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.

It still is. It saves the lives of people in trouble in the sea around the entire coast of the UK. People voluntarily put their own lives at risk to save the lives of others.

It's something we can be very proud of.

Please check thread title before replying.

Agreed I'll lay money' it used to be'.
Is something to do with the work they do in the English channel

Talking of the RNLI, the part time fire service, ready to jump out of bed or leave their work at a moment's notice to protect their local area. Another great service in the British tradition.

And possibly being told to take down their sexist posters, take home their sexist mugs and treat female crew properly. All irrelevant to this thread.

Well, maybe we need to start with the Norman French on that one - and they can apologise to the people of England too...

we might be a Nordic country if it weren't for William the Conqueror.

I think Scotland is the most beautiful country there is.

Ordnance Survey maps. I'm a keen walker, and can't believe not every country produces detailed 1:25000 maps of the whole country (Although France does)

Yes, OS maps are a thing of beauty.

Oh I thought of another one. Time team!!! And all the fantastic things archaeologists find here

I moved away from the UK many years ago, but come back to London every year to visit family and friends.

This is what I have noticed:

• it's clean! there are bits that aren't, yes, but generally I think it's really well-kept
• people are generally really friendly, always ready for a chat
• shop staff are polite and helpful
• pubs are nothing like anywhere else - they really are unique (and imo wonderful)
• the driving - it is an absolute pleasure to drive in the UK
• so many brilliant free or affordable cultural institutions
• incredible customer service - I've had to contact DVLA, passport office, various other places, and all of them have, without exception, been fantastic
• beautiful planting in public areas (can't think how else to put it!)
• incredible variety of food and restaurants
• I find myself more and more being drawn back to UK TV, there's been some great series over the last few years that are so nice, and gently humorous
• the seaside is great - not like the med, obviously, but a very unique and great fun
• kindness - I have experience great kindness, often quite randomly, and it seems to be a very British quality
• the incredible multiculturalism, how so many different aspects of so many different cultures have become absorbed into the fabric of UK life
• car boot sales and charity shops
• cheese and crackers
• the sense of history and link with the past

I'm sure there's loads more, but those are things I've noticed jsut off the top of my head

Agree with so many things others have listed. Also-
Mountain Rescue
BBC

That was at one station.
Two men involved.

Both volunteers.

Both dismissed.
Both appealed.
Both appeals dismissed by the RNLI.

It was 8 years ago.

I've spent this week cycling from Swansea to London. The landscape has largely been beautiful, the places I've stopped have all been unique and had something to recommend them. And largely, the people, no matter where they've been from originally have been lovely.

Even the weather decided to not be too shit for me.

The only thing I can really complain about is my knees!

It's a great British Institution.

I can’t believe that no one else has mentioned the unlikeliness of teenage boys carrying eggs in their pockets to throw at another boy. Is this a thing? Unless hard boiled I suppose and all the teenage boys I know would have eaten them. Was this inthe news? And didn’t Winston Churchill have something to say about voters who carried tomatoes to throw at MPs.
The chestnut trees and may blossom at the moment are beyond beautiful.

Glasgow and Newcastle

Why on earth is it unlikely?.

Is that just your personal opinion that you dragged out of nowhere?

I saw teenage boys throw eggs at a boy.

The next day, I was in a shop in a different part of my city

. I heard a woman in the shop saying that she had seen teenagers throw eggs at boys outside the shop.

Liverpool and Bristol. And I think I hardly need to mention Edinburgh!

Roast dinner
Humour
Countryside
Freedom to be an individual generally
General safety
NHS - I know there are issues but the concept is amazing isn’t it!
Geographical weather safety (not prone to tsunami, extreme weather, earthquakes that cause significant damage) - although I know there are floods in some areas

Clearly there haven't been three seperate apologies.

Tony Blair and the Queen did not apologise to Ireland. If you look at news articles about this, they always say that Tony Blair and the Queen fell short of an apology.

David Cameron spoke specifically about Bloody Sunday only. (When th4 British army murdered innocent Irish civilians). He admitted that Bloddy Sunday was wrong -after the report came out.

A lot more could be done. You seem to be quite defensive about this? Anyway lets move on, on this thread.

Every British person could apologise individually and it still wouldn’t be enough for you. Your identity is tied up in the grudge, you don’t know who you are without it.

I thought of another - Gavin and Stacey! Peak English/Welsh humour

@ Let’s move on because you are on the back foot?

Again, Tony Blair issued an apology on behalf of the U.K. His role is irrelevant he was a representative of the state. The Queen expressed “deep regret and sympathy” Cameron apologised - not enough for you? What do you want sack cloth and ashes. Is Ireland going to offer an apology for offering de facto
support to the Nazis? Every country makes mistakes, some apologies. Some do not.
You need to stop holding on to the grudge and move on, on this thread and in your life.
My country has indeed made mistakes, it has apologised and now we are looking at what the U.K. has done well. It would seem Ireland - through you - is holding on to bitterness, spreading misery and trying to bring others down on a thread about positive and inspiring things. I’m afraid the UK is being poisoned by the race to victimhood demonstrated by your desire for multiple ongoing apologies.

I love the U.K. on wet spring days, green, verdant, lush and full of promise for summer. Birds, bright green new growth, flowers, wisteria, damp new life. Hope. Abandon the bitterness and smell the summer heading your way.

This @Scarlettjune

@Thetreesaregreeninspring - there is no British education system.
It's devolved. So Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland have totally different systems, curriculum and approaches to education compared to England.

Regional accents they are so varied across whole of UK.
Remember friends from Lancashire up after an all nighter we were all chatting and they didn't get it that my friend from Dundee had totally different accent to mine 70mile up the road in Aberdeen.

My Yorkshire accent is remarkably different from my relatives in the next town a mile away! Mine is very Barnsley, theirs very Doncaster!