During the 16th century, when the British were in permanent conflict with the Spanish Empire, they started the so-called "Black Legend," spreading rumors about the extreme cruelty, inertia, and obscurantism of their main enemy. No, Spain at that time was far from a paradise on earth - but it was also not as terrible as they said.
Centuries have passed since then, we know much more about history (although Spain is still not presented in the best light, for example, in The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise), and our selection today is dedicated to the modern pros and contras of the United Kingdom, expressed by its residents and tourists.
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The way that large parts of British society demonise refugees fleeing from their homes because of war and other horrors that we cannot even imagine is utterly shameful.
The country that invaded dozens of nations to form the largest empire in world history now says people should stay in their native country.
That's a rather biased and limited view. It's those claiming that they *have* to come to the UK to be safe, when in reality they've passed through several perfectly safe EU countries on their way. They come here for the absurdly generous benefit culture and the NHS.
Asylum seekers aren't entitled to either work or to receive out of work benefits. Please check facts..
Load More Replies...I can't imagine being desperate enough to cross 22 miles of freezing cold water in a tiny dingy as well as it being one of, if not the world's busiest shipping lane. We often don't know or care how privileged we are to live in the first world and I really struggle to deny people less fortunate having a chance to have this lifestyle.
Yes because France is not a 1st world country is it?
Load More Replies...This is, for me, just not true. A lot of people have no problem with refugees and Britain welcoming them. However, a great deal of people have a problem with economic migrants who lie about their nationality to claim asylum when they are from a safe but poor country. People also have a problem with adult men who claim to be under 18, when they are not. Child refugees deserve a safe place to live, to be fed and educated. There are many families that agree to foster them which is wonderful and selfless. But there have been stories of social workers turning up to these foster families homes with male children who appear older than 18. One I remember, the family complained that their 15 daughter was propositioned and didn't feel safe around the refugee. He also spent most evenings smoking and drinking, then eventually stopped attending school. One day he just left the foster home, never to return. So I think that most people have compassion for genuine refugees.
Who the hell agrees to foster teenage refugees when they have a 15 year old daughter in their home? They are very lucky because that’s not the ending I was expecting. This is why conservatives think liberals are stupid. Naive may be a better word but Jesus Christ.
Load More Replies...I live in the U.S. I now see the legacy we chose to nature wasn't spawned on its own.
Whenever I hear the English complaining about people coming to their country and changing their culture I just laugh and laugh and laugh.
Oh Kev, size matters. It really is not about culture. At all.
Load More Replies...The fact that Great Britain has been built on immigrants from the beginning of its history is ironic. Romans, Saxons, Angles, Danes, Norman, Portuguese, Huguenot, French Royalists, The Windrush Generation, the list goes on and on.
You do realize those were invasions? Aside from the Windrush those people were not happy immigrants showing up to help, but to conquer?
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Football culture. People need to not let the outcome of some random sports teams match effect their lives so much.
Yeah, never got it myself either. Obligatory when growing up there to have a team affiliation, even if just for the playground, but even then it was clear that it was at least as much about hating (the supporters of) other teams as it was about supporting your own. It's just tribalism gone mad.
This is the stat that loads of folk are aware of but it’s not highlighted anywhere near enough. There’s a matching stat to do with the timings of games. If ‘fans’ have had time to drink before a game and after a game then DV increases, if it’s a weekday, evening kick off then DV incidents are lessened. Who’d have thought tribalism & alcohol would make for worse outcomes for women?
Load More Replies...I’m a huge football fan (Manchester U tied for those who care), and my team is going through such a bad time lately that when my team loses, all I do now is roll my eyes, tut and move on. Although in British culture, tutting is very bad.
There’s a tweet that always makes me laugh, a woman posted “Why do men always dress up in their football teams kit when watching football? I do t dress up as Gail Platt when I’m watching Coronation Street.” I would LOVE to see Soap fans dress up as their favourite character!!
Here in Australia soccer (I will always call it soccer as we already had football before soccer became popular here) fans are by far the worst behaved of the sports. There are often flares set off and brawling.
This happens to an extent in the US but the way too many people make their futbol teams their entire lives is CRAZY. Like, I get in poorer countries where you may not have much, you may put your whole identity in to something like a club that represents your city or whatever. But if you're in the UK (I'm using it as the example since this article is about that region) it make almost no sense. Although, living in severely economically depressed cities and region probably ties back to what I mentioned about poorer countries. But, yeah, it's completely asinine.
I am a life-long University of Michigan (American) football fan. I don't want them to lose, but if they do I just avoid the news for a couple days and move on... I can tease and joke with Michigan State fans (most people I know are), but Ohio State fans never seem to just find joy in sports - I haven't met one yet that wasn't incredibly rude and/or hostile over a game.
The NHS is about to collapse and not offering good service at all. Yes, it can work brilliantly, but people are dying daily because it’s underfunded and understaffed. And all that British to do is to blame foreigners and immigration as if that magically solves the two issues mentioned before, in particular as most doctors and nurses are immigrants.
Edit: funny how this has turned into a rant about immigration again rather than looking at the actual sources. Don’t bother fixing it when you can blame immigrants. You just go and suffer when you are ill… FFS.
I think they need to tax the middle / upper earners a little bit more. Saying that as a middle earner. Can't have nice things if won't pay.
Id have no issue with this IF it was an NHS tax on your slip. Not a, all the money in a pool then we'll give it to the NHS...
Load More Replies...Brexit was advertised with "350 Million for our NHS" and the uber-patriots jumped at it, but when during Covid every f**k who knew a Tory got a contract for masks and delivered just horseshit, but STILL got sometimes hundreds of millions out of the NHS budget, they were (and are) nice and quiet.
Well , it’s nice to see one of them being taken to court, as the PPE she recommended wasn’t even sterile.
Load More Replies...Hmmm, blaming foreigners and immigration. Why does that not surprise me...
The nhs is underfunded in part due to more people (patients) using it, which obviously immigration doesn’t help. I’d bet that nowadays however, the majority of people employed by the nhs from cleaners right up to consultants are non British, so the nhs really does show the positives and negatives of immigration in equal measure.
Immigrants make up to 40% of NHS staff in some places... So no, they're not the issue. The mismanagement is
Load More Replies...Or it could be from American Insurance companies meddling with it. They've been trying to get the NHS privatized for decades.
Which is why I always dread the Tories winning g an election.
Load More Replies...People blame immigration but it is the government who haven't invested in the services and infrastructure to cope with the increased demand.
The selection of opinions that we suggest you read today is based on this online thread, the author of which, the user u/tylerthe-theatre, once asked netizens in the AskReddit community: "What are some unpopular opinions you have about the UK?" Yes, the British generally have a very high opinion of their homeland, and very often these opinions have a solid basis, but there are critics too.
The resulting thread, with over 4.7K upvotes and around 6.7K highly discussive comments, includes both humorous opinions, which in fact only express pride in their country, and descriptions of real problems. However, some shortcomings are actually inherent in many countries of the modern world. Don't believe me? Then let's read on!
We have aligned too much with American culture and not enough with European. We are too damned lazy to learn another language.
I quite like Essex.
I have found the same shift in Australia. We used to get most of our media etc from the UK but now it is mostly from the US.
Align with New Zealand or Canada. Then you can be both monolingual and civilized.
Michael, do you understand the UK is not monolingual? The languages of the people are English, Scots(Ullans/Lallans/Doric), Gaelic, Welsh and Irish. And this says nothing about the languages people have brought with them. Similarly, New Zealand has English and Māori as official languages. Canada has English and French as official languages, with about another 100 distinct indigenous languages and dialects.
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The UK is nowhere near as racist, homophobic, xenophobic and generally unsafe as people make out.
Try visiting other countries with a black gay couple and you’ll soon realise how much worse others are. Not saying this country is perfect but it’s far from the hell hole people make it out to be.
Also we are nowhere near as frigid as we are made out to be either.
Edit: because people can’t understand the difference between “not as bad as people make out” and “we live in a tolerant utopia” I’ll simplify it. We aren’t perfect, but we aren’t as bad as often portrayed.
Makes me chuckle when I see a pride flag and a Gazan flag, like do you have any idea what they would do to us out there...
I can assure you, no-one in Great Britain wants an Empire back.
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God Save the King is probably one of the worst national anthems about. Not only is the the tune an offensively dull, dirgy number, but the song doesn’t mention Britain at all, it’s all just banging on about some members of the German aristocracy.
It should be the Archers (radio show) theme. We can all sing "Dum de, dum de, dum de dum, dum de, dum de, dum dum".
The Dutch one is horrible too. "I've always honoured the King of Spain"... I get why they sang that at the time, it was relevant to the war they were fighting back then. But the King of Spain is completely irrelevant to our lives nowadays. Nobody in the Netherlands has given a fúck about any Spanish kings for centuries now, so can we stop singing that we honour him?
After every Olympic Games we should have a vote for the next anthem, every four years we’ll have a new one. What could go wrong? Boaty McBoatface was a great name!
Oh joy! Vote for a new one every 4 years just like the song for the Eurovision song. If rhey are of the same quality I think I will pass. 😁
Load More Replies...They just need to speed up the tempo. The slower it gets the worse it sounds, like a dirge.
I think one of the criteria used in choosing a national anthem is how much it sounds like a dirge. I don't think I've ever heard one you could dance to!
Load More Replies...Canada has "The True North, strong and free" which King Charles III even quoted in a speech in Canada
Perhaps one of the main shortcomings that the British see in themselves (and foreigners also note this) is the excessive immersion of many Brits in football culture. Well indeed, very often the lives of the British depend very much on how their favorite team played on the weekend (or in the middle of the week, if they support a club playing in the Champions League).
On the other hand, is it actually this bad? Firstly, in Britain, like in no other country, the principle of 'support your local team' is developed, so teams playing at different levels will always find an opponent that they can beat. Secondly, the relegation league system adopted in football in the UK almost guarantees that sooner or later, no matter how weak your favorite club is, it will find itself among equals.
This also means that later, there will be the joy of returning to the top division, which is also incomparable. Just watch the cult documentary series Sunderland 'Til I Die, released back in 2018, and you will partly understand what the fans of this club felt when Sunderland finally returned to the Premier League this season.
This sub is full of popular opinions shocker.
But.....
British cheese is better than French cheese is mine.
As a Brit living in France, it greatly pleases me that at long last the Frenchies are finally starting to understand what's so great about cheddar. I long for the day when they start dumping cheddar on things rather than their infatuation with the unpleasant greasy slime that is Emmenthal (which isn't even French FFS!). But, whatever, I can now but Cathedral City Extra Mature, so I'm happy.
No. Just no. There are some decent British cheeses, but nothing compared to the diversity and quality of French cheeses
The UK produces more different cheeses than France. Google it.
Load More Replies...I've lived in France and Switzerland for 25 years and agree with you. These days I can just about regularly source half-decent Cheddar, and Lidl have Stilton on specials two or three times a year, so I stock up and freeze it, but that's about it. I mean, some of the French cheese is really good, but it's just not the same.
I disagree, but your opinion didn't deserve a downvote... have an updoot to counter the neg.
Load More Replies...You can hate me for this, but all French cheese is virtually identical, just with different names
Pfft, Wensleydale and cranberry is pudding. If you get the chance, try Kit Calvert Wensleydale
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Not everyone is miserable, broke, lonely, s*xless despite what the UK-related subs will tell you.
In fact lots of people are really happy enjoying their life in the UK.
I love Scotland! Still going to whine about the weather, it's good to let it out
It’s actually written into law isn’t it? Rain and insects that’ll eat you alive in the beautiful highlands have to be grumbled about.
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The litter in this country is disgusting and people need to take personal responsibility for it instead of whining about a lack of bins. Take it home.
This. People flinging c**p out their cars to litter verges etc. Don't be a s*****g.
Fly tipping boils my blood! Driving along a beautiful road over the hills in the Yorkshire Dales and there's a fridge and another pile of rubbish In a layby 🤬
Fly tipping seems to have become a whole new industry!
Load More Replies...Um hum, you're going to get on the train or bus with a large bag of smelly trash to take home and throw away. Your sanitation departments need to revamp their collection schedules and provide more dumpsters and bins, and probably more garbage trucks.
I love this writer and how he is helping his community. We can all pitch in like him: David Sedaris, a renowned author and humorist, is known for his passion for picking up litter, which he does regularly, sometimes for hours at a time. He has become so active in litter removal that his local council in Horsham, West Sussex, England, named a garbage truck after him. The truck is even called "Pig Pen Sedaris" and has a cartoon pig painted on its side.
Some Britons don't really like their national anthem, which doesn't reflect in the text at all, any mention that it is about Great Britain, and only praises the monarch. On the other hand, firstly, God Save the King is just the anthem of the king himself, not the country (it's not officially approved), and secondly, the monarchy per se is a rather specific system in any case.
So, besides returning to football, probably the most popular football song of all time, You'll Never Walk Alone, doesn't contain a single word about the game or the fans. By the way, some national anthems don't even have lyrics at all - only music.
Went to Germany (Koln), was in a public park. I saw an immaculate gas BBQ set sitting next to a rain cover. I asked the guide, ‘Why doesn’t anyone steal the bbq?’ The guide turned to me with absolute horror on his face and replied: ‘If a person were to steal the bbq, then no-one else who comes to this park would be able to use it’. I have never felt so embarrassed to come from UK.
That BBQ would have disappeared onto the back of a lorry in my neighborhood within the hour it was placed there. Some thieving k-n-o-b-h-e-a-d stole an outdoor fireplace made of steel right out of my backyard... Before I invested in CCTV.
We're actually lucky to have the weather we do here, really, in the grand scheme of things.
This message brought to you by the British Umbrella Manufacturers Trade Association.
Considering the UK is on the same longitude as Canada and Siberia, we don’t experience the winters they have, thanks to the Gulf Stream.
Same! And my water butts aren't going to fill themselves (waiting with bated breath to see what the censor makes of water b u t t s...)
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There should be much stricter regulations on vapes.
El Dee, asked why there should be stricter regulations on vapes. Vapes were originally sold as a way to get off cigarettes. Studies have shown vapes are less harmful than smoking cigarette, but they do have risks, and those risk are much larger than having a mug of coffee. And there *is* a second hand danger from vaping - increased risk of bronchitis symptoms and shortness of breath in babies, children and young adults, as well as with people who have asthma and breathing difficulties.
Plus the harm to the environment since vaping apparently turns a percentage of users into c***s who throw their empty vapes away where they stand.
Load More Replies...Sorry, but I do not inhale someone else's coffee as I walk by them sipping from a cup. I walk into your grape-scented vapor around every corner.
Load More Replies...Another common complaint about the United Kingdom is London itself. According to people in the comments, the capital is too cramped, too noisy, and everything is absurdly overpriced. However, what did you expect from one of the main megalopolises of the modern world?
If you take travel notes from about the beginning of the 19th century, when London became the largest city in the world, then the complaints about it remain approximately the same.
The UK has had many positive contributions to history across a variety of fields, we weren't just evil coloni***s.
Nope. The censored word is “colonísers.” Still yet another example of totally unnecessary censorship.
Load More Replies...Okay, that's along the line of "But Hitler built the highways". It's been estimated that we stole TRILLIONS ( not billions) of £ from India alone. It's not our place to say which part to prioritise. And it's easy to make "positive contributions" when you're rich as f**k from stolen money or base your research on stolen fossils and artefacts....
I thought you said you were an immigrant to the UK. What's with the "we"?
Load More Replies...How about asking the colonies for the review?? I mean you would want others to say the same, right?
No body gives a f**k about Empire or coloni***ion. We don’t think about it. We neither proud nor ashamed. We just trying to remember the Wi-Fi codes and pay our electric bills.
It would have helped if were part of the UK school.history curriculum (certainly wasn't in the 70s and 80s when I was a kid)
That's the problem - the UK should give as much a fu*ck about the Empire and colo*nisa*tion as the Germans give about the Holo*caust. While we're at it, the UK should also learn what really happened in WWII, and that it wasn't just them defending Hitler. The lack of knowledge about its history, and the refusal to face and deal with it, is one of the UK's greatest failures and weaknesses.
In Canada, we do our best to help apologise for the residential schools and what happened. We have what's called Orange Shirt Day, where schools wear orange shirts with the words "every child matters" and blue and pink handprints on the shirts, and there's a Truth and Reconciliation week at schools as well. We also have some areas of land reserved for the First Nations, and also we have Indigenous students in everyday society with everybody else. Just if you were wondering how we handle our greatest historical injustice
This idiot is wrong there are those of us who teach our children the evils our country committed and how we should be ashamed and work hard to avoid futher evils by voting and doing what's best for everyone not just us. Those who think like the op who think we don't think about or shouldn't apologise or feel bad will hopefully fade with age they are likely the same people villianising asylum seekers etc
Way to whitewash your history. I guess you are learning something from us Americans.
Large chunks of the population disdain education which makes it hard to progress as a country.
So, not much has changed then? My first secondary school (late 70’s) most of the kids took great pride in rejecting what education was on offer and beating up the ones who wanted to learn. It wasn’t a fun two years.
Contrary to what too many young people believe, it is NOT cool to be ignorant. 🙄
As for the weather, which has been considered one of the main drawbacks of the British Isles for centuries, are you sure that overcast skies and drizzling rain in the era of global warming, when many countries break temperature records every summer, are that bad? Who knows?
In any case, representatives of almost all countries in the world can express unpopular opinions about their homeland - and they will almost always be quite right.
British people are far too wedded to their cars and driving. I’m 30 and have never learned to drive. Never wanted to. When I tell people that, they look at me with either pity or contempt, as if it’s somehow embarrassing to use public transport. When really it’s the state of public transport that is the problem in many areas.
Depends where you live and what you do. It's not necessary in major cities, but if you're in rural areas where buses run every Tuesday, it's pretty essential. Also if your job is to deliver white goods.
Ok, I think I might, right now, Drive to the coast and have a bit of a paddle. It's 25 miles away. You couldn't do that, easily, whenever you want to. Learn to drive it's changes your life.
Public transport doesn't access everywhere or it operates at inconvenient times or days. Driving gives an unparalleled freedom.
Perth, Western Australia, we have thousands of apartments in the city. Many live and work there, no need for a vehicle.
I never learned to drive, because I lived on the Surrey/Hampshire border and there were trains, buses, and I could walk to two different main towns in about an hour and a half (depending on which way I went). Now I live in rural France and a car is an absolute necessity. So I drive a dinky toy car that's only legally allowed to do 45 (that's 29 in UK speed) which gets me to work or to do the shopping. Kind of wish I had learned to drive but in the UK there never seemed to be any pressing need.
If I didn't have the job I do, I might ditch my car. Also plan not to drive any longer after I retire... Too many elderly drivers stubbornly cling to their drivers licences much too long after their fabulties and senses cause them to be hazards on the road.
London is hideous. Too cramped, too noisy, everything is absurdly overpriced. The one good thing is the range of diversity from people to food, but other than that it is simply the worst place on earth.
The weather is brilliant though.
Yes, it IS awful and in no way reflects the rest of the country. If you visit and go no further you have not seen the UK..
I disliked London, mostly because I found it weird that people didn't make eye contact while walking around (how do they not bump into each other?). But I did like the museums! Everyone always bangs on about how easy it is to get around. Nobody tells you about the long walks to and from the tube station.
I used to work in London in the '70s. I was fascinated by it. Now, living in Australia, I can only visit from time to time and absolutely love walking the streets and seeing all the old buildings. Sure, there is much modernisation but the old flavours are still there.
Introducing some dangerous, wild animals would make hiking more exciting.
Because the haggis is naturally shy. We need to develop a super attack-haggis.
Load More Replies...You can come over here and take as many of our rattlesnakes as you want. Grab some cottonmouths while you're at it.
You can have some Tiger Snakes if you want, they could survive in the south of England. Put the fun into weeding the garden.
If you want dangerous, wild animals, go to Australia. They have plenty, and you can have your exciting hike.
Righto, come out here and hike in bushland in bare feet, lol.
So, if you are British or have been to the United Kingdom at least once, we definitely expect you to express your own point of view about what you liked or disliked about this country. And all other respected readers are simply invited to read this selection to the very end and, perhaps, think about what unpopular opinion about your own country you can voice as well.
People drive far too fast, drink far too much and are so easily swayed into stupid decisions by insidious media methods.
This. Everyone knows the Sun and Daily Mail are s**t, but if they write something, it seems as if 3/4 of the population believed it. See also "oh, these dangerous immigrants" and "Tories that stole millions from the NHS? Totally not a story at all". Unfortunately, the BBC is going down the drain, too, at least when it comes to politics.
I assume you're referring to what they choose to cover rather than that the information they report isn't reliable. Makes me nervous not to clarify that, since if people decide you can't trust any sources at all, they'll just pick the sources that are saying what they want to be true. ETA I didn't downvote you.
Load More Replies...That last part is a huge problem for the modern world. All they need is the funding to make sure something gets repeated so often that it becomes common "knowledge." It's terrifying.
We aren’t as funny a nation as we think we are. 90% of our jokes are verbatim taken from stand up clips and the rest are saying things in a sarcastic tone.
When it comes to written humor, I quite agree.
Load More Replies...Australian humour is very similar, which is why many Aussies prefer British comedy shows than American ones.
Aussie comics often do well over here too.
Load More Replies...There is also a love of silly accents. Plus, general bants. Also, I once saw someone getting arrested, and he pulled out a Monopoly get out of jail free card. Police laughed, and cuffed him. Some drunk guy once told me he was on telly. See when you turn the TV off, and the image shrinks to a wee white dot before vanishing, he was the dot. Amazing!
I know a group of people (American) whose sole form of humor is borrowed from pop culture. It's annoying.
That the UK is actually a good place to live with a great history and if the UK didn't exist the entire world would be a much, much poorer place to be.
India may have been a rich country before the British, but Indians weren't. there was a class of absurdly rich people, some very powerful people based on religion and cast and the rest struggled as most of us do. I'm not defending colonialism at all, and the British behaved abominably, but the Raj could not have succeed without the involvement of vast numbers of Indian people who saw opportunities for their lives to improve; from rail workers to public burocrats and the rise of the first Indian middle classes.
India was a rich country before the British arrived. Your rich world is literally built on the loot from the empire esp. India..
This is supper ignorant as a brit I apologise for this idiot and their ignorance.
Everytime I go back to visit, I spend much time walking around castles (what's left of some of them) cathedrals, various old buildings and typical pubs. I do miss all of those living out here.
As an American, I've never regretted the Revolutionary War more than I do right now!
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Modern British film is a bit c**p and it's annoying how it always looks like it's filmed by a bunch of students in the early 2000s.
Northerners aren't all friendly.
Of course they aren't. Just as not all Canadians are polite, and not all Americans own guns. But typically, people from the north of England are friendlier than people from the south of England.
I think the North begins in Yorkshire... And Scotland is a separate entity beyond...
I don’t know I find folk from Shetland and Orkney to be very nice - Aberdonians can be a bit stand offish. Or do they mean the silly c***s that think they’re “northern” despite being in the middle of the f*****g uk north to south and not wanting to give Scotland its independence as they’re using it for its resources and somewhere to send their old folk! ?
The word C*nt is not frequently used in most social circles in the UK, and its use in most situations is highly offensive.
Edit: to be clear, I'm not particularly offended by the word, it's the emerging 'meme' on UK subreddits that we use the word all the time that I find cringey, and a bit inaccurate.
Sorry, this is NOT true. OP is talking about England. In Scotland the word is used in exactly the same way as in Australia ie mild ribaldry/affectionately..
I resent a negative connotation being attached to the word for places where I have spent some of the happiest seconds of my life.
Hahaha this person is middle or upper class because I can assure you it is 😆
It might be a class thing? I know some people that use it as if it were a lesser word then "d**n" and I cringe every single time. Edit: Seriously? Dåmn is censored too? FFS...
People are far too influenced by the media here.
From what I read, the USA is top of the list on this
Load More Replies......and the media is HIGHLY partisan to the point where you can make a lot of judgements about a person and how they think just by looking at what paper they read. Case in point, I read the Guardian. 😉
I don't give a s**t about tea or proper breakfasts or any of the other superficial nonsense that people on Reddit seem to think makes you "truly British".
BP doesn’t actually write very much original. I’ll bet this was scraped from Reddit - hence the comment.
Load More Replies...Tea is a hill I will die on. 🫖 You know those stereotypes about people whose first (and pretty much only) response to anything happening, anything at all, is to put the kettle on? Hello 🙋🏻 I'm that stereotype. 🫖 So, shall I be mother?
I do enjoy a full English breakfast once in a while... But skip the deep fried bread, ta.
I struggle with the concept of 'British'. As does the rest of the world where it's another word for English.
But what about poor old Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland?
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Wetherspoons is fine.
Wetherspoons is fine, but their boss was horrendous during Covid lockdowns. He refused to pay staff on furlough until the government grant was in the company bank account. This left so many people desperate for cash. I would not use a Wetherspoons if I had the choice.
He even had his employees defending him on social media at the time.
Load More Replies...No spoons is a cess pit of reform voters and racists didn't use to be use to be the uni students cheap pub food and drink but many students won't touch it now
The UK has the worst of socialism and capitalism.
Relatively high taxes associated with socialism and low public services / benefits associated with capitalism.
I'd rather have lower taxes and the state did less or higher taxes and the state did more for everyone.
I think the bigger questions are things like why aren’t there more services if the population is paying such high tax rates? Tax revenue doesn’t just disappear into thin air. It goes somewhere. So where exactly is it going? Whose pocket is being lined with it? I would want to know that. I’d also get them to pay every single penny back, even if they go bankrupt and have to sell their organs to do it. F**k them, I want to see some social services and infrastructure results in exchange for my tax money. I do not want it to fund your second or third home. Or marriage. Or pay back the criminals you stupidly borrowed money from., so they don’t kneecap you, or worse.
I think a lot of it goes on paying private companies to make profits on public services. Again, well done to the conservatives. Plus, there is also just a level of this what things cost. Social care is expensive, state pension is expensive. What we get in the UK is still pretty good. Not perfect. The aging population thing is a major drain. That's happening globally. Its not just a UK thing.
Load More Replies...I think many services should never have been privatised... Stakeholders expect returns on their investments. What happened to HS2? Haven't heard owt about it in ages...
Always been more to the right so never favoured socialism. This post completely sums up the position of our latest government - made me think!
I think the UK police is too soft. I have personally witnesses police officers being told off by random drunkards, being told to fck off, etc...
They are too much customer service oriented, not how police in most of the countries operate for a reason.
This is someone who has never seen them in action. I'm glad they aren't armed, if they were we'd have all the same problems the US does..
I have seen them in action, many times. But not one of those times involved any violence. The only violence I had witnessed was verbal, from a thief being apprehended. In the UK, there is the idea of 'policing by consent', rather than 'being the best armed gang'.
Load More Replies...100% don't agree with this. Look at crime rates. Lower in UK than many places. It works because police been d***s isn't the point. Its not customer service, its picking battles. Cops going round looking for fights isn't what they are for. "Policeman" means "man of the city". Keeping the peace. Maintaining law.
That's actually the Police's policy: they WANT to deescalate instead of suppress. As a result, although there's a lot of s**t going on still, by and large we're less afraid of our Police. Some right wingish Tory wanted to provide them with guns, they refused. There are better ways to handle conflict than to shoot everyone in a 30 metre perimeter. I'm glad they don't beat every drunk guy who talks s**t into mush. And when I look around, there's not more crime than anywhere else - rather less (always depending on area - there's good and bad ones everywhere).
Well, let's see the court documents, they should state a reason why he was still fired. And then we can discuss how fair or unfair it was. All I can say is that the UK doesn't drown in crime and our police doesn't carry guns normally.
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HP Sauce is disgusting.
What does it actually taste of? Never tried it as half a century ago as a child someone said it was liquid p*o which sort of stuck with me.
It’s kind of like A-1 sauce mixed with malt vinegar. TBH, I prefer Daddy’s to HP.
Load More Replies...It's better than barbecue sauce and I will not stand for this slander
I agree. And Henderson’s Relish is far superior than Worcestershire Sauce
The amount of feral kids roaming out cities is out of control.
Now this is absolutely modern blinkered bias. 'Feral Kids' when i were young were 'kids out to play' maybe 'up to no good' but they were kids. The sort of people who complain about kids todays are the same who idealise their own childhood when 'mum never knew where we were and couldn't contact us'. Dangerous twisted nostalgia based hog-wash. Remember a movement called 'Women reclaim the streets' well young-uns its your turn ' .... Children reclaim the streets' make it normal to see swathes of noisy buggers running about - go on, normalise childhood again.
The difference was that if we got too rowdy then it was acceptable for an adult (usually a grumpy old man) to give the noisy ones a clip around the earhole to knock them back into line. Such things are now called child abuse and so the lack of discipline these days can be startling.
Load More Replies...Kids playing. The types who say this also complain to many kids on devices! Wtf do you want Karen or Ken? Honestly! Let them play! You did when you were little you were out for hours!
Public toilets in London are the pits and I feel for the attendants who have to clean them. Shout-out to the wonderful lady who keeps the Chapel Road Market loos in Islington spotless, but generally if you can find one you'll discover the toilets really do take the pi$$. Incidentally a Green Party MP recently submitted a discussion review to the House of Commons titled The Toilet Paper, but I'm not sure what came of it. Speaking as a Londoner born and bred, our parks are lovely and despite the Daily Mail's propaganda, people really do get along. Brexit though has been an disaster. The tabloid obsession too with a very strange royal family is one-sided. The Duchy of Cornwall for example was set-up to create an income for the monarch. In 2024 Prince William, who inherited it from his dad, was awarded £23M. What he does with it no-one knows, and in a country with poverty it's a question that is never ever asked. Odd.
Oh yes. The king just wants a "salary rise" of 40 million per year and gets it. What for? Nobody asks. The whole bowing before "nobility" is our country's sickness.
Load More Replies...I'm an immigrant with still a bit of an accent, who loves her pubs. So I'm quite often asked how I find life in the UK, or specifically, in Scotland (which should be even more reduced to "Edinburgh", as life in the Highlands is still very different). I like that it's relative relaxed, people don't give much of a s**t about how you dress or what your job is. I've been drinking with multimillionaire authors (no, not JK, I have standards, that c**t can get tae f**k) and Nobel Prize winners and you wouldn't have guessed who of us earns more. There's a willingness to talk to people, even strangers, that I like - none of that "nobody talked to me in the last 3 days" stuff - if that's the case, just go to a pub. Work is also more relaxed than in Germany. People are generally more willing to take care of each other, however, from what I hear, that's a Scottish thing. There IS a cultural line between Scotland and England. And when it comes to Scottish Independence, England acts like
an a*****e husband - "You cannot leave me, you are too weak, too poor, you can never make it without me". Which tells me that England (Westminster, not the English people) is pissing its pants out of fear of losing us. And yeah, Brexit. People who "just wanted to express their frustration" and did so in the stupidest way possible, or downright claimed that experts in international law, economics and politics had not idea. Unfortunately, too many still think we should and could be an Empire, the loss of importance has hurt many people's ego. So they fall for everyone who tells them that they can be "Someone" again. Aka Farage and similar s**t.
Load More Replies...Going off one of the posts about a certain word not being used. Not for me. So let me say this in response to your comment. F**k off, c**t!
Load More Replies...Public toilets in London are the pits and I feel for the attendants who have to clean them. Shout-out to the wonderful lady who keeps the Chapel Road Market loos in Islington spotless, but generally if you can find one you'll discover the toilets really do take the pi$$. Incidentally a Green Party MP recently submitted a discussion review to the House of Commons titled The Toilet Paper, but I'm not sure what came of it. Speaking as a Londoner born and bred, our parks are lovely and despite the Daily Mail's propaganda, people really do get along. Brexit though has been an disaster. The tabloid obsession too with a very strange royal family is one-sided. The Duchy of Cornwall for example was set-up to create an income for the monarch. In 2024 Prince William, who inherited it from his dad, was awarded £23M. What he does with it no-one knows, and in a country with poverty it's a question that is never ever asked. Odd.
Oh yes. The king just wants a "salary rise" of 40 million per year and gets it. What for? Nobody asks. The whole bowing before "nobility" is our country's sickness.
Load More Replies...I'm an immigrant with still a bit of an accent, who loves her pubs. So I'm quite often asked how I find life in the UK, or specifically, in Scotland (which should be even more reduced to "Edinburgh", as life in the Highlands is still very different). I like that it's relative relaxed, people don't give much of a s**t about how you dress or what your job is. I've been drinking with multimillionaire authors (no, not JK, I have standards, that c**t can get tae f**k) and Nobel Prize winners and you wouldn't have guessed who of us earns more. There's a willingness to talk to people, even strangers, that I like - none of that "nobody talked to me in the last 3 days" stuff - if that's the case, just go to a pub. Work is also more relaxed than in Germany. People are generally more willing to take care of each other, however, from what I hear, that's a Scottish thing. There IS a cultural line between Scotland and England. And when it comes to Scottish Independence, England acts like
an a*****e husband - "You cannot leave me, you are too weak, too poor, you can never make it without me". Which tells me that England (Westminster, not the English people) is pissing its pants out of fear of losing us. And yeah, Brexit. People who "just wanted to express their frustration" and did so in the stupidest way possible, or downright claimed that experts in international law, economics and politics had not idea. Unfortunately, too many still think we should and could be an Empire, the loss of importance has hurt many people's ego. So they fall for everyone who tells them that they can be "Someone" again. Aka Farage and similar s**t.
Load More Replies...Going off one of the posts about a certain word not being used. Not for me. So let me say this in response to your comment. F**k off, c**t!
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