and I will still go to heaven! Makes no sense, then again this is the south

Brit'n'TX

we tolerate chavs!

the UK is far more tolerant of spongers than the US

the UK tolerates far more (crap) US shows on TV than vice versa!

CalgaryAMC

The UK has to be more tolerant because it has socially collapsed; there just aren't standards left to judge by.

Muswell Hill

In my humble opinion Calgary, your statement is b***ocks. The UK has not socially collapsed; there are problems, yes. But should you fall ill will you die if you are poor as you cannot buy medicines; no. Your child will be educated to a reasonable level for free and not have to worry about being machine gunned to death in school. I agree yobs are a nuisance, hooligans an embarrassment, but social collapse...way too strong.

Ash UK/US

We are more tolerant about freedom of speech (even though probably just about every yank would disagree) We can have a conversation with a complete stranger (UK citizen) and throw in a word such as God without fear of offending someone... we are free to say what we feel about our country and it's leaders without the risk of becoming a social outcast.. OK maybe a bit over the top but you get the picture. Most of us can walk past a smoker without making loud comments about them or pretending to have a coughing fit. To a certain degree, the watch dog for TV (forget their name) don't have to treat us like children and allow us to decide what is acceptable viewing.

Ash

Bob

Aye, watershed, great idea, though I guess recording shows for later viewing could make that a problem, but then shouldn't that be a parenting concern rather than a broadcast concern? just my rant

Ash UK/US

exactly it is a parenting issue... it is not up to the goverment to raise my child.

CalgaryAMC

You think yobs are a merely a nuisance? Hooligans just an embarrassment? You are far too tolerant.

I think you mistake social collapse for anarchy. They are not the same. Social collapse refers to the rapid abandonment of traditional social structures - things like the family unit, for example. You can have social collapse without anarchy (communist Russia) and anarchy without social collapse (Somalia, Afghanistan or Iraq).

CalgaryAMC

I agree, I think they should run porn on primetime; heck, they should distribute it at school and put it on billboards.

As it is up to you to raise your child, if you are intolerant of all of this porn, you can keep your child safely protected in your home, never to see the light of day.

mattbutt

[QUOTE=CalgaryAMC]I agree, I think they should run porn on primetime; heck, they should distribute it at school and put it on billboards.
QUOTE]

Yeah and stop all this PPV rubbish...

Having just spent 18 months in the US and just moved back I don’t think its an issue of the UK being more tolerant but of being more focused on issues that actually matter. As mentioned earlier in this thread Americans are far more obsessed with sensationalist views, that combined with the insularity of the Americans means they get caught up issues that detract from a lot of important topics.

You only have to look at the election, which was centered around the war and all other issues were firmly second best.

On another note if the US is intolerant why do they put up with the crap they call ‘news’.

IanandHolly

[QUOTE=mattbutt]
Having just spent 18 months in the US and just moved back I don’t think its an issue of the UK being more tolerant but of being more focused on issues that actually matter. QUOTE]

Like fox hunting??? Something that affects the daily life of sooo many brits...