To hope that if Britain leaves the Eu so we can become the 51st State.

[GreenTeaMummy]

I love American culture so much and would love to be American, I visit every year and have lots of family who live in America.

I was thinking that since we can't be alone in the world (for various reasons) we would have to join the U.S.

Aibu to think we should have a second referendum to join America.

also - we can;t help our weather

I was on a train once with an American, may have been just outside Edinburgh. We were whizzing past some allotments and my American friend asked me who lived in the allotment sheds.

So they really do think people in the UK live in tiny houses!

The thing I notice most when I go home to the UK is how close everyone lives to one another. The housing development over the last 10 years is astounding. Even in villages there are now homes crammed in everywhere. It does always make me laugh as it explains why there are so many neighbour threads on MN!

We were whizzing past some allotments and my American friend asked me who lived in the allotment sheds.
Maybe he thought they were Dachas like the ones around any German city.
THe ones around Berlin look just like Allotments but are not.

doneme
I utterly reserve the right to be bloody rude about the US medical system when it pays for a transplant but not the anti-rejection drugs.
Watching a younger relative condemned to a slow death because of paperwork is horrific.

Well OP, the UK is not going to leave Europe, but even in the very unlikely event of that happening, the Us would not be remotely interested in Britain. We are only of value to them once we remain in Europe.
We are a small Island on the edge of Europe, and hardly big players in the world economy.
I think the US would be courting Germany or France, as they are right now.

I'm with you though, in that there's a lot of things about the US that I like.
The American bashing on here leaves a nasty taste. It's the same old dirge every time from the same posters with a massive inferioroity complex.

To all of the American posters out there, there are some fantastic things about your country which I admire. I've spent a fair bit of time there, and think it's one of the best countries in the world, with some of the warmest people I've ever met

My husband of 20 years, is an American (now British too) and l lived in the US for seven years.
I know quite a bit about it.
It isn't how you'd imagine on a day to day basis.
It is really very nice, very positive and uplifting.
Most of my days there (when out and about) were much more cheerful than an average day here.
But.... I'd never live there again.
The heathcare issue is a problem.
But more so, it the attitude of some Americans, that not everyone should have available health care.
There are Americans who genuinely believe that if you fall on hard times, you only have yourself to blame.
Most of the family and friends l have, are absolutely lovely.
And apart from the Japanese, the hardest working people l've met.

We were whizzing past some allotments and my American friend asked me who lived in the allotment sheds.

Maybe he thought they were Dachas like the ones around any German city.

If you drive through rural Idaho or parts of Montana or Washington State, you will see lots of tin shacks/huts at the side of the road that people actually live in. As they have smoke coming out of their (usually) corrugated iron chimneys. Unbelievable - bits of scrap metal nailed together, that people actually live in. I do not think they were holiday/weekend homes - they looked like the homes of people with absolutely no money whatsoever. More like something out of the third world.

If you holiday in Florida or New York, etc you won't see them but if you hire a car and go off the beaten track a bit, not so unusual. I have heard American people denying they exist because they have never seen them.

To whoever did the Dear Burke post

That collegue could have also defended himself against a gun as well but just like the knife, its very rare and risky and the cases where its successful are the exception.

The murder ratesay be falling but not all violent crime is (although massaged statistics like giving that impression). Gun ownership provides a deterrent against all kinds of crime. People are a lot nicer when they may have to back up their actions with their life. Every gun owner i know in america feels safe because of the carry laws. No one wants to try anything and if they do, they get stopped real quick.

.

........and from another great American programme.

YANBU.

The USA is so much better than the EU it isn't funny.

I have visited the US a couple of times and I liked it as a visitor. I also think it is a great country in many ways and we would certainly be poorer for a lot of its cultural output.

However, one of my visits involved a visit to the law courts and watching part of a long-running criminal trial. It was one of the most terrifying things I have ever seen in terms of the poor representation of the accused and his lack of access to forensic and ballistic experts because he was poor. The outcome was a travesty of justice. Whilst I don't kid myself that our legal system is perfect by any means, it is head and shoulders above the US system. And whilst I realise that the plural of anecdote is not data, I have read a lot about the criminal system before and since, and nothing has convinced me that what I saw was a one off.

For that reason alone, if there weren't many others, including the fact I would probably be dead or bankrupt by now for lack of access to medical treatment, I would not want to be part of the US.

Hi Burke

So you’re saying that gun ownership in the states encourages people to be nicer, deters crime and makes people feel safer. How does explain a murder rate of 4.7 per 100,000 in the states against a murder rate of 1 per 100,000 in the UK? Yes that’s right, a murder rate nearly 5 times ours with widespread gun ownership. Me, I prefer people rude and unarmed.

Your American friends may feel safer but they aren’t safer. There’s a statistically significant correlation between gun ownership and murder rates with the only exception being Switzerland but that may be down to the fact that they don’t own the guns, the government does.

TL

Burke
The murder ratesay be falling but not all violent crime is (although massaged statistics like giving that impression).
You need to read more of the source information.

The USA is way, way behind the curve on violence reduction.

And could you explain to me why the USA bans felons from ever voting again (get in a fight at 21, lose your right to vote) ?

TalkinPeace Voting is largely a matter of state law, and the majority of states allow felons the restoration of voting rights at some point after incarceration ends. (Two states do not prohibit felons from voting.) I live in one of the states that is very restrictive; it seems that the Republicans want to keep it as restrictive as possible, and unfortunately we now have a Republican legislature and a Republican governor.

Burke Gun violence is a very serious problem all over the US. And it affects every day life. As a routine matter, people are given tips on how to respond to poor or aggressive driving so as not to risk getting shot. The other day another driver seemed to think my husband had cut him off in traffic and began running up behind us and honking the horn. The first thing I thought of is what if that guy has a gun. I had already dialed 911 and was waiting to hit the call button on my phone when he backed off. We need much greater gun control in this country, but it would take a constitutional amendment to achieve any real change, and that will never happen; the political will is just not there.

Seneca
But its madness that those convicted of a crime such as drug possession at some point in the past are not allowed to vote on taxes and foreign policy.

Then again the Gerrymandering of US voting rules is astounding : the district I vote in looks looks a roscharch test rather than anything representative

The USA needs an electoral commission to regularise access to democracy before it carries on telling other countries how to run democracy.

I agree with you 100 percent Talkin. The felony voting issue is very political, exacerbated in some states by the perception that felons voting would help Democrats. I live in a presidential swing state so it's especially obvious here.

Ah, see my vote is in NY so the answer was written a long time ago : and yet they still gerrymander!

I'm in Florida. DH is from NY. I tell him we can't move there because our votes are needed here.

Gawd NO!!!!

The UK and the U.S. Separate countries for good reason. In the past the UK and U.S. had a special relationship, but union is unnecessary.

Why can the UK not survive on its own?

Why can the UK not survive on its own?
Because its economy is heading into the sunset. Only free trade will keep the goods and services flowing.