I understand what you're getting at in the second part of your post
but unfortunately YOU are one of those people that don't recognise the significance of history, as indicated by the first half.

The whole 'Britain is going to the dogs' nonsense has been going on since the first thursday after someone coined the name 'Britian'.

One look at history will show you that Britain is no worse off, and in fact considerably better, than almost any point in it's history.

We are no longer slave masters, slave traders, occupiers, invaders (recent history aside).
We are a very wealthy small island nation with an enviable level of freedom and a wide racial mix. I would suggest we have some of the lowest levels of racial violence in the world, due mainly to our culture of tolerence and acceptance of other ways of life.

The idea that British culture is being somehow erased is complete nonsense - St George's Day hasn't been celebrated in any significant way for generations - the only reason St Patricks is more popular is because Ireland is a strongly Catholic monoculture with a huge ex-pat community.

The reason the English cross is rarely seen is because it was hijacked by a distasteful bunch of thugs and no-one wants to be associated with them. Even if it didn't have those associations you wouldn't see it waving from every house and shopfront like you do in the US because ostentatious displays of patriotism are vulgar and decidedly unbritish.
( chenobble rocking his explorer beard on, Fri 2 May 2008, 15:39, Reply)