chrisp65 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I am sure the "Great" in Great Britain refers to the size of the mainland . It has nothing to do with things like national achievements etc. come on, we all know that I nearly put in my response '14 answers and nobody has mentioned the size of the island' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legov Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Narrator sounds a bit dull I guess, but this was the best link I could find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 (edited) EDIT: why don't my youtube links work like the one above? Anyone? Edited July 17, 2014 by limpid fixed embed 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 (edited) EDIT: why don't my youtube links work like the one above? Anyone? Fixed Edited July 17, 2014 by AVFCforever1991 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Great thread. Could almost have been called 'life, the universe and everything'. I guess one cool calm statistical way of looking at it, would more people like to join Britain than leave it? We have part of that answer in the net migration figures, the other part will be delivered in the Scottish referendum, which, I sadly expect Scotland to bottle and vote to stay part of the union. Care to elaborate on that last part? How will I be bottling it? I think its often called a light hearted throw away comment. If it's been read differently and taken as a personal insult, I apologise. My broad argument was, with a net migration into GB every single year ever and 5,000,000 being given a chance to be something else without even leaving their house but most likely voting to stay in GB, that must be some sort of acid test that GB ain't all that bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troon_villan Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I didn't take it personally, I just wondered what you meant. I don't disagree with your last post though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Britain in a nutshell: Pro's: Orderly queuing, Impeccable manners. Con's: Tabloid press/culture, multi-cultural mess, the class system is still alive and well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Troon, I'm not the best at communicating genuine emotion, precision or detail. On devolution, my heart says that if I had a chance of a vote, I'd vote for independence. Given a genuine opportunity to decide it would be interesting to see where my 'x' ended up. But the fact that the country can calmly agree to allow part of its territory, it's land mass, it's population to decide for themselves whether they still want to be involved and that the debate has been carried out without violence and chaos has to be a really big credit to the whole country and all sides. A genuine free vote on self determination with the result being honoured by both sides. Regardless of how you vote or how the result goes, that it truly remarkable in a world full of violence and land grabs. If that doesn't make us Great, nothing does. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Britain is better, richer, and more powerful, than it has ever been, and it has only declined relatively to other powers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brumerican Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I am sure the "Great" in Great Britain refers to the size of the mainland . It has nothing to do with things like national achievements etc.come on, we all know that I nearly put in my response '14 answers and nobody has mentioned the size of the island'I know that intelligent folk such as you and I are aware of this but you may be surprised by how many people genuinely think that the "Great" means fantastic etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I am sure the "Great" in Great Britain refers to the size of the mainland . It has nothing to do with things like national achievements etc. come on, we all know that I nearly put in my response '14 answers and nobody has mentioned the size of the island' I know that intelligent folk such as you and I are aware of this but you may be surprised by how many people genuinely think that the "Great" means fantastic etc. That's what I used to think until a thread on here some months ago corrected me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Britain is better, richer, and more powerful, than it has ever been, and it has only declined relatively to other powers. or we stopped invading and robbing those other countries Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapal_fan Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Britains good, but to be honest, we're beginning to become very americani"z"ed. There does seem to be an increasing interest in trashy, throwaway tv, trashy throwawy celebs but this is down the money making people behind them, they give these people a record deal, a tv show or any other sort of pedestal and as soon as public attention become disinterested, they throw them away. There are so many new "celebs" who will be absolutely nothing but z-listers doing radio shows in 18 months. All these people from Big Brother, Pop Stars, Britains got Talent & Xfactor.. apart from a very lucky few, will be nothings. This sort of thing has also caused a bit of a frenzy in young people thinking they can be rich and famous without doing much work, imo. Then we have the fact that for nearly 10 years, we've been in a recession, that's not been ideal. Then we get tabloids and TV shows that promote awareness of uneducated, under priviledged people, slap a brand name on it and wham - Chavs were invented. Then we have the beer culture here - go look on facebook of anyone between the ages of 17-35... I guaruantee you'll see the words "Smashed, Monged, Wasted, Hanging, Epic, LAD" and a whole bunch of over the top adjectives describing a night out. Facebook in my opinion has a lot to answer for, it's a good tool, but people are becoming so transfixed on becoming interesting/popular that they have to change their real life character to become it.. They have to have more extreme attitudes, they have to speak ill of other people to make them look less interesting and themselves look more interesting. You could probably attribute quite a few deaths to social media, with drinking games, bullying, extreme acts going too far, just to get a digital "like". But the arguments I've pointed out are true of all western, english speaking countries. So what makes Britain great? It's got a great climate, nothing nasty to kill you, it's scenery is generally great. We have some amazing places to visit with heritage and a wealth of history which makes other countries jealous. We have had some great people living here, whether they be leaders or artists, we invented loads of amazing things and were the envy of the entire world only 150 years ago. When we need to be, we're the friendliest bunch there is, walking around London during the Olympics made me gush with praise at how welcome we made all the visitors feel - It was an incredible experience. The problem I have with GB at the minute, is that we're only amazing when other people are looking at us... If that makes sense.. We don't have the pride that the USA, Canadians, Germans, French people have.. It's like we constantly have to tell ourselves we're amazing as a group, but never do. As locals, to each other, I find walking around towns, or driving anywhere to be a pretty terrible... You're never far away from seeing road rage, or ignorant people strutting around with larger in their hands, being yobbish. It DOES seem to me as though there's been a generational shift from hard working, working-class people as a majority to a majority of "I'm owed a living", which from where I'm from, and my background, is truely a shame. But on the whole, for such a small country, with such a large amount of people in it, it's only the vocal minority that are annoying.. The normal people don't need to scream and shout about how great they are, so we don't notice them. Next time you're out, ignore the crazies standing around New Street preaching about Jesus, ignore the ignorant people who strut around with larger in their hands shouting "LAD" and look for the quiet people - the small family units that are enjoying themselves shopping, walking around and looking content. We've got such a diverse society, it's amazing - everyone brings something to the table.. GB is great, we just have to tell ourselves a bit more 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Nah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I fear for this countrys future when i see the youth today. more interested in their ipads then whats going on the world Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I fear for this countrys future when i see the youth today. more interested in their ipads then whats going on the world you want to get over to Asia , they are glued to them to the point that I swear future generations over there will be born with 3 eyes so that they can use one to navigate around the underground system whilst the other 2 eyes are glued to a smart phone / tablet device 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapal_fan Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Nah. You're one of those people I was talking about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dAVe80 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Some of my favourite places to be in the world... Villa Park, Edgbaston, Durham ICG, The Sage, Brudenell Social Club, The North Yorkshire Moores, Tynemouth, High Force, Roseberry Topping, Polperro, Scarborough, Hebden Bridge, soooo many pubs, etc, all in the UK. Still great. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 We don't have the pride that the USA, Canadians, Germans, French people have.. It's like we constantly have to tell ourselves we're amazing as a group, but never do. the trouble was in the Uk is for years we let racist parties like the BNP , EDL and Labour kidnap the flag and thus its nearly always automatically associated with negative connotations Fly the flag on your property in America you are a patriot , fly the flag on your lawn in the UK and you are a little Englander or a bigot Personally I don't want flags flying on everyone's lawn , but I'd still like to see a bit of patriotism from time to time .. you only have to look at something like 2012 and VT's left brigade spent the whole time fuming into their quinoa about how the Queens Jubilee costs 36p a person and how the Olympics were a waste of money ,whilst the rest of the world pretty much looked on with envy at those events ... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pelle Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Yeah, I think the youth thing is pretty much the same all over the world. At least in the western world. I love the GB in all its' ways and forms. But if I have to be critical about one thing it is that your standards sometimes seem to be so low. Now I'll talk about things that I rewally don't know the correct words for, but I can make myself understandable: At every pub and restaurant and hotel I've been to you can't mix hot and cold water. You've got one tap for each. I've always wondered what that is about. It's the easiest thing to mix them in one tap and I can't remember when we stopped using separate taps for it. I guess it's not like that in every man's house, but shouldn't that be standard in hotels? Carpets? Why? It's not hygienic and it's harder to clean. I guess it's warmer, but you hardly have a colder climate than we have. And I mean covering the whole floor. I don't know if this is still true, but I've heard that when you build houses you put water pipes and such outside the house as it's easier to fix when broken. Cheaper. Yes, but if you isolate them and put them inside the walls they won't breake. Or very seldom will. These are things I've always wondered about when I've been to England. But still, GB still equals great IMO. I love the country. And I mean to go to Scotland as soon as possible as I've always wanted to see the Highlands. Sorry if I've sounded rude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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