The obsession with pomp and circumstance
There's nothing wrong with being proud of your history if you have a nice history.
If you have a history of going around the world and murdering millions of people and stealing their natuarl resources, and then fucking up other countries who try to do the same thing but make the mistake of doing it on your own doorstop instead of the other side of the world, well, that's not really something to be proud of, is it.

We are a nation obsessed with history, tradition and all things old.

The royal family is a vile institution which somehow the masses have been brainwashed into believeing we need. We don't.

Judges wigs and robes, Black Rod and the state opening of Parliament, trooping the colour, Lord Mayor's Show... all bobbins reminders of YOUR place in the grand scheme of things: at the bottom, looking up at your betters.

It's unbelievable to me that a country that is happy, and indeed welcomes, judges and lawyers to dress like utter tits somehow has a problem with women wearing 'traditional' clothes. A country which dragged thousands of people from around the world to come and work here, now decides it doesn't want them anymore. A country where people will gladly see a needy neighbour die in poverty than admit that the problems of this country are caused by those at the top rather than those at the bottom of society.

This country can be beautiful. Unfortunately most of the time, it brings out the worst in people.
( Joe Scaramanga with a G-double-O-D vibration, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 11:30, 24 replies)

Well said.
*Click*
( sir_spicious2000 Crap I've watched: www.filmplop.blogspot.com/, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 11:44, closed)

"people will gladly see a needy neighbour die in poverty than admit that the problems of this country are caused by those at the top rather than those at the bottom of society" is a terrible sentence
I blame the schools
(AWESOMEB0T meddling prick, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 15:07, closed)

I like this.
Compelling the most senior legislative and judicial authorities in the country to dress like rejects from Mister R. Horror's Animated Portrait Exhibition is lauded, because it's OUR tradition. Conversely, members of a rich and complex culture four millenia old where women customarily cover their hair with a scarf are barely literate cavepeople who need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 'modern civilisation' of reality TV, happy slapping and Poundland.
( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 11:49, closed)

Bloody republicans!
Piss off back to, er, Republica.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 11:50, closed)

*gets on the rooftop and shouts out "Baby I'm ready to go!"*

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 12:29, closed)

*observes tumbleweed in the streets below*
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 12:37, closed)

*gets down off rooftop and grows up, gets mortgage, has kids, trudges steadily through mediocrity unto death*

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 12:38, closed)

Like everybody else
The Fijians are very warlike Colonists with traditions going back hundreds of years. But that's somehow different, yes?

And the French, Portuguese, Spanish, Danes, Italians, Dutch ... getting bored now.

If you go back further than - whetever date you prefer - then everybody is barbaric and backward.

We are no worse. Or better.
( Linbox has a serious dunk habit, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 11:55, closed)

We are
because we go around the world lauding it over everyone else and calling everyone else savages, and barbaric.

Let's not forget despite the best efforts of some other countries we are still the last country to wipe an entire race of people off the face of the planet. Yay, Britain!
( Joe Scaramanga with a G-double-O-D vibration, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 12:16, closed)

Whilst we're at it, let's knock down any building over 150 years old, as I doubt they're thermally efficient and whatnot. Who wants the skyline cluttered up with relics, when we could all be living in a modern utopia, such as Milton Keynes?
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 12:01, closed)

Didnt mention architecture
I love architecture.

But I hate the assumption that anything new is automatically inferior to something old.
( Joe Scaramanga with a G-double-O-D vibration, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 12:19, closed)

It's no worse than judging history by the morals the modern era. Britain's been no angel, certainly, but it's achieved quite a lot of impressive stuff, too.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 12:22, closed)

"you"....what?I've never sailed anywhere.
the past is another country.
( Ring Of Fire A petty, drooling belming butthurt retard., Fri 4 Oct 2013, 12:10, closed)

I'm not quite sure how, but
I'm pretty sure this is very deeply racist.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 12:12, closed)

trooping the coloureds

( drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 12:13, closed)

for every villain there is a hero
the history of Britain is not made up of utter bastards.
Granted, there have been some, but there have also been some incredible, world changing people who happen to be born in Britain.
If your selective history is all you're going on, then yes, this is a nation of bullys, murderers and exploiters. But you're obviously just cherry picking things to further strengthen your opinion (and why not). This sort of one-sided opinion just comes across as uneducated. If only it were more balanced instead of biased.
History, however, is not that simple. The list of great people and great events is just as long as the list of evil, power hungry people.

"if you have a history of going around the world and murdering millions of people and stealing their natuarl resources, and then fucking up other countries who try to do the same thing but make the mistake of doing it on your own doorstop instead of the other side of the world, well, that's not really something to be proud of, is it." - is that our complete history? is that all we've EVER done?

no. no it's not.
( Ya What Skiddlyboop, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 12:37, closed)

I didn't say it was
I hate the fact that that particular part of our history is celebrated and treated as something we should be proud of, when I don't think we should.
( Joe Scaramanga with a G-double-O-D vibration, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 12:53, closed)

well then, that's ok.
I can agree with this side of an argument.
a balanced representation of our history is all we need.
not the 'bad things, but lets say they're good things' side,
not the 'we had an empire' side
not the 'selective' side.

just our history. truthfully.
( Ya What Skiddlyboop, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 12:57, closed)

Personally,
I'm quite grateful for Captain James Cook.

Best scouser sailor there ever was, like.

Discovered (well, ok, claimed) a magnificent continent that made a damned fine prison, for a while.
( Ken Oath, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 15:13, closed)

Scotland?

( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 15:22, closed)

Umm, yeah. Sort of.

Although I kind of wish he'd left New Zealand off the map, and quietly sunk it instead.
( Ken Oath, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 15:29, closed)

James Cook was from Staithes, North Riding.
Not a scouser.

If he had been he'd have been tail-spinning Endeavour and breaking into the local offies.
( The Disappointed Caravanner of the year, Sat 5 Oct 2013, 19:05, closed)

comie traiter fuck off to islamistan if you hate ingland so mutch

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 12:40, closed)

i swer eny1 comes near my daghtrs ill do time

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 12:48, closed)

Whatever happens, we have got: The Maxim gun, and they have not

( cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 12:49, closed)

They DO have the Loaded rifle, however.

( drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Fri 4 Oct 2013, 13:00, closed)

ill-informed student hand-wringing misplaced colonial guilt prick.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Sat 5 Oct 2013, 8:43, closed)