What are British people better at doing than Irish people?

JohnnyFlash

Drinking warm beer.

whisky_galore

cloudatlas wrote: »

Didn't some politicians get attacked by water protestors. I remember Mary Harney got something chucked at her. Also one of the people who confronted Boris had an Irish accent. I think given the chance we would confront our politicians more but they aren't really out and about unless there's an election.

Jobstown.
People are half afraid to tackle a politician in case they'd get sued.

Edgware

dinorebel wrote: »

Did he tell you you looked like a man who needs a days work?

Had you a pint in each hand?

con___manx1

Better at covering stuff up. For example not teaching their citizens of the many past atrocities carried out by the British army around the world

tea and coffee

krissovo wrote: »

Climbing ranks in society, In Britain you can leave school with no qualifications and make a good crack of a career from starting at the bottom that pays well and rises through the ranks. In Ireland we are so hung up on leaving cert achievement its almost a joke.

I’d disagree with this one
British society is notoriously classist. To the point of it being as bad as racism in some cases. Irish tend not to be so. It’s harder to get on here as there is still that element of “who you know” in some career areas.
The whole idea of the American Dream was that it was so different to the British idea of class- if you worked hard enough in the New world , you could make it, and class didn’t play a part. (Of course that was the big lie - the capitalist dream har har)

Also surprised more people haven’t mentioned football.

hi5

K.Flyer wrote: »

Using Escalators.
They understand the concept that some people might be in a hurry when using them, so those not in a hurry stand to the right leaving space for people to pass on the left.

They stand on the right on escalators through force of habit because it's drummed into them from using the London underground.

Edgware

hi5 wrote: »

They stand on the right on escalators through force of habit because it's drummed into them from using the London underground.

Nonsense. Its an ergonomic issue
They stand on the right because the vast majority of people are right handed and hold the rail.
p.s. They don't all live in London

Hoboo

Edgware wrote: »

Nonsense. Its an ergonomic issue
They stand on the right because the vast majority of people are right handed and hold the rail.
p.s. They don't all live in London

Incorrect. They stand on the right because they walk on the right. The left side is for overtaking.

In America they walk on the left.

Peregrinus

Hoboo wrote: »

Incorrect. They stand on the right because they walk on the right. The left side is for overtaking.

In America they walk on the left.

In America they stand on escalators. They think walking on them is weird - I mean, the whole point of an escalator is that you don't have to walk, as far as they're concerned.

In New York City, where everyone is always in a hurry, walking or running on escalators is not unknown, but there is no convention about which side to pass on - this being New York, they just elbow people aside in whichever seems to be the most convenient direction.

Internationally, there is no consensus about which side of the escalator to stand on, and it is unrelated to which side of the road people drive on. Here in Australia we stand on the left. They stand on the left in Germany too. In Hong Kong they stand on the right, and furthermore it's considered rude, or at least sloppy, not to hold the handrail.

osarusan

Supporting their local football teams.

FishOnABike

ElectronVolt wrote: »

Emm, someone posted the British invented the Internet a few posts back.

Have a look at your internet history : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet

Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web while working at CERN (The European Organization for Nuclear Research) back in the early 80s, but the internet was a originally a US military project, The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) - it had elements of and inspiration by projects from the US (mostly) but also the UK and France in its origins.

One thing they seem to excell at is appropriating successes, whether it is technological or sporting, and disowning failures.

Thelonious Monk

I noticed when I was living there that if someone was to do something like skip a queue or throw litter or smoke on a bus or just anything anti social like that people would start freaking out at them and call people out on these things, I admired them for this.

Usurper.

Air warfare

Thelonious Monk

Oh also their countryside is way nicer than ours, far more trees and protected areas. No bungalow blight and McMansions because they have planning permission laws.

Bannasidhe

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Making genuinely good television.
Especially comedies.

Strange thing is Irish people can do it 'over there' - or working in conjunction with 'over there' but the strictly home grown stuff is usually dire.

That is because the UK media is more of a meritocracy i.e. talent has a better chance of being broadcast on its own merits.

Here the gatekeepers are RTE which is a jobs for the boys nepotistic cesspit. With some rare exceptions like David mcsavage (although he is very politically connected)

Tammy!

Mad_maxx wrote: »

Controlling their dogs

They do seem to be more dog friendly in public places. I remember being shocked going to the pub one Sunday afternoon with my father in law and taking his pet dog with us.

Pronouncing the TH sound.

Thelonious Monk

Yeah even in london its normal to bring dogs to pubs

Steve F

badabing106 wrote: »

British people will happily protest and confront politicians and tell them off. Everywhere Boris goes he gets an ear full. Just wouldn't happen in Ireland, and it certainly wouldn't be reported by Irish media people

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZuQwbLhPnA

What about the old wan telling Bertie he was a disgrace when he was being interviewed by RTE and him saying "Tanks very much"

Steve F

Minding their own business
And before anyone says it's curiosity it's not, it's pure nosiness

ElectronVolt

The stand on one side of the escalator thing is very much Tube driven. You get similar behavior in most places with a bob metro system.

Try standing on the wing side of a tube escalator at rush hour! You'll be shoved out of the way.

Ireland simply doesn't have regular use of public transport escalators and pushing past on escalators in shopping centres is generally just considered obnoxious in most places.

whisky_galore

osarusan wrote: »

Supporting their local football teams.

Football hooliganism.

whisky_galore

con___manx1 wrote: »

Better at covering stuff up. For example not teaching their citizens of the many past atrocities carried out by the British army around the world

Hmm something something Catholic Church...industrial schools...Laundries..Tuam etc etc

Turfcutter

Not driving in the middle motorway lane.
Better respect for the countryside.

ElectronVolt

whisky_galore wrote: »

Hmm something something Catholic Church...industrial schools...Laundries..Tuam etc etc

To be fair when that was uncovered it's been accepted and is being faced up to, at least by the public. There has been a general acceptance that bad stuff happened and it's something we need to deal with and take on board as part of what went on in this country.

Scandals from the UK with strong parallels: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Children - this one doesn't get nearly the level of attention it should, or I think that it would if it had occured in Ireland.

I also think we faced up to the blood services scandals far earlier. That's still very much only emerging in the UK, even though the causes were very much the same - contaminated imported blood products.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminated_blood_scandal_in_the_United_Kingdom

markodaly

Supporting their own football league.

dd973

Steve F wrote: »

Minding their own business
And before anyone says it's curiosity it's not, it's pure nosiness

There is some truth in that, they're not quite so ready to instantly judge someone they've never spoken to in their life as a 'knacker', 'queer', 'traveller', etc. Here loads of people think they've got some direct conduit from God that infers instant knowledge about strangers.

Steve F

dd973 wrote: »

There is some truth in that, they're not quite so ready to instantly judge someone they've never spoken to in their life as a 'knacker', 'queer', 'traveller', etc. Here loads of people think they've got some direct conduit from God that infers instant knowledge about strangers.

Well said

ElectronVolt

Again that's*entirely* subjective and dependent on who you're talking to. You'll meet utterly judgemental asshats on both islands. They're best avoided!

partyguinness

I have been living here nearly 12 years. Are we talking about WASPs or generally?

I love Ireland and I can think of better things in Ireland but it is like comarping apples and oranges- you cannot compare. Britain is a large industrialized country of nearly 70 million people and is far more complex and multilayered than Ireland will ever be.

Whereas we are tad obsessed with the Brits and British culture due to geography and historical factors, the Brits have a lot more going on. Irish history is 99.9999% dominated by our relationship with Britain (good, bad or indifferent). British history is not 99.99999% dominated by Ireland. The Brits pissed off a lot of people- most of the world really. In fact, is there anyone the Brits have not pissed off at some stage? It's just that geography has not been kind to us.

I will try to list what is done better over here:-

- Infrastructure
- Being on time (well the white population anyway)
- Doing what they said they will do when they say they will do it
- Road safety
- Debt collection
- They treat their pets and cars better than their relatives

One thing that will surprise you is that the Brits love bringing in new rules and regulations. But the thing is- they never enforce anything. All these rules and no enforcement. At least in Ireland we won't bother as we know it will not be enforced. The planning system is just as unpredictable for example.

I have found myself a few times thinking- 'Bloody hell, you would not get away with that in Ireland.'

They can be awfully mean feckers though. They would start WWIII and have a 20 minute argument over a £1.00 and I mean that. On the other hand they expect everything for free and can get indignant when they are billed for the service you provide them.

I was brought up not to discuss money as it is vulgar. Certainly not the case over here.

I'll post as I think of more.

partyguinness

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

When I graduated from TCD it was in the top 20 worldwide in the university rankings. I read only this week that it's now struggling to maintain its position in the top 200. This isn't a sustainable way of investing in 3rd level education.

Really? When was that..