What do people think will make Britain great again?

[Logiclady94]

I keep coming back to this thought and I wondered what other people thought so I decided to ask the wonderful people on mumsnet for their opinions. I was reading that more jobs were lost, people are being told to return to work to save the economy, coronavirus means that people still don’t feel comfortable doing that, work/life balance needs sorting, income and taxes need rectifying. Not an opinion but you see a lot of the richer need punishing, house prices are ridiculous..

So my wondering is what are people’s thoughts genuine thoughts about what they would change with this country?

'Our once great capital city is a cesspit.'

You've got that the wrong way round! London is a fantastic city...

Ireland, as in Eire

At the risk of derailing the thread, why do people keep using this ridiculous term?

Republic of Ireland is the official name.

GetOffYourHighHorse

I think you're missing the point a bit. It's not that Great Britain is "shit". Very few people will deny that we are by world standards an affluent, tolerant and relatively pluralist society with a great cultural history.

The issue, for me, is that our global reputation and our global power has declined. For good reason. The question is what we do to fix this.

In my view harking back to an outdated view of a "great" nation which controlled the world which is the main narrative underpinning of the Brexit myth is not the way to do this. It encourages jingoism and denialism and an ability to be honest about what we need to fix this country.

What we need is a government which restores our historical reputation for competence, pragmatism and openness in an open-minded, tolerant and forward-looking way without endlessly harking back to outdated national tropes based on a bygone era which will never be reclaimed.

'Do you even read your own posts let alone newspaper that isn't the sun or the mail?'

Oh please, not the old 'you read The Mail!' insult.

I read various things thanks very much.

We live in a free society and the biggest complaint seems to be Boris Johnson's hair style and he waffles on a bit.
No the biggest complaint is that johnson and his government are trying to destroy the bits you just praised.

Britain needs to become far more equal. Private education needs to be recognised for what what it is: a huge contributing factor towards the unequal society that we have. People need to stop pretending that it is a 'parental choice' and a reward for 'working hard' and admit that only a small percentage of this country have this 'choice' and many who work hard do not have access to this 'reward'.
The media should not be owned by a handful of very rich and powerful people. Britain is under their control and most of us don't even realise it.
I don't think we have ever been 'great'. Our 'greatness' is a myth sold to us by elite white men who have had it their own way for far too long.

Ireland, as in Eire

At the risk of derailing the thread, why do people keep using this ridiculous term?

Is it still on stamps? I didn't realise it was ridiculous although it's not a word I use often.

Stop trying to be "great" is the first thing!

Focus on what has been important about this country - Freedom and individuality are just two things of many that people are chucking away so they can Join the borg.

A sense of pride in Britain and being British which is felt by everyone regardless of sex, race or class.

At the moment it feels like a race to the bottom to disparage the safety, freedom, tolerance and quality of life most enjoy in Britain. Normally by little islanders who have never truly experienced other countries and cultures and just assume the grass is greener elsewhere; often from a point of total ignorance.

I'm in my 30s, I don't expect to see a state pension or a NHS like it exists now when I'm 70. When are we going to address that?

@wafflyversatile

We live in a free society and the biggest complaint seems to be Boris Johnson's hair style and he waffles on a bit. No the biggest complaint is that johnson and his government are trying to destroy the bits you just praised.

Ah yes, the extra 3billion for the NHS to cope with a possible 2nd wave is destroying it?

And I agree that the “Great” is a myth predicated on colonising, exploitation & servitude. My input upthread is based on making it a more pleasant place to live rather than our standing in the world being dependent on how we punish non-Brits

A complete overhaul of the hideously negative media.

At the start of this covid crisis there was a real sense of pulling together and even the news outlets and government seemed surprised at the willingness of the UK’s people to put their lives completely on hold for others and to offer up their time and help to anyone who needed it. People seemed proud of our public service workers and population as a whole. It is this sort of positivity and belief in our country that I think would make it great again.

However, sadly the media did not take long to slip back into their old habits and their intent to persuade us that everything is in fact going to shit and that atmosphere was lost. There is now division and ill feeling between the 4 nations that make up the UK as well as amongst smaller communities and nothing “great” can start from a place of such disbelief.

Sack the government and cancel Brexit. That would be a great start.

Sarahandco

This.

Being "great" is something which needs to be earned in the here and now from reputation for competence in government and supporting the right of individuals to achieve their best in a way which protects all of society.

It's not an entitlement and its certainly not something which you get by activating dog-whistle myths which date back to our historical past.

For instance my thoughts are that workplaces need better maternity policies which work for women and their work/life balance. I also think need men need longer than two weeks paternity leave.

I know this doesn’t count for every man so please don’t flame me for this comment but maybe if men had the same opportunity to bond with their baby at birth they would think they had a more equal responsibility to the child and they would be more willing to support the child (maintenance wise and childcare wise) if anything was to happen in the relationship, maybe less would walk out.

Like I say I don’t know about every man but maybe it’s just an idea. Due to unforeseen circumstances DP has been around full time since their birth for both of our children (one was born in 2018 and I had an undiagnosed health problem (gallstones) which was causing me to have waves of pain attacks and I couldn’t be left with the baby and the other is 2020 Coronavirus) We both see that the children have an amazing bond with both of us and he’s even said as his industry is more flexible he’d love to be the one that stays at home during the day with them

But your DH can stay at home and be with your DC. Lots of men do. Nothing is stopping him.

'why do people keep using this ridiculous term'

IS it ridiculous? should we take it off the front of our passports then? And stamps? Or is it okay for people to sometimes refer to Ireland as Eire given it's in the constitution for the country??
Irish people do use it, older ones esp. or we say 'the South' the free state, the republic, to distinguish it from N.I.

Never understood the rage that some people get with Ireland being called Eire occasionally ( and yes I'm Irish, and yes I know my history)

Malteserdiet

I don't think you understand what the proper role of the media is.

It doesn't exist purely to support a sense national pride - that's propaganda.

In a democracy, a large part of the function of media is to hold government and other powerful interests to account. There was plenty of evidence of mismanagement of the crisis by government. What did you want the media to do, stick their fingers in their ears and keep banging the drum?

Don’t think Britain was every great. We’ve always been run by self interest and murder.

And as we go forward we’ll just be Trumps patsy, we’ve lost any respect in the world and once the Cummings plan happens will be a 3rd rate tax haven with fuck all left.

I think life shared parental leave & childcare support to help women who want to work would be good like in the Scandi countries. DH now gets 3 months paid parental leave, it's a good policy.

I also think need men need longer than two weeks paternity leave
Many men can’t even afford to take the two weeks. My husband earns £1k per week. Statutory paternity pay is £140 per week. We couldn’t afford for him to take paternity leave because we couldn’t afford to lose that amount of money. In contrast women get paid 90% of earnings during maternity leave.

@Spinnyspiney

'why do people keep using this ridiculous term'

IS it ridiculous? should we take it off the front of our passports then? And stamps? Or is it okay for people to sometimes refer to Ireland as Eire given it's in the constitution for the country??
Irish people do use it, older ones esp. or we say 'the South' the free state, the republic, to distinguish it from N.I.

Never understood the rage that some people get with Ireland being called Eire occasionally ( and yes I'm Irish, and yes I know my history)

It pisses me off only cause we never refer to Germany as Deutschland or any other country in their own language.

And yes I’m Irish - Erie is usually used by thick shit Brit’s who don’t really understand shit.

It is this sort of positivity and belief in our country that I think would make it great again.
That is not the media’s job. It is not the mouthpiece of the government, not in a democracy. Unless you want us to be like North Korea. The media needs to find out and tell the truth, not churn out whatever the latest magical thinking is.

Agree with both the need to address private education and its role in continuing inequality and the benefits that longer paternity leave would bring to everyone in society.