Great things about Great Britain

[wheretoyougonow]

It feels like the world has gone slightly mad around us and everything is very negative. I want to start a thread about the positives of living in Great Britain.

I am sure there will be many a negative to the positive e.g great nhs experience vs waiting times but let’s keep this as a proud thread. There are lots of things that we do well. Can be light hearted or serious.

My initial thoughts are:
When I had a sudden medical episode where I was dying, within 40 minutes I was in hospital with a medical team who saved my life.
When there is an international major sporting event, in my area, lots of flags are displayed of different countries. No one bats an eye to this.
We have a great variety of restaurants.
Our homegrown tv programmes are often awesome.
I (mostly) love our comedians and sense of humour.
When there is an International crisis we can be brilliant. The young lads stuck in the Thai cave being an example.

Unfortunately our ability not to take ourselves too seriously seems to have disappeared.

But we are very good at thinking we’re better than others: our British exceptionalism is world class.

Plus we’re really good at telling journalists how really good we are in pretty generic terms.

That is because you were recovering from a short war of 6 years. WW2 was 6 years

Ireland had to recover from hundreds of years of cruelty from the U.K.

The country was absolutely destroyed. The UK destroyed Ireland for a long, long time.

People do not get over that easily

Lush greenery
Bird song
Countryside in Autumn
Cider
Freedom to walk anywhere (don't try it in the US)
Public footpaths and canals
Bucket & spades& rock pools holidays for dcs.
Our coastline
Our humour
Pubs
The British Library
NHS
RNLI

😂 wrong thread for you?

The television industry. We make great Telly that is exported all over the world.

London

this isn’t about Ireland, this is about Britain. Please take this elsewhere

No I won't. You don't get to tell me what to do. I replied to a poster.

I wrote my point in reply to another poster.

She said that the UK is good - because it is forgiving of other countries

I wrote my point in reply to her.

The OP has been on here years and engages in all sorts of threads. I don't think she's a journalist. If she is she's playing a very long and subtle game.

A cunning plan perhaps?

I said it and wish I hadn’t as it was almost inevitable the whingers would turn up and try to make this all about them. This is about Britain. That’s all you’re getting from me.

Of course it was silly for you to write it.

If you are going to talk about how the UK forgave other countries that hurt the U.K, you should be able to handle hearing about how the U.K hurt other countries.

And as we all know, the U.K destroyed and decimated many countries - for their own gain.

I’m not British, can I join in?

Outside the crowded major cities, people are so nice and friendly and usually up for a chat to pass the time of day.

In general people have lovely manners in public.

One that started in 2021 😀

Your post made me think of another fabulous British creation. Baldrick.

I love that we have beaches, mountains, woodland, countryside and even a desert. I love that we live in a place with definite seasons. There are no animals or tornados trying to kill us.

I love our history and our pomp and ceremonies. Our military and special forces might be working with a pair of walkie talkies and a rubber band but they’re the best in the world. I think we have produced some of the greatest actors, writers, inventors, musicians, comedians, athletes, architects, artists, designers etc in the world. I love that we invented so many sports and yet we are so utterly rubbish at them (excluding our women’s teams, who are currently kicking bums around the world).

I love our humour, our irreverence, our outrage if someone tries to queue jump. I love that everyone knows it’s time to go when someone slaps their hands on their thighs and says ‘right’. Our obsession with tea. The fact that people can argue for days over what a bread roll should be called and whether it’s jam or cream first. That if someone smashes a glass in a pub, the only acceptable response is to cheer. Our humour. Cockneys, the Scots and south Wales in particular are funnier than any other people on earth. I love that we can halt a cricket match because Jesus wants his ball back. Our diversity. And our food! Admittedly, we might have stolen bits from every nation we’ve ever been to, but nothing beats a good roast dinner or a good fish and chips. I love that we have a healthy mistrust of authority and a firm and utterly unshakable belief that our way of doing things is far superior to everywhere else. Oh, and that ancient laws about foot paths and rights of way are far more important that who owns what land.

"Our military are the best in the world" em no

I went on a whistle stop tour of the Highlands once, and everyday there was such beautiful things to see. I want to see much more of Scotland and the Islands now.

What Great Britain is lacking in, is kindness and empathy for other countries.

You have all those great things in this country- because you took a lot of them from other countries!

If anyone brings up what the U.K did to other countries we usually get a "who cares" response. There is no care for other peoples suffering whatsoever

Me too, it was beautiful but absolutely bloody freezing. I’d like to do some proper hiking there when I’m in better shape and less burned out.

I forgot about the smashing glass cheer 😂 and the clapping after the pilot lands in difficult weather…

Oh, and the OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY! Not sure why but I always think of that as a uniquely British experience.

Ummm to clarify I’m not a journalist. I have been on Mumsnet for years under different names. If I was asking what you hate about GB I would understand the suspicion 😁
I am loving reading the replies. Definitely agree with cheese! @1in3willgetcancer of course you can join in. It’s nice to hear all that is valued from any person.

We're not bad at understatement and self-derecation!

self- deprecation

Hey, get in line, they need to apologise to lots of Countries!

We are, in the main, a tolerant liberal democracy.

The people are, in general, friendly.

There is nowhere more lovely than England in Spring.

I could go on!

Every corner and county of the UK feels different and pretty in its own way. Love the pubs, the pub gardens and amazing network of public footpaths that show you fabulous views you can’t get anywhere else.

Tolerance of other people’s views (not on every thread on Mumsnet but I have friends across the whole political spectrum and love them all), the fact there’s nothing unusual in seeing someone bump into a lamppost and apologise to it absent mindedly.

We’re funny. Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes. We do have a peaceful exchange of government when the other side get voted in.

I’m so glad I live here and share it with mostly really nice people. I would hate to live anywhere else.

Much of it is really beautiful.
Ancient little churches.
Bluebell woods.
An overriding politeness and self-deprecation in social exchanges.
The pop music over the decades.
London. I love that place.