Europe is made up if lots of different countriesand they do mot do every thing the same.

[goodiegoodieyumyum]

Fed up with reading in Europe they do things this way, in some parts of Europe yes maybe, but Europe is made up of approximately 50 countries, each with their own cultures and laws. Also isnt the UK part of Europe.

I never said the UK wasnt part of Europe, I don't know where you get that from.

By the same token though op, people talk about the UK/Great Britain as if the countries involved don't have differences. Education and NHS to name two, where Scotland and N.I concerned the legal system is different.

Um, it's in Europe lol.

Can you quote the part where anyone said it wasn't? Lol

I suspect it's the missing question mark that is causing many people's brains to invert isn't and the UK in the OP so that it makes sense to them, resulting in them reading the opposite of what you were trying to say.

Shouldn't post on my Ipod si hard to spot mistakes. I totally agree about saying things about the UK when actuslly it is specific to a region or certain country in the UK. It is one of the reasons I would never say In Australia they do such and such as each state is different and had different laws. ( I use Australia as that is where I group). Sorry I felt pedantic today and saw several times on a thread about rental what they do in Europe, made me think snout all the times I have read the same kind of remarkd of in Europe.

Probably just gave away my identity may have to nsme change oh no.

See still cant type on my ipod

TheChandler- I think the point the OP is trying to make is how futile it is to compare the UK with "Europe" as one single place, which is what seems to happen on MN all the time.

I'm in the south of Italy. Which obviously is identical to Germany.

Thanks Drank, that was exactly what I was trying to say. Italy not like Germany are you sure?

Interested in the poster who implied there is a general European philosophy on working hours that is different to the UK's, and what that difference is.

My experience for example is that the culture in Paris tends towards MUCH longer working hours than in London. If you get off work at 6pm here in Paris it's seen as early. Staying until 7 or 8 is perfectly normal unless you have a pretty low-status job.

That is not the case as I remember it n London except in the most high-pressured City jobs. And my experiences working with people from other European countries suggest it is different still elsewhere.

YANBU it bugs me as well. It shows ignorance and lack of understanding of the diversity of cultures in European nations.

I have never particularly noticed it on here tbh but can see why it grates. Like a previous poster said the same thing happens with regard to the uk. I often see it on mumsnet that this happens here because it is the uk and I know that it doesn't happen everywhere in the uk because I'm in Scotland and it doesn't happen here.
It is frustrating and seems a little narrow minded I think that people can't see out with a certain bubble.

Isn't the UK part of Europe?

Well, yes, we are in the EU, and technically part of that continent, and that makes us European citizens. But since the UK is a collection of islands, we are physically separated from the rest of continental Europe by rather a lot of water!

Perhaps that's why the citizens of countries which share land borders tend to naturally think of themselves and their continental neighbours as fellow 'Europeans'; and the fact that we may not necessarily think the same way is simply a consequence of our geographical isolation and nothing else?

Except they don't.

Italians don't even think of themselves as Italian, let alone European. They are Milanese, or Florentine, only Italian during international sports' events.