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.

Shakespeare
The Beatles
Tea
No tarantulas

So many funny movies and tv series from Great Britain! (I grew up in a Scandinavian country, and we were always watching movies and shows from you. We still are.)

This is a lovely thread - mostly

'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.'

I'm Irish, and I have no idea what comments like these are doing on a thread about what is lovely about the UK. If you're not a fan of the UK, and want to drag up the past, then maybe this isn't the thread for you

I agree with loads of what other people shared, but I would particularly highlight:
Real ale
Elderflowers
How beautiful every different season is
The sight of cricketers playing on the green grass - magical, and signals the start of Summer for me
London - my adopted home town, too many great things to list

Might be a slightly controversial one but…I love the rain! ☔️

I'm not sure your last point is entirely correct @Scarlettjune

I'm thinking of the huge crowds of people who toppled the Colston Statue, those who march against wars urging others to learn from the mistakes of the past, the huge numbers of people who work in our heritage organisations and educatino who spend a great deal of their careers educating others about the terrible wrongs of the past.

It's kinda funny because most of the points can be said about any country. Of course Brits love British humour, but a lot of the world doesn't. It's doesn't make it 'better' it just means people here are used to it.

Sorry, I have travelled far and wide and have immigrated here and as unique things go Great Britain is pretty average in my mind. All the examples are examples of anywhere.....

People really aren’t as casually chatty where I live as they are in much of the UK. And certainly nowhere near so tolerant of eccentrics 😂

That's very offensive @walkyrie.

Which again is funny because I don't find Brits chatty at all compared to a lot of other countries - but to each their own :)

I'm sure if you asked anyone from anywhere to come up with a list of things that are great about their country they would fill pages.

This is ours. Some of them are unique, some not, they're none the worse or less important to those of us posting for that.

Totally agree, but I don't think they necessarily make Britain great in my eyes.

Somebody’s never been cheered after smashing a glass, and it shows.

I’m not doing it Scarlett. I don’t care whether you’re on an anti British crusade, whether you’re on a wind up or you’ve just got the raving hump about something and are trying to pick a fight with someone to make yourself feel better. I’m not interested in biting. Have a lovely evening.

Yawn!

The OP wasn't asking us for things that make Britain great.
She was asking for great/positive things about living in Britain.

We have some stunning countryside.
History - castles, ruins, NT houses.
Morris/folk dancing.

@Scarlettjunethe UK has apologised and expressed regret to Ireland.

One of the things I like about the British is the way we apologise.

Shall we add British arrogance then as an inference of your response?

Shall we add British arrogance then as an inference of your response?

Our rich history, monarchy, castles, stately homes, industrial museums, other museums, steam railways.

Network of canals and railways.

Never more than an hour or two from the coast.

Never more than an hour or two from countryside.

Lots of natural wildlife, animals, birds, etc.

Lots of hills and mountains.

It's never possible to discuss Britain's many positives, struggles and hopes without some radge coming on gagging to blame an entire nation of people living here today for the various empire building and brutality of people now dead, under the rule of a class which spent even more time opressing its own people as peasants and an industrial working class than it did opressing people overseas.

One of the things I'm liking about the UK right now is the resurgence of folk lore fun - I live in a county where crowds of people are parading through the towns in costumes worthy of the Wicker Man.

The various countrysides we have are absolutely beautiful and many people do seek to take care of them even when commercial interests don't. Our cities are often also green. We're lucky to have the climate we do.

The sense of humour of all the UK countries and regions is brilliant and we've produced so much great comedy. As a home of modern satire we wouldn't have to put up with SNL UK version if our home-grown comics hadn't retreated to panel shows to talk about cheese for fear of making incorrect jokes.

Despite said radgies, there is a more diverse mix of peoples living here than in many parts of the world and with less strife and the radgies should fail in their attempts to stop all these people being proud to be British citizens.

Our telly is still pretty good, though.

We make some very nice regional cheese, pies, beer, puddings and sausages (I'm including haggis in that).

I think ordinary Brits are still largely uncorrupt, and not extremists by nature (well, by culture) which I truly hope will eventually halt the rise of Old Farage and the phoney Greens.

Country fetes with prizes for the dog who most looks like their owner.
Chalk streams.
The old Queen.
Cheese rolling.
The silence at the cenotaph on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
The happy buzz everywhere on the first BBQ Saturday of the summer.
Lidos.
Morcambe and Wise repeats on Boxing night.

The London Underground and how people still commute today on the world's first underground railway line.
British wildflower meadows.
Heritage breed cattle in grass.
Blackpool tower and kiss me quick hats.

Brit pop, great music in general actually. And obviously I live here. National treasure GreenCaterpollarOnALeaf.

Its extremely nationalistic and far right to write

"our military is the best in the whole entire world".

That is a ridiculous thing to write.

So i dont want to engage with you either.