The Great Britain Appreciation Thread

Mr.Wemmick · 14-03-2019 10:48pm

Dickens and Christmas
The Famous Five and their picnic luncheons, ginger beer and buttery scones..
Kathy on the Yorkshire Moors
Sherlock Holmes and his drugs
Jane Austin and Lyme Regis
Hobbiton and the Shire
Bryon, the naughty galavant
Mary Shelley's monster man
Shakespeare's Fool (he'd write a great play about Brexit fools if he was about)
The daffodil poem
Right Ho, Jeeves!
The Beano
The Dandy
Viz

That's just the literature..

Omackeral · 14-03-2019 10:49pm

lbc2019 wrote: »

Britain is England and Wales
Great Britain is England Wales and Scotland

Don't think I've ever heard that. Don't think it's right. Britain/Great Britain is simply the physical island. Never heard a differentiation between Eng/Wal and Eng/Sco/Wal.

Anyway, this will clear it all up. (although there'll be crying about the British Isles name as usual)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10

Mad_maxx · 14-03-2019 10:49pm

FrancieBrady wrote: »

Like any nation, it has it's good.
Britain has given a huge amount to the world across all human activity.
But it also has a huge amount of bad.
The people of Derry got a bit more of it's bad side today and the entire EU have been getting a severe dose of it for several years.

Report: Must do better.

The bad waa on show today on twitter etc, limeys defending the actions of the soldiers who opened fire in derry, they believe the outrage is the soldiers being brought to book at all, the imperial attitude is skin deep

Irish Guitarist · 14-03-2019 10:54pm

JJJJNR · 14-03-2019 10:59pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVnm5cdNcus

OldMrBrennan83 · 14-03-2019 11:04pm

Omackeral wrote: »

Don't think I've ever heard that. Don't think it's right. Britain/Great Britain is simply the physical island. Never heard a differentiation between Eng/Wal and Eng/Sco/Wal.

Anyway, this will clear it all up. (although there'll be crying about the British Isles name as usual)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10

That's wrong anyway as he doesn't know the name of our country.

14-03-2019 11:04pm

If it wasn't for them we'd all be speaking German/Irish*

*Delete as applicable

Beasty · 14-03-2019 11:17pm

Great Britain to the right

Little Brit...

OK. maybe not

:pac:

OldMrBrennan83 · 14-03-2019 11:18pm

Beasty wrote: »

Great Britain to the right

Little Brit...

OK. maybe not

:pac:

Judging by most of what you read on these forums you could have continued.

votecounts · 14-03-2019 11:23pm

On the day that one of their "soldiers" is charged with murdering innocent civilians, you think it is a great idea to have an appreciation for Britain, shame on you.

MPFGLB · 14-03-2019 11:31pm

votecounts wrote: »

On the day that one of their "soldiers" is charged with murdering innocent civilians, you think it is a great idea to have an appreciation for Britain, shame on you.

Dont be so bloody ridiculous British people are as responsible for Derry killings as are you are for the IRA killings in London, Manchester or Birmingham but that doesnt stop loads of Irish blowing their own trumpet about how wonderful we are , likeable,welcoming and all that stuff

I can appreciate so many British qualities that I wish some Irish had
As for the day ..the killings were nearly 50 years ago...when do you suggest we can be free to appreciate our neighbours

Shame on you for your prejudice remarks

OldMrBrennan83 · 14-03-2019 11:37pm

MPFGLB wrote: »

Dont be so bloody ridiculous British people are as responsible for Derry killings as are you are for the IRA killings in London, Manchester or Birmingham but that doesnt stop loads of Irish blowing their own trumpet about how wonderful we are , likeable,welcoming and all that stuff

I can appreciate so many British qualities that I wish some Irish had
As for the day ..the killings were nearly 50 years ago...when do you suggest we can be free to appreciate our neighbours

Shame on you for your prejudice remarks

We could if they became decent people in the 50 years that passed. They didn't.

mfceiling · 14-03-2019 11:38pm

OldMrBrennan83 wrote: »

We could if they became decent people in the 50 years that passed. They didn't.

Who? The soldiers or just the other 60 million in general?

Edgware · 14-03-2019 11:42pm

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

Coarr!

votecounts · 14-03-2019 11:43pm

If they were decent, they would have charged all the soldiers and higher ups with murder and threw away the key. But alas they didn't and they are still portraying the inocents as murderers, only have to look at facebook at some of the scummy posts

Omackeral · 14-03-2019 11:48pm

Aaaaand unfollow...

SEPT 23 1989 · 14-03-2019 11:59pm

votecounts wrote: »

If they were decent, they would have charged all the soldiers and higher ups with murder and threw away the key. But alas they didn't and they are still portraying the inocents as murderers, only have to look at facebook at some of the scummy posts

How about throwing away the key for a few years and then releasing the whole lot of them to walk the streets

Mena Mitty · 15-03-2019 12:00am

OldMrBrennan83 wrote: »

Let's not. They're a blight on the planet.

Like the blight on the spuds.

Harry Palmr · 15-03-2019 12:03am

The name Great Britain has its earliest origins in the Greco-Roman era "megale Bretannia" Like much else the name of a land mass is a moving target - Albion as an official description came and went while Great Britain as we now know it dates to the 12th century when "Britannia major" was used to distinguish it from Britannia minor - Brittany (Brittany at the time was full of bloody foreigners from the islands off the north west of Europe)

FrancieBrady · 15-03-2019 12:04am

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

How about throwing away the key for a few years and then releasing the whole lot of them to walk the streets

I'd settle for that. As long as everyone of them are tried, including those with whom the buck stops and those involved in the cover-up/whitewash. Honours taken back posthumously from those who are dead.

Franz Von Peppercorn · 15-03-2019 12:12am

Both islands are great places to live.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 15-03-2019 12:22am

Let's Make Britain Great Again.

Feisar · 15-03-2019 12:28am

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

I'd nail that harder than Christ.

Kevin Finnerty · 15-03-2019 12:30am

Theres a direct sailing from Harwich to the Hook of Holland. Great incentive to boot it from Swansea.

Feisar · 15-03-2019 12:39am

votecounts wrote: »

On the day that one of their "soldiers" is charged with murdering innocent civilians, you think it is a great idea to have an appreciation for Britain, shame on you.

Right, lets ban everything British so. Our two countries are too intrinsically linked for that sort of nonsense. Reminds me of colleges banning the sale of nestle products due to formula milk in Africa. Never mind the children in mines in the Congo providing the batteries for our phones.

Zaph · 15-03-2019 12:46am

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Railways, the world wide Web, computer (says no), gravity, Australia, the English language, Chris Morris, Liverpool football club, Father Ted ( cos RTE would never have made it).

To be fair, I think gravity was around for a fair while before Newton named it. I don't think they can be credited with having invented it.

Franz Von Peppercorn · 15-03-2019 12:57am

Coldplay.

Zaph · 15-03-2019 1:03am

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

Coldplay.

The thread is about appreciating the Brits for all the good stuff they've done/given the world, not for reminding us that the country should be turned into a nuclear wasteland so that they can't inflict such horrors on the world again.

Irish Guitarist · 15-03-2019 1:03am

my3cents · 15-03-2019 1:07am

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

Her mother Hanna Daly was Irish.

Kevin Finnerty · 15-03-2019 1:07am

my3cents wrote: »

Her mother Hanna Daly was Irish.

Anything to Gerry Daly?

15-03-2019 1:17am

Feisar wrote: »

I'd nail that harder than Christ.

You’d want a bigger hammer and a longer nail than yours to get that job done.

Kermit.de.frog · 15-03-2019 1:40am

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Let's Make Britain Great Again.

It's people like us that are really turning that country around.

RobertKK · 15-03-2019 1:46am

Churchill was a racist, ran concentration camps, had people tortured, threatened to invade Ireland in WW2, was responsible for the Black and Tans, the partition of Ireland, partition of the Indian sub continent, millions of deaths in India.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/not-his-finest-hour-the-dark-side-of-winston-churchill-2118317.html

Far from something good about Great Britain.

Franz Von Peppercorn · 15-03-2019 2:07am

Zaph wrote: »

The thread is about appreciating the Brits for all the good stuff they've done/given the world, not for reminding us that the country should be turned into a nuclear wasteland so that they can't inflict such horrors on the world again.

Keane.

dd973 · 15-03-2019 2:09am

The English, Welsh or the Scots, not a bother to me.

No time for the Tories, The Union Jack, British Army, Monarchy, Imperialism and the role they've played in the history of our island though.

Franz Von Peppercorn · 15-03-2019 9:24am

M.T. Cranium wrote: »

What is actually understood by the term "Great Britain" when used in conversation? I think of Great Britain as the name of the island that contains England, Scotland and Wales. The term "Britain" is more or less the same thing but can often be taken as equivalent to the UK despite the fact that the UK includes Northern Ireland (for the time being). This confusion sometimes shows up in sports. Does the UK team at the Olympics assemble under the name UK or Britain? The Scottish curlers are always referred to as Britain on our TV coverage.

I think of Great Britain as the second most appealing island off the coast of Europe. Maybe third if Iceland could be included.

Great Britain and Britain are the same yes. You are wrong about the island rankings though. Britain is an extraordinary island. Scotland alone is extraordinary in scenery. Wales is extraordinary too. England is more sedate but also beautiful, but still has wild areas like Cornwall and the Lake District. That’s just scenery, the cities and cathedrals and history are great in all of them.

FrancieBrady · 15-03-2019 9:33am

First, there were the Scots who kept holy the Sabbath - and everything else they could lay their hands on;
Then there were the Welsh - who prayed on their knees and their neighbours;
Thirdly there were the Irish who never knew what they wanted - but were willing to fight for it anyway.
Lastly there were the English who considered themselves self-made men, - thus relieving the Almighty of a terrible responsibility.

janfebmar · 15-03-2019 10:22am

RobertKK wrote: »

Churchill was a racist.

Not according to Brendan Bracken, an Irish Catholic, who was Winston Churchill’s closest friend in politics and Minister of information in his wartime government. Look at Churchill track record: he had his Minister of information in his wartime government an Irish Catholic. By contrast, in this country, even in the decades after WW2, DeValera would not allow a Protestant to be a Librarian, hence all the controversy at the time with the County Council in Mayo. She might only have given out books to corrupt Catholic minds.

If he was a racist why would Churchill hav delivered his famous (or infamous if you want, depending on your point of view) to Irish nationalists, and in support of Irish nationalists in Belfast in 2012, when he defended the creation of a Dublin parliament: “History and poetry, justice and good sense, alike demand that this race, gifted, virtuous and brave, which has lived so long and endured so much should not, in view of her passionate desire, be shut out of the family of nations and should not be lost forever among indiscriminate multitudes of men.”

Not all is as black and white as you think. Millions of people of all races volunteered to serve for Churchill, including 100,000 from Ireland, who were treated fairly.

FrancieBrady · 15-03-2019 10:35am

janfebmar wrote: »

Not according to Brendan Bracken, an Irish Catholic, who was Winston Churchill’s closest friend in politics and Minister of information in his wartime government. Look at Churchill track record: he had his Minister of information in his wartime government an Irish Catholic. By contrast, in this country, even in the decades after WW2, DeValera would not allow a Protestant to be a Librarian, hence all the controversy at the time with the County Council in Mayo. She might only have given out books to corrupt Catholic minds.

If he was a racist why would Churchill hav delivered his famous (or infamous if you want, depending on your point of view) to Irish nationalists, and in support of Irish nationalists in Belfast in 2012, when he defended the creation of a Dublin parliament: “History and poetry, justice and good sense, alike demand that this race, gifted, virtuous and brave, which has lived so long and endured so much should not, in view of her passionate desire, be shut out of the family of nations and should not be lost forever among indiscriminate multitudes of men.”

Not all is as black and white as you think. Millions of people of all races volunteered to serve for Churchill, including 100,000 from Ireland, who were treated fairly.

I would say the fact that he said all below that his inherent racism is fairly evident to a free mind.

“strong aboriginal propensity to kill”

“a lot of jolly little wars against barbarous peoples”

He then sped off to help reconquer the Sudan, where he bragged that he personally shot at least three “savages”.

'When concentration camps were built in South Africa, for white Boers, he said they produced “the minimum of suffering”. The death toll was almost 28,000, and when at least 115,000 black Africans were likewise swept into British camps, where 14,000 died, he wrote only of his “irritation that Kaffirs should be allowed to fire on white men”.

Then as an MP he demanded a rolling programme of more conquests, based on his belief that “the Aryan stock is bound to triumph”.

“I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes...[It] would spread a lively terror.”

A product of his time? Not really, his PM Baldwin was urged not to appoint him because of his 'antediluvian views'.

As somebody said earlier, one swallow does not a summer make, and his relationship with a person born in Ireland, besotted, like some others with England and the Crown, does not acquit him.

mariaalice · 15-03-2019 10:52am

It's not perfect and seems to be getting worse, not better, but its is one of the world's superpowers and is a great country overall and despite all the carping its got a superb education system, the NHS, it's one of the mothers of democracy very ancient and historic fantastic film, theater, music, and litterateur etc.

Hundreds of thousands of Irish people got employment and prospered in the uk when Ireland had nothing to offer them except poverty.

Partition was nearly a hundred years a ago the second world war 80 years ago.

Which bring me to something I don't like the rise of nationalism in the UK which was never a feature until fairly recently, on the other hand, they have not swallow the mom Americanised cultures we seem to like here.

GS11 · 15-03-2019 10:58am

igCorcaigh wrote: »

What have the Romans ever done for us?

My first thoughts as well.

GS11 · 15-03-2019 11:01am

Duke Cool Battery wrote: »

Churchill looked down on the Irish, like you Kermie.

I'ma go with: awesome music, television, literature, comedy.

I would suggest there's a huge amount of the upperclass, or their descendants see us still as a bunch of savages.

mariaalice · 15-03-2019 11:03am

GS11 wrote: »

My first thoughts as well.

The new state after 1921, just wholesale took over the British system, P60 P45 is a good example.

mariaalice · 15-03-2019 11:05am

GS11 wrote: »

I would suggest there's a huge amount of the upperclass, or their descendants see us still as a bunch of savages.

Yea its a kind of arrogance in some sections of British society, but they are the same about the French etc.

buried · 15-03-2019 12:03pm

The Best of Pretanī

Autechre

Alan Moore

Alan Partridge

whisky_galore · 15-03-2019 1:35pm

KaneToad wrote: »

A nation that has to put 'great' into their name is compensating for something...

Countries with the word "democratic" in them often aren't.

granturismo · 15-03-2019 1:39pm

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

They built all the nice houses in Dublin, and around the country.

I dont think they did the actual building work.

Lady Spangles · 15-03-2019 2:40pm

I think you all need to remember that "Great" Britain isn't referring to how awesome they are. It's because Britain isn't a country, it's an island of three separation nations on one small landmass.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 15-03-2019 3:35pm

Churchill was tight as an owl for most of his life. His secretary wrote a book about his habits, he'd be on the sauce from early morning to late at night. An impressionist would often have to read his nightly radio address during the war as Winiston would be too tight to speak in a coherent manner.

The Great Britain Appreciation Thread

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