Just what has Britain got to be proud of ?

oh I wouldn't say that, niceguy

I dunno, we seem to tolerate you just fine even though your political views are clearly extreme and you are quick to resort to insults.

we haven't even had an empire for about 60 years (?) so if there is anybody who does still think like that they're going to be pretty old (& probably fairly dotty )

"we British are not a tolerant nation" - how many individual British people do you know, personally, well enough to assess their tolerance, ivanhoe?

Ivanhoes, one could say a problem with some British people is a certain, shall we say, political & intellectual arrogance....I agree with you on the treatment of the elderly, but you do come across as prone to generalise & quick to resort to insults. I could of course be wrong, but it gives the impression that your life experience is quite limited...

As for 'many people the days of the Empire reign high', I don't know what sort of circles you move in, but this seems rather far-fetched. It's still within living memory for some, but not many. Before too long it'll simply be history. I work with & know a lot of people from all walks of life & I can't say I know anyone for whom this holds true. Anyone else?

niceguy you say it so well.

One thing I think Britain should be rightly proud of is our tolerance to other races & religions.

I've traveled extensively around the world and I truly believe that in the UK we are more tolerant and multicultural than any other country I've been to. Yes ok we're not perfect but by god we're a mile ahead of other countries.

And yes I include the USA. That was a big surprise to me because I'd always thought America was the standard to aspire to but I found all it was was they've learned to not talk about the elephant in the room. If you walk around with your eyes open it's a very divided nation. Whites are at the top. Blacks & hispanics at the bottom.

That said one thing i wish we'd learn from America is to see success as a positive thing. Over there if you are successful and make a lot of money in business then people are happy for you and you are seen to be an inspiration for others to follow. In Britain if you are successful then people want you to pay more tax as well as claiming you've only gotten rich off the "poor workers" and slagged off at every opportunity.

ivanhoe your title started with "what has britain got to be proud of ?" thats a very general statement, i agree britain doesnt tick all the boxes, but which country does ? The answer is none! Britsin is still in my opinion the best, perhaps out of a bad lot.

In the end its the people that make the country, so instead of complaining why not lets try to make small changes wherever we are.

But we do give them medical care which is free at the point of delivery, unlike many places.

The roads here are really not as bad as you seem to think - I've driven through Canada, Spain and France (for example) and found them totally comparable to those in the UK. Ie. new ones are lovely, heavily used routes are OK, but have spots ruined by lorries, housing estate roads directly relate to the age of the estate, and country tracks are totally variable in quality.

In comparison to roads in less developed countries our roads and transport are amazing.

It's very easy to criticize when you've only driven tourist routes and toll roads.

The roads? Come on, our infra-structure is the worst in the developed world. Because our roads are better than Sierra Leone is not something to be proud of.

Several very beautiful national parks.

Ivanhoe, if the UK is so bad, and France and Germany are so much better (even though they were involved in everything the UK was involved in regarding the slave trade, and have just the same problems with racial intolerance now) then as (presumably) a citizen of the UK you are perfectly at liberty to move to any country in Europe.

I think that if you do, you'll discover that it's not just the British that can be pompous, decadent, immoral, ill-educated and lazy minded but that you can find those elements in any society.

Actually slave trade is a good point, the trade was abhorrent but we were the first European nation to abolish it. William Wilberforce and his fellow campaigners worked incredibly hard against the odds for abolition - we can be proud of them. And the ordinary Lancashire cotton workers who starved rather than break the cotton boycott i.e. rather than support slavery.

Btw, French health system costs far more than the NHS. For all Tony Blair's many faults, the money he put into the NHS to repair the damage done by previous governments was merely to move us towards the European average on health spending.

Better public transport on the continent is because those governments invest in public transport - the French put far more into their railways.

ivanhoe im guessing you've never lived anywhere but britain, so you think you've got it really tough here, you dont what how good you've got it here do you ? Pray you never do.

Youre obviously very well fed, clothed, housed, and reasonably healthy, which is why you even have the time and energy to slag of britain and ponder what britain has got to be proud of.

"Everybody is responsible". WTF - I am responsible for slavery? I don't bloody think so. Unless my birth certificate is an elaborate forgery, I was born rather a long time after slavery ended.

Like CheeryYank said, what do you do to improve things, Ivanhoe?

And if you're basing your disgust of Britain on the slave trade, why hold Germany up as a paragon given their more recent history? For that matter France too, as it took 15 years longer for them to abolish slavery in their own colonies (yes, it wasn't just us who had them). Very strange logic...

Now, if we're into blaming countries for their past history, I don't see how you can be so soft on the Scandinavians, ivanhoe.

Seems a tad reductive to base your opinion of a nation with a very long history on 2 things, one of which is many decades out of date. Firstly, there's no perfect nation; everywhere has its faults. Secondly, capitalism exists in just about every nation on earth. But to answer your question, here's my list:

1. Following from your slave comment, the abolition movement.
2. The trade union movement & workers' rights
3. Free education, healthcare, libraries, museums
4. A free press (yes, often biased & not perfect, but free)
5. Freedom of speech, so we can tell you to cut the negative crap
6. The fact that the British have a strong sense of charity & giving. Just look how many gave time & money to help those affected by riots & how much is raised from personal donations for disasters abroad
7. The fact that fascism never took hold in this country & a britain held out, alone early in WW2. To this day, far right groups have never gained any significant foothold politically
8. Our huge, ongoing legacy of fantastic literature, music & art
9. Democracy

I could go on, but I'd be here all night. There's plenty done in the past & present that we shouldn't be proud of, one of which is a tendency of some to gripe & moan without taking into consideration the positive contributions made. As someone else said, if you don't like it, one of our strengths is that you're free to try & change it.

I think you have a point about taxes in other countries providing much better public services, ivanhoe. Medical treatment in France - much better. Travel org. in Germany - much better. Outside of that, when you venture into Spain, Italy and Greece the picture becomes a good deal less clear.