What does the world actually think of the UK at the moment?
829188
Several key factors are shaping the UK at present:-\n\nThe UK has recently (within the living memory of a few very old folk) lost the wealthiest empire that has ever existed. This happened through two expensive world wars where much of our wealth was transferred to the USA. \n\nThe 20th century demise of the church in the UK has been extreme. Whether you are religeous or not, organised religion still serves a purpose in many countries in terms of providing some sort of social framework.\n\nThe caring society has flurished more in the UK than anywhere else largely due to the a couple of major oil rig disasters over-empowering the Health and Safety Executive plus the long term impact of weakening family structures bringing the duty of care to the front of many agendas.\n\nSo we lost our empire, our religion and our position in the world. The sixties saw a generation of students seeking love not war and caring for every flower that grew, followed by the Thatcher years where we saw the rapid growth of self interest as a philosophy. The "Yuppie" culture telling the young "just take what you can get and tread on whom ever you can". \n\nWe have completely lost our way we don't know what we are as a culture anymore or what our values are. Our polititians have the most liberal ideas about caring for everyone and everything sitting in their brains alongside their belief in grabbing whatever they can and hanging onto power at all costs. As long as their give lip-service to every liberal idea they pickup it frees them to act as selfishly as possible and believe they have a sense of balance. We have the least political polititians we have ever had.\n\nIts not the greed that is so damaging, we have always had that, although in earlier times we had the local vicar warning that it would make it harder to enter heaven with great riches. No, its the lip-service to caring, its allowing the HSE to create a great rules for industry and commerce but engender a terrible attitude in everyday life. Take an example, in a local school all thirty of the local year 9 science class incorrectly described mercury as a red liquid. It turned out that the chidlren had never seen mercury, and yet it is the most sciencitifcally used and usefull of liquids. It turns out that the teachers and technicians believed that mercury was so dangerous  the children should not even see it! A complete fallacy, but one arising from an attitude of over caring and a knowledge that we all have a "duty of care" (HSE phrase). So our children will find their science education a little bit more difficult than say a French child's because of our overcaring. One example in millions.\n\nSo to return to the theme, we have lost our sense of what it means to be English (not all of the Uk suffers as much), we don't know what to do for the best in any situation but overcaring is always an easy way out. We abuse this overcaring at all levels from "they have weapons of mass destruction" to "no, a policman may not wave his figure in a teenagers face". Its a great tool it stops us all having to worry what we are supposed to think. If you dont like the overcaring option you can always fly to the other end of the spectrum and blame the foreigners, another easy option.\n\nWhat England needs is to recapture our ability to take the middle path and be strong in that. This is not liberalism, it is what we used to be good at , they called it drawing a line. \n\nWe knew how and where to draw a line!
829347
The U.K. is a great place to be. The better question is why is the U.K. letting that freak (yeah, that is a good way to describe him) stick around.
684779
Please, correct me if I am wrong, but the UK is not a single country.
697217
I agree with you. But polls show that 2 out of 3 English people want England and the UK in a politically united Europe a European Union. It may be worth your while to consider supporting a withdrawal from the worst aspects of the treaty of Rome and consider closer links with the English speaking world, a English Speaking Union
1181509
Big\nBunch\nCnuts\nwho gives a shit about the BBC.they are so politically correct to the point of being biased against Britain.
1158134
How what works, the world? I doubt it although they may have united to become the EU there is no sense of common history or common cause. I don't see too much cooperation in the EU.
227998
Probably better than some UK citizens.
309789
Personally, I would welcome a more multi-cultural Britain. It might shake some people out of their island mentality.\nI also think that seeing as we have a less than perfect record when it comes to the commonwealth and the empire, the least we can do is accept some responsibility and share some of our wealth and good fortune.
1084607
Hi, I am an Englishman and never visited the States. I suppose like many people I would have to say that I have had mixed feelings about the USA. Most of the information regarding world events etc comes via the media and does not I think always give the most unbiased opinion. Not just in political events. We all see popular shows like Oprah and this without doubt has a profoundly negative effect. We see in the main what can only be described as weirdos and have to wonder if these strange selfish people are indicative of the country as a whole.\nHigh consumers, irresponsible ecological attitude and a me, me, me mind set.\nAll sounds horrible doesn't it? Thankfully there is the Internet where over the past couple of years I have made some excellent friends who have illustrated that there is a far more caring and unselfish, generous aspect to many of the citizens of the US than I previously thought. \nMy country and yours have been strong allies both economically and in time of conflict and shared a whole lot together. I personally hope that this will always be the case.\nWho knows what may happen in Iraq, North Korea and the rest of the world. But I believe that in the main (although always influenced by oil) The forces currently in Iraq are trying extremely hard to bring about stability. If they were only allowed to do so, your country and mine could bring our troops home. The sooner the better.\nIn a nut shell I am pro American. OK?
470344
the first thing that comes to mind..is london fog.. and the beatles. the second is terrorist bombings.  then i think of the royal family and how much i admired princess dianna and now her two sons. i think of kippers and white wigs.  it is funny how much movies.. media etc have an effect on your opinion of things in life. it has never been at the top of my travel wish list. ..but i am sure the people would be nice.yet england does not  seem  to me to be a warm welcoming place.
755339
If you mean you would like to come to the UK, i wouldn't bother. Stay over there! We have Blair here, who's more Bush than Bush himself, so you probably wouldn't like it here anyway. Most of us living here don't. But if you'd like to engage in conversation about how crap both sides of the pond are, that'd be just grand! :)
139845
Great Briton is a proud, strong and sovereign nation that would prefer not to align itself too closely with the US.  This seems to bring about critisism from the left as well as its European neighbors.  We argue with Great Briton as much as anyone and that is healthy, because it shows the world that we are two different countries with two different agendas. The English know that we are here anytime they really need us.  That was true in 1939 when Nazi Germany was bombing London on a regular basis, and it is true today provided, when they need help, they ask for it.  They have been beside is in nearly every campaign since WWII and I'm quite sure they will continue to be amongst our strongest allies, along with Australia, Israel, Japan, Canada and Tawain.
866592
seems like it\n\nI have nothing against the south, but some people seem too.\n\nDont forget Vietnam, China and Taiwan, and the Korea's\n\nBut the UK and US don't seem to have civil war issues anymore
633737
I'd have to say the U.K., although Israel is a good ally too. Unfortunately, the Iraq war hasn't made us too popular.
559580
I agree with camoman73. U answered my question by saying britain is full of jerks! you are the jerk buddy
1002412
Many of my friends study in UK.\nThey knew nothing, when they went there.\nBut now, they are excellent in English.\nSo go there without hesitation, people of UK are very polite!
375796
Other the usual (England, Iraq war, etc.), the only major issue I can think of is the fact that Scottish pareliment's roof almost caved in.\n\nBelow are some newspaper sites. The local internet news is always a good place to check for a countries' current concerns and issues.