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Original poster

to be proud to be British over the World Cup?

145 replies

Appletrees · 03/12/2010 08:52

We are fantastic. We didn't lie, we didn't cheat, we didn't backstab. It was a great bid, football fans were behind it, it was honest, it was full of effort and hard work. I would rather do the right thing and lose than engineer, bully, threaten and bribe to win.

Well done us.

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ANTagony · 03/12/2010 09:00

I'm proud too. I was thinking about this earlier. I think its good that we speak out and question, stand up for what we believe is true and face situations head on. I'm glad that we broadcast thought provoking and generally balanced documentaries to make us aware of wider world issues and potential corruption.

We stand by our beliefs and we have broad shoulders to accept the consequences of our actions.

I don't think our world cup team could have legitimately done more to demonstrate how good a world cup in England could be.

Original poster
Appletrees · 03/12/2010 09:07

It's not even hidden corruption -- it's brazen, boot in face, fuck you corruption.

Fifa feared the British press for the next eight years if we'd got it. But they haven't avoided anything -- the press will be all over them.

It's just that with such a brazen attitude, will it make any difference?

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MsKalo · 03/12/2010 09:13

It is great to be patriotic and I am, I really am but I do think that when something doesn't go the way we want it to we get a bit up our own arses. Yes I can believe that there were backhanders for the bid but why should England get it? One of the main arguments for an Eastern European country getting it was that 10 western countries have hosted the world cup yet no eastern European countries have yet - a good argument in their favour and we have the Olympics soon so why should we be more deserving in getting the world cup over anyone else. And purlease to all the we don't lie etc pat on the back - this is a morally corrupt country in many many ways and to think otherwise is to have delusions of grandeur.

FellatioNelson · 03/12/2010 09:16

We have just had a holiday surrounded by thousands of Russians. Rich, thuggish, rude, greedy, arrogant, pig-ignorant meat-headed Russians and their miserable, frightened, shallow, gangster's moll, silicone-enhanced bling-encrusted kept women. It was a sad indictment of what happens when previously poor people get rich very quickly and it was not nice. We commented daily how proud we felt to be British abroad, and it's not often we can say that!

Let them keep the world cup. Let's see how many people want to rush back to Russia once they've experienced the Russians.Hmm

Disclaimer: I know not all Russians are like this, okay?

Original poster
Appletrees · 03/12/2010 09:19

Ms Kalo, that's the thing about it. People imagine others to operate the way they themselves operate. Si if you are corrupt and sneaky you imagine others will operate the same way. If you operate with a sense of fair play, it is genuinely hard to imagine that others will quite brazenly, openly and carelessly laugh in the face of it.

Wrt to why should we get it: it's the factthatit was such a walk over,that members lied about their voting intentions etc that makes the bribery and corruption rather obvious. Losing out after a "fair fight" on merits is a very, very different thing.

There is corruption in Britain -- but Italy, Russia, Spain, I can name many other countries, you'd have to be an idiot to imagine there was any comparison.

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MsKalo · 03/12/2010 09:23

Look around you in the UK - are we really much better? ( and no, I am not Russian!). Why do so many British people have such an 'I'm better than you' attitude?! Yes, many Russians can be like this but many British people - especially abroad - are an embarrassment in other ways! What is this holier than thou attitude so many Brits have? They have their problems and so do we - we are not better than them or anyone else although we should be better in so many ways! And for the record I am proud to be British and love my country but there are a lot of things that i don't like too!

Original poster
Appletrees · 03/12/2010 09:24

I love our two fingers journalists, I love the BBC and I hope the British press sticks it to Fifa good over the next ten years.

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yama · 03/12/2010 09:25

Are you proud of the riots at the Birmingham game the other night?

AbsofLatkes · 03/12/2010 09:25

I'm not really British, but I'm impressed.

  1. With Panorama for taking on FIFA. When SA was hosting FIFA was a freaking NIGHTMARE - very dictatorial, with little or no regard for local culture/requirements/expectations. The UK can do without that headache. They are a ridiculously corrupt organisation, and get away with murder
  2. With the UK for not lowering themselves and getting involved in corruption (just in time for the shiny new Bribery Act to come into force!)
Original poster
Appletrees · 03/12/2010 09:26

Er -- yes, we are better than Russia. Seriously, can you not value your country's civil code? Have you read any papers or news magazines recently? Been to Russia, or travelled much at all?

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FellatioNelson · 03/12/2010 09:27

No MsKalo - there are plenty of British people who are equally unsavoury - they just aren't generally in the same hotels, or even in the same countries as me.Grin

Original poster
Appletrees · 03/12/2010 09:28

Yama -- are you joking? Is that the extent of your analysis? Hmm

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MsKalo · 03/12/2010 09:28

Well thank you appletrees but I am no idiot, yoU have your opinion and I have mine - and that is fair enough but i persoanlly find the 'we are better than you' attitude of many Brits nauseating! And the moans over when we lose a footie game - there is always someone to blame!
And Britain is as corrupt as other places - just look at the history! Delusions of grandeur again...

MsKalo · 03/12/2010 09:30

You love the BBC? Shit! Now I really am gobsmacked!

MsKalo · 03/12/2010 09:31

Liking your comeback FellatioNation! Lol

Original poster
Appletrees · 03/12/2010 09:32

I didn't say you were an idiot, I said anyone who imagines Britain to be as corrupt as Russia or Italy is an idiot. Is that really your opinion. Seriously, is that what you think?

Britain is as corrupt as other places? Ho ho.

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MsKalo · 03/12/2010 09:33

Yes Appletrees I am very well travelled ya very much and yes can read and do read papers and have experience in areas that have caused me to question many things...

AbsofLatkes · 03/12/2010 09:34

This is an area I do work in (contributed to said anti-corruption legislation [shines halo]), but there is no way, at the moment, the UK is anyway the same league as Russia when it comes to corruption. Yes, Britain is not exactly shiny clean, but for a start, you haven't had the equivalent of the Litvinenko murders, you haven't had a government as closely linked to organised crime as Yeltsin's was (have a read of "Godfather of the Kremlin" for some fun), you don't have journalists murdered and beaten up as you have had very recently in Russia, you don't have businessmen like Khodorkovsky shoved into Siberia for all eternity (every time he comes up for an appeal, more spurious charges are released), and you don't have the Prime Minister allegedly (because no one can prove it beyond reasonable doubt) having a personal fortune of approximately £40bn (though on paper Putin's assets = government salary + the flat his parents live in).

Original poster
Appletrees · 03/12/2010 09:34

Ms Kalo -- have you actaully ever left this country? Read any non British newspapers? Read any serious newspapers?

This reminds me of the US in 2000 and the equally brazen corruption involved in that election. The way the Bushes were never worried, never concerned, just very complacent because they knew they had it stitched up.

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yama · 03/12/2010 09:36

Not joking at all. Analysis? Really? You consider your posts to be analytical? Now who's joking?

MsKalo · 03/12/2010 09:36

Ho ho! Is Santa in the house! I think Britain likes to give itself a big pat on the back and imagine it is so much better than other places that's all. I have links with a few European countries and yes I do know how corrupt some are (some of the things I have heard leave me speechless) but I don't think this country can adopt the 'we are so much better than you' attitude it has.

DuelingFanio · 03/12/2010 09:37

what's the world cup bid?

Original poster
Appletrees · 03/12/2010 09:38

and Ms Kalo, wrt to my OP, do you think there WAS no corruption? or you think perhaps we should have joined in? or you think perhaps we DID join in but didn't offer enough money?

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Oblomov · 03/12/2010 09:39

I don't know the details of the bid. But I imagined that Coe/Cameron/Beckham/Prince Willima presented a good case.
What was the objection ? Not enough villages/accomodation. I ma sure thta an objective review panel of our would have already addressed this.

So I fail to see that we could ever present a better bid.

And this fills you with patriotism ? It just fills me with dread and saddness, that the righteous did not win. Of the corruption in life. Makes me truely sad.

Original poster
Appletrees · 03/12/2010 09:39

Why shouldn't we pat ourselves on the back for not lowering ourselves into that world?

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