h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

our is lovely
its not our fault the rest of the world (including the people who first cultivated it) don't share our taste
proper chinese tea is nice too

You have a point, Blackberry Cat... we don't get enough British TV, but what we do get is quality stuff! (But for Trinny and Susannah - yeeewwww!)

You can diss our Culture,our language,but dont diss our (well not mine anyway)

the teabag has been the ruination of British
it doesn't really matter what c**p they put in them, they all end up tasting much the same

1. The English never forget (or let anyone else forget) that they won the world cup in '66. If they ever win another one, I'm leaving this planet.

2. WWII was sixty years ago. Other things have happened in the world since. PLEASE give it a rest.

3. Olympic commentators: "Well, he did have a bad lane to begin with". Now, I know that every country does that sort of 'our guy lost because the sun was in his eyes' rubbish, but the British have it down to a tee. Please stop. Your athletes lost 'cos the others were better. This applies to every athlete except the winners and that Brazilian dude who got jumped by that nutter. (Didn't Monthy Python raise this issue in the 'Men's Being Eaten by a Crocodile Event' where England could easily pick up a place in the first four hundred?)

4. Union Jack boxer shorts while on holidays in the Canaries. You people need help!

5. Robbing other people's nationality. Urgh! This one really annoys me I have to say. Oscar Wilde and G.B. Shaw were both Irish. We're holding Shakespeare until you hand them back!

I think that's quite enough for now...

1) You have to be in it to win it, as they say. Besides, if you think we're bad about winning it, you should hear the Dutch on NOT winning it.

2) Of course, the international fight against the worst dictatorship of the 20th century might seem a little more important to those that weren't 'neutral'.

3) You can add the mens 4x100 to the list of things such as the '66 world cup. And yep, we won't EVER let them forget it.

4) No argument.

5) Suffice it to say that Wilde even preferred the US to the land of his birth. You can have Shaw. Heaven knows why anybody would want to lay claim to the old bore anyway.

"Of course, the international fight against the worst dictatorship of the 20th century might seem a little more important to those that weren't 'neutral'."

Really, fought against Stalin did you?

Besides, I suspect you may be too young to have any more involvement in it than I did.

"You can have Shaw."

Thanks. Still waiting for Wilde though...

Like I say, Wilde didn't want Ireland, so I wouldn't push the point.

As for the Stalin/Hitler point, well, Ireland didn't fight either of them, so possibly not your strongest point.

Penny pinching

Soap operas

People who watch soap operas

Celebrity ('ooh you're on telly so you're better than me. Please tell me how to run my life/think/improve my body')

Tabloid press

A-HA!


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3934353.stm


What was I saying?

Didn't I say?

At least now I know why I am so confused.

I fully agree with Maolmuire re the WWII thing. Yes - it was an important fight - but do we *have* to bring it up whenever Germany are mentioned. Only the other day, I overheard two colleagues talking about a recent holiday one of them had had in Munich. The other guy said "I guess the trouble with them is that they think they should have won the war." NO THEY DON'T!!! This displays a complete igorance of late 20thC German history. (Oh - and on the topic of Germany, I'd welcome peer review comments on my guide entries on Georg Elser and Youth Resistance Groups).

Shaw an old bore? I'm wondering which of his plays El Tib can mean!

As to football, and sport in general, I have no constructive comments on the opiate of the people - other than that 1966 and all that does seem somewhat tied in to WWII.

I'd also like to add:

Pride in being British: Myself, I prefer to be proud of those things I've *done* rather than those things that I'm born into. And do we mean pride in being British as opposed to, say, Italian/Senegalese/Mongolian/etc?

Diana-ism: "The whole nation wept".....apparently. Hmm. I never saw it myself, except on the TV. I *did* hear a lot of folk grumbling when they enforced morning by closing all the shops during the funeral. She should have worn a seatbelt anyway.

Sentimental attachment to custom as a political philosophy: e.g. the metric system; the €; the myth that Europe wants to ban our inferior ice cream and chocolate.

Irish jokes: Luckily now largely a thing of the past. "What is black and blue and floats in the Irish Sea? An Englishmen who just told an Irish joke." But I can't resist this (kinda pro-Irish) one: Paddy goes for a job on a building site. The foreman gives him a test of his knowledge by asking "What's the difference between a Joist and a Girder?" Paddy replies, "Sure, Joist wrote Ulysses and Girder wrote Faust."

The cultural hegemony of Thatcherism: as evinced by the political taboo of raising taxes and the death of the social market. Elsewhere in Europe, they still struggle to run their economies for the benefit of the populace.

The way we look askance whenever a sensible measure that will improve the health or environment is mentioned. "What? A tax on plastic bags? Ban smoking in workplaces? Stop dogs s***ing in the parks? Congestion charging? Speed cameras? They'll never catch on! (and if they do they'll be an infringement of our civil liberties)"

Our lack of a constitution (an unwritten one not being worth the paper it's printed on) and our eagerness to abbrogate from one of the key clauses of the nearest we have to one. And while I'm at it - the belief that the Human Rights Act is "political correctness gone mad".

Ooooh.....we make my blood boil!

....and the fact that a website run by one of our leading public bodies displays a Euro character as "€" (see previous)

>Shaw an old bore? I'm wondering which of his plays El Tib can mean!<

All of them. Possibly the most over-rated playwright in the history of English literature.

As to the WWII point, I think there are two different phenomena. One is an idiotic tendency to attack the Germans through and because of it. I agree that this has no place in t6he late 20th Century.

the other is a recent wave of programmes regarding veterans of the watr. I assumed that was what was being complained about. If it wasn't then fine.

We actually do have a written constitution. Its just comprised of several documents.

that is not a constitution, just a collection of laws passed over the centuries

pretending the 2 are the same is another annoying trait of the British

Here's what I said:

"2. WWII was sixty years ago. Other things have happened in the world since. PLEASE give it a rest."

No other nation blathers on about WWII like the British. This has been a British trait for as long as I can remember. From comics to television, the British leave all other nations in the shade. Yes, it is important to know your history, and even more important to know the most important parts of it. Every nation that stood against Hitler should rightly be proud of the part they played in the downfall of that ghastly regime, but the British just can't shut up about it. Turn on your television and go to the discovery channels on SKY. How many programs on WWII are there on right this instant? What's next? A discovery channel special on Hitler's toilet roll?

As for the veterans who fought the Nazis, I certainly would not belittle their achievements, I don't know where you got that idea from.

"Possibly the most over-rated playwright in the history of English literature." Shaw?!? Tut tut, you cultural savage!

Maolmuire is right that the British witter on about WW2 than anyone but at least we don't try and write our allies out of the script like Hollywood does

What! Don't you believe that John Wayne and Erroll Flynn defeated the Empire of Japan and the Third Reich all on their own? Good Lord, whatever next! :-0

I don't know, lots countries try to take undue credit. I find it amusing that Brits like Alan Turing are ignored even after his monumental contribution to the war effort has been declassified. No guts or glory, only sheer brainpower. And Einstein or von Braun being called American when it's convenient. Seen any blockbuster films about Ypres or Captain Roy Brown or Gallipoli? (OK one but Gibson was born in the US) We're all guilty but the US and UK seem to be the worst, but then maybe they've just had the opportunity to blow their own horns. I still think the British have more to answer for than pride, especially considering their part in slavery and the class system.

well since I don't believe in collective guilt I don't believe the British around today are to blame for the slave trade but then they continue to take credit for things their ancestors did so it might be a fair quid pro quo if they also accepted the blame for things their ancestors did.

The class system was something we inflicted on ourselves, we should be pitied rather than blamed.