Ashamed to be English

I agree to a large extent, WolfieKate, but I think the problem goes back much further than Blair. Margaret Thatcher was quite happy to put people on benefits so that much of that horrible, messy industry could be destroyed and the country could concentrate on nice clean banking and service sector jobs. I suspect she thought that the problem of the jobless would be a temporary one rather than something which would become a permanent blight.

As you mention, the situation has been compounded by the left, which has perpetuated a dangerous fiction that all can have prizes and that work should always be fun and endlessly fascinating. A friend who teaches English at a local college mentioned recently that none of her students wanted ordinary jobs. They hoped to be media stars, mostly, although there were a smattering of would-be psychologists as well as a girl who had opted for 'international marine biologist'. They didn't see their lack of basic literacy as any barrier to their aspirations. How things have changed. Our teachers always threatened us with Woolworths. If we were really so stupid that we couldn't understand a few simple concepts and obtain some basic qualifications, then we would end up spending our lives on the Pick n' Mix and be grateful for it. Even the Woolworths option has gone now, of course. Thank goodness for international marine biology.

 

I don't know if this is significant,but none of the shops looted were book shops.

 

Roders, there was an estate agent on the radio the other day complaining that he'd been ransacked. We wondered what there was to nick in an estate agent's office. Perhaps, we concluded, the looters were so thick that they thought that stealing a picture of a nice apartment somehow gave them the rights of ownership.

 

That's because most of them can't read

 

Its so sad to see the pictures over here on the news:o......i dont understand the mentality of these people, and its not just in England that this happens.....i remember the riots in Vancouver over a flippin hockey game

It seems to me that the youth of today, have no respect for anyone or anything:wallbang:.....whatever happened to please and thank you, that was one of the things that i drilled into my kids heads...please and thanks.

Kids these days think that they should have everything without having to work for it, and thats so sad:fingerdrum:.......my oldest daughter heads back to College in a couple weeks, and she wanted a new laptop for school and we could have went and bought her a brand new one the day she asked us for it......instead we are taking a portion of her pays and putting it away, and in the end she'll have paid a good chunk of the cost, and i think she'll appreciate it more, since she helped to pay for it

The images of people throwing rocks and bricks at the police, where is the repect.....i was always taught to respect someone in an authority postion...i guess for the youth, not anymore.

I hope that all of this ends quickly for you all.......i cant wait to come and see England, its my dream trip:yess:....but i sure as heck dont want to see it like this :DOH:



I also read online too that anyone who is caught on camera and indentified or has been arrested over all of this, and if they live in council housing, they will be evicted

 

Hi Penny

Despite all our misery posts, I do hope you'll still want to come and visit us. I suppose moaning is part of traditional English culture, along with afternoon cakes containing an unwise number of calories. I was in a little village called Chilham yesterday, sitting outside the tea room tucking into a very naughty, diet-busting cream tea. (As you'll discover, tea rooms specialise in gooey cakes and scones plastered with cream. Nothing remotely healthy is allowed on the menu on principle.) It was about as far from any kind of trouble as you could possibly imagine. The only things disturbing the peace were a few grannies on a church outing and a dog barking in the distance.

Chilham - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shelly's of Chilham - Kent's Finest Tea Rooms

 

Hi Clara....thanks for the links!!

I will absolutely be over for a visit, we almost came this coming Fall, but did some reno's to the house.

Like i said before, i dont understand these people....they moan and complain about money for this and money for that.....but come on...the damage that they have caused, in the end where does the money come from to pay for the repairs.....the tax payer, and its taking yet even more money away from the complainers over their sensless actions!!!!

The Sony factory that they set fire too and burned down....geez how many jobs lost there people.....way to go!

Every country has their issues, big and small, and these people arent doing any favours to England, thats for sure!!

 

What a bizarre and jumbled thread, conflating lots of disparate issues.


'Ashamed to be English?' I did a double take at the title of this thread. Im incredulous that you havent qualified it. Talk about hyperbole!

Were you ashamed when the UK was levelling Iraq or Afghanistan and thousands died?

Were you ashamed when we were bombing Serbia and hundreds died?

Were you ashamed when UK company Trafigura was found to be illegally dumping toxic waste on the shores of the Developing World- Injuring countless thousands?

Were you ashamed when British bankers played a major part in wiping billions off people's hard earned pensions and virtually bankrupted the global economy?



Frankly, if 3 days rioting is all it takes for you to denounce your country, then you should probably hand in your passport.

Every country has its problems. With all of ours, we're fortunate to live here.

 

And another round of deleted posts ......

cool it, folks, else this thread really will be dead!
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LOLS!

Ive missed all the insults! :D

 

Yes to quite a lot of this, particularly the Iraq adventure and all those looting ******* who robbed us blind recently. I'm talking about bankers, obviously. When caught red-handed, they just stuck two fingers aloft and carried on taking the spoils. They didn't even have enough sense of shame to wear hoodies or balaclavas.

I think many ordinary people now feel that they have no say at all in what goes on in their own country. No wonder so many of us can't be bothered to turn up at the polling stations any more.

 

I recommend Rod Liddle's blog in The Spectator as a lively and provocative read. Here he is on the recent troubles. You can read the full article at

Columnists | The Spectator

He seems to have forgotten that there were plenty of white kids involved in the riots, however.

So appalled and incensed am I at the killing of gentle, loving family man Mark Duggan last Thursday that I feel only the immediate illegal acquisition of an expensive consumer durable, preferably a top end watch, will assuage my righteous wrath and lessen my grief. A Rolex should do the job, or at least something with a bit of bling about it. If possible, the watch should be liberated by myself and my homeys, my bluds, from an agent of oppression, such as a local watch shop owned by someone who isn’t me and most likely from a different race, maybe white or Asian. Call it, if you like, an explosion of consciousness, much as has been suggested by Stafford Scott in the Guardian this week; the killing of gentle, loving family man Mark Duggan was a tipping point which has served to awaken in me a political sensibility which will achieve its full expression when I’ve thrown stuff at the old bill and nicked a nice watch.​

 

YES TO ALL. Especially the war issues.

I will be proud again when America tells me to be.

 

To be fair, most youths are alright. If we have a problem in Britain it is the way we stereotype 'the youth of today'.

Some of my work colleagues are much younger than me, and they come in religiously on time every day, getting paid a fraction of what they'll get when they build up some experience, and working hard to make their name.

 

Oh absolutely....there are some amazing kids in any country/society....but there are those few that ruin it for others.

Its reporting here that so far things seem quiet.......i hope and pray that it stays that way, for everyone.