To think everything will be unrecognisable in 50 years

I do agree with this to some extent. It used to be there were shops and restaurants in any British city which you would not find in any other British city, and when you went to continental Europe or America everything was completely different, you didn't recognise any of the brands and that was amazing. You really felt you were abroad or somewhere foreign.

Now every high street or shopping mall in the UK, Europe or the US is the same with Zara, McDonalds, H&M, Apple store, Burger King, Footlocker, Lovisa, Subway, Pandora, North Face, Vans, Levi's...

Very same-y and homogenous.

Depleted 53% since the agricultural revolution. 2/3 of UK land was cleared for farming 250 years ago and the intensive farming was ramped up after WWII to make us self sufficient. None of this has anything to do with recent immigration, and in fact, as the farming industry shrinks due to globalisation, more areas are being rewilded. We introduced the Wildlife and Countryside act in the 80s to protect specific sites of interests. Working in the construction industry, I can tell you the most likely cause of delay to the start of a project is due to the environmental protections.

Its an interesting topic and worth talking about, but it has bugger all to do with this topic.

Obviously. Just as Afghanistan is different to Mexico, and Japan is different to Ghana, and Sweden is different to Spain, and the 18th century is different to the 21st century, and Arab Muslims are different to Berber Muslims, and Turkey is different to Syria, and Glasgow is different to Leominster, and Cornwall is different to Birmingham.

You are trying to make meaningful connections between 21st century Britain and historic situations in different countries based on a single point of commonality without considering all the differences in the wider context. Obviously, any serious consideration is going to have to include Different History, Different Context.

This is definitely the difference between the two cities. Glasgow hasn’t retained as much of its historic architecture, often because it was less well built due to more rapid expansion in the Industrial Revolution, and has less historical significance. That gives Edinburgh a more refined look, whereas Glasgow has a less cohesive often gritty feel about it in the city centre. Being more of a tourist destination also adds to the feeling as being among more people who are relaxed on holiday is different to being with people rushing about in their daily life.

oh where is the laugh emoji?

This is a fantastic video of an interview with Florence Panel. She was interviewed when she was 108 in 1977.

The interviewer asks her 'What's been the biggest change in your lifetime?".
Florence replied, 'Everything. Everything's changed'.

This lady went from horse and carts to Concorde. Amazing.

I doubt that white British people will be a minority in 50 years time. There are 73% of us here and our total white population is about 80%

What's the likelihood of us becoming a Muslim country when they are only 7% of our population? Christians count for 46% of us and the fastest growing 'religion' in the UK is 'no religion' at 37%.

I realise that parts of the UK have much higher % of immigrants than others, which skews people's views about how few white people there are. I also think that TV programmes and adverts present a skewed picture of Britain by showing a far higher % of black/Asian people than there actually are.

The following ceremonial counties have 90+% white people:

Northumberland 97.7%
Cumbria 97.6%
Isle of Wight 97%
Herefordshire 96.9%
Cornwall 96.8%
Devon 95.8%
Lincolnshire 95.8%
Durham 95.5%
Somerset 95.4%
East Riding Yorkshire 94.9%
Cheshire 94.8%
Rutland 94.8%
Norfolk 94.7%
North Yorkshire 94.2%
Dorset 94.1%
Worcestershire 93.8%
Shropshire 93.6%
Suffolk 93.1%
Gloucestershire 92.5%
Merseyside 91.7%
Staffordshire 91.3%
East Susses 91%
West Sussex 91%
Derbyshire 90.7%
Tyne and Wear 90.5%
Wiltshire 90.3%
Hampshire 90.1%

Edited to add that the figures above relate only to England and not Scotland or Wales.

All of your posts on here are the definition of word salad. You say many words but there's no real truth and meaning behind them. I don't know what you are trying to achieve although you do appear to have backtracked somewhat. The term fruitless pettifogging comes to mind. All races and countries have a traditional culture, most sensible folk recognise that and do not feel threatened or diminished by it. These cultures are a rich inheritance to us globally and they are worth preserving. You are powerless to dismiss them with empty quibbling over obvious statements about how they change over time or from region to region.

Some things are definitely going downhill or have been in recent years.

• life expectancy is stalling or going down
• house prices are impossible for many people compared with a couple of decades ago
• workers battled for centuries for the 8 hour day and now hours are going up again
• NHS is going downhill, when I was a child you could see a doctor when you wanted and also if you were in a different town or close to your work and you could even get an NHS dentist

I suppose a lot of others things have gone downhill as well, while some things are better, most notably women's rights.

I don't know what your agenda is, you tell me?

As for my understanding of British culture, I amazed that you would think I could sum it up in a single MN post. It encompasses so many different things.

But if you asked 1000 British people to line up and give their definitions of British culture, you would get 1000 different answers. Yes, there would be some common ground between them, but there would be many differences as well.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Perfectly put. I can’t stand people who hide behind word salad and ‘I didn’t say that..’

@BoredZelda Glasgow hasn't retained much of its historic architecture because it keeps spontaneously combusting

What are the benefits of multiculturalism?

"My home city looks and feels very different now to 30 years ago when I was a teenager. But then again so do I. I don't think the change is a bad thing per se. It just makes me feel old."

Yes and no.
I was watching Breaking Bad recently. It's from 20 years ago, but the fashions have changed very little. The biggest change is to smartphones from basic mobile phones. I think you'd have seen much bigger changes between the 50s and the 70s. I guess the 60s were a real turning point.

Yup, When we used to holiday abroad in the 70s and 80s, each country was very different, from each other and from the UK. Shops were different, eateries/food was different, the "local" culture was obvious/evident, you were served by "locals" in whatever country you were in, whether in shops, restaurants, buses or taxis, or hotel staff.

Nowadays, you almost have to check what country you're in (unless you go somewhere less developed, i.e. Africa, Far East, etc). All the supermarkets/shopping centres are the same, most eateries are offering the same "Western" food, and you're likely to be served by a wide variety of ethnicity in shops and restaurants, even down to the bus and taxi drivers who are very unlikely to have "local" origins to the country you're in. Even souvenirs etc are unlikely to be locally made and more likely to be mass produced in Chinese crap factories.

It's really taken away the "Magic" of going abroad on holiday unless you go somewhere very different away from Western culture/influence.

Some people like the diversity in cuisines.

If you're going to accuse me of backtracking, please provide evidence of that. Specific quotes please.

And accuse me of word salad if you want. It's an easy enough defence when you can't think of any other arguments.

The fact is, your insistence that there is a single British culture which is the same across all regions and all times is just nonsense. And you know it.

You're mainly right, but you do have to factor in birth rates.

You just desperately don’t want British culture to exist because you feel that it excludes people you care about, when it doesn’t. I wish you would sort of be honest with yourself rather than throwing yourself into semantics.

I've never heard of Lovisa so that's a difference.

Where I live I have a C&A and an Etam, both long gone from the Uk and I don't have Marks and Spencers, Next, etc. I still feel a difference going to the UK, but no to much to other neighbouring countries.

Well, then. Show me where my posts have contradicted each other. If you're going to make allegations, I'm sure you can prove them?

Here! 🤣

I think on these sort of threads the expectation is that some of us won’t agree.

There are no benefits of multiculturalism. And it is harmful when it reaches large proportions. Which is not to say that there no benefits of immigration. But studies have consistently found that countries with a dominate monoculture are higher trust and happier societies. But we find ourselves in times now where we are being told that we don't even have a culture, that we never did. And so the problem worsens. Orwellian.

Eh? How do you work that one out?

I haven't said once that British culture doesn't exist?

Perhaps you could stop being so patronising and actually engage with what I have actually said, and not what you think I've said?

Everywhere and everything moves on in 50 years . It’s called progress even if life gets worse.

Nothing now bears much resemblance to when I was young🤷‍♀️

Thats life.