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.

Well the thread is about great things in GB.

People don’t go to the jokes thread and start talking about their granny’s funeral.

Time and a place.

The salmon does sound nice, to be fair. And it always looks nice. I’ll get a little taster pack next time I’m in Sainsburys and give it a go.

Put an order in now before it hits 7 and everyone is ordering takeaway! 😁

😂 sense of humour also going strong!

York minster
Umbrellas everywhere on a wet November rush hour.
The smell of new mown grass on a summer evening.
How everyone will join in if you sing two bars of Bohemian Rhapsody.
Teatime on campsites, pit pat ball games and plates of tinned spag bol.
The cheer you hear from everywhere when someone scores in a big match.
Bonfire night.
Apologising to someone when they step on your foot.
How most people will help a lady with a pram/pot foot get on the bus/train.
The 'No, after you', 'No after you' dance.
The Glaswegian people who protected the immigrants living in their community.
Police horses in the street.

I'm Irish living in the UK. I love British sitcoms, the understated beauty of some of the countryside (Cotswolds, Hampshire and I am sure many others), the staggering beauty of parts of Scotland, the lakes, Cornwall.

London is a world class city and I get as excited as a small child every time I visit.
Plays, musicals, theatre, many British pop groups.

I love M&S and Waitrose for a posh shop, Harry Potter and the Tube.

I love the friends I have made here and how kind and open many people are, despite the online posturing of many.

Yes there have been protests in Ireland too.

The difference is: I didn't write that Ireland is tolerant.

The U.K poster on here wrote that the U.K is tolerant.

I’m not sure others will agree with me - but the civil service and the public sector.

In the last few months I’ve had extensive encounters with HMRC, the DVLA and the Passport Office. In every case responses have been genuinely lightning fast, polite, helpful and mostly accessible via the gov.uk website which I think is about the best website out there, and one of the remnants of the idealistic days of the early internet.

They would go on the jokes thread and start talking about their granny's funeral.

On mumsnet.

Having lived in every country of the UK and a couple of others overseas i can honestly say this is the best place to live. we are all very tolerant and welcoming( as long as we feel newcomers are respectful ) we will help anyone at every level and there is nowhere more diverse and beautiful. I love my flag and i love my country🇬🇧

We’re going with lots of pasta dishes, and fish and joints of meat either hot or cold, with sautéed or jacket potatoes if it’s a bit nippy and salad/boiled new potatoes if it’s warm.

Totally agree though, winter food is definitely my favourite!

Tens of millions of us have no truck at all with those protests at all though@Scarlettjune . These protesters are a minority. Thousands of people in Britain spend their entire working days and volunteering hours seeking to make immigrants welcome and comfortable here. We live with and work with immigrants and are heartily grateful for the people who come to the country to contribute to our society.

Again I am astounded that you wrote "we are ALL very tolerant and welcoming"

How could you possibly know what millions of people are like?

What’s not to “get” about UK pubs? There’s something for everyone from sticky carpeted backstreet boozers to gastropubs, skittles and darts to cream teas. I can’t think of any country I’ve been to where pubs welcome such a variety of people. I can go and sit in my local ‘Spoons with a book and drink cheap bottomless coffee in the garden in the sun, or I can go to my grotty local and play pool and put tunes on the jukebox, or I can go to the posh gastropub and eat award winning food, all within five minutes walk of my house.

A French friend last week told us that the best thing about the UK is our ” keep calm and carry on” culture.

Yes not everyone is protesting, I know.

But for that poster to write "we are ALL tolerant and welcoming" is ridiculous.

Yesterday, i just saw four British boys throw eggs at an Asian boy and shout racist insults at him.

I actually feel quite sorry for Scarlettjune. OP starts a nice positive thread in CHAT (thus not asking whether people agree with her) and Scarlettjune decides to bring the whole thing down because of her own agenda.

I am adding Marmite
Boiled egg and soldiers
Pasties (obvs)

Beautiful gardens

Regional Folk traditions such as Obby Oss and Flora Day.

You are right. Not everyone is tolerant and welcoming but having just spent months travelling Britain by train I can honestly say I see a lot more welcome and tolerance than the opposite of that. How London works with so many people moving about is a miracle of civilised society and a joy to be part of.

That is unforgivable behaviour you witnessed. I hope someone reported it to the police.

Sorry I must disagree with you here, Marmite is… well it’s marmite. 😂

I’ve been defending the purity of the thread up to now, but you’ve crossed a line!!!

I think the pubs in the UK are a bit rough compared to other countries? I went to a pub in the city last week. There was a fight outside the pub. I went in, and there was someone getting sick on thr floor. I went to the toilet and it was absolutely disgusting.

Compared to that, I went to a bar in France last month and it was so relaxing and calm. I enjoyed my glass of wine

We get it @Scarlettjune - everything you experience in Britain is inferior.

Have you seen the title of this thread?

The only pub fight I witnessed was in Dublin, a small child was caught in the middle, it was awful. The men spilled outside and my friend and I had to hold the child back, he was distraught.

British tv
British music
British fashion
Creativity in general, from JKRowling to finding a way to roll out the covid vaccine super fast.

Our local is lovely, they serve breakfast before licensing hours, then open most of the day. Traditional pub garden with flower borders.
Healthy eating options on the menu, pensioners & pies of Tuesdays.
The landlady would ban anyone who was sick in her loos.
Must just be your area @Scarlettjune 😊

Sushi doesn't have to be fish BTW. And it's quite filling ime.

😂 Don’t tell me, the bar staff over charged you for your drink, short changed you and when you went to take a sip, there was lipstick on the rim and a dead fly floating in it?