How The World Sees The UK

[Alonso Quijano 3,001]

Following on from comment in the World Cup thread, it would be interesting to see and collect the views of Great Britain, its people, politicians, culture, achievements, direction... as seen from afar.

Are we revered, a laughing stock or just meh? Is Rule Britannia afloat, listing or sinking below the waves?

Do other nations have a Health Service that is so policised and integral to political campaigns?

Are other nations proud and protective of their culture or ashamed of it?

[Option5 1,725]

"We do not regard Englishmen as foreigners. We look on them only as rather mad Norwegians."

Halvard Lange Norwegian statesman.

[No Duff (troll) 3]

There was a time during the tech boom when the German youth tried to break away from the sometimes oppressive "Ordnung".  Sadly it largely ended with the crash.  We are the place in which they dare not tread, but then why would you when the whole EU is there for your benefit.

[Frank Hovis 13,123]

I know some Germans call us "island monkeys"; as in not proper compliant Europeans but always wanting to be different.

I think the general worldview is a mixture of a historical theme park with being a middle ranking modern economy and fairly prosperous.

Similar to how we view Japan.

[Libspero 1,894]

 

[Thombleached 725]

Weirdos that put milk in hot tea

[Option5 1,725]

The British are the only race that go to other countries and still consider the inhabitants to be foreigners.

[PatronizingGit 1,270]

Some tweets i saw a minute ago...this is probably the kind of women who cheers at 'anti-fascist' mobs...not realizing that she is categorizing people by, er, their ancestry. 

 

 

 

 

 

I'd say her problem is she ran a hostel. Go to a more historic type town and hotel, Bruges, Cologne etc, and the english seem much the same as anywhere else. A hostel in a stag party town, of course you are going to have to host lairy, drunk guys. I wouldnt say the English are the best behaved, but in my experience, English holiday makers are a lot more pleasant than,say, Russians. 

 

I certainly think other cultures are more proud of their history. I don't see Turks prostrating themselves over the Armenian genocide, or the Japs their war crimes. My feeling of when politicians like Cameron or Bliar decide to apologize on my behalf for our history, is one of mystification. I have no idea why someone would be sorry for things that were entirely normal at the time. 

If veganism takes off and meat becomes illegal? Will I be an evil doing meat-eater in 50 years time?

[snaga 1,542]

[Hopeful 5,876]

2 minutes ago, snaga said:

Yep, most of the world probably sees us as a bunch of silly arses full of hot air

[Virgil Caine 4,157]

29 minutes ago, Libspero said:

 

So true.

The world sees Britain and it's constituent parts such as England, Scotland through the same old  stereotypes that have always existed.

Witness the international success of Downton Abbey

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/not-bad-for-a-small-island-that-no-one-listens-to-british-tv-exports-hit-12bn-8864779.html

What they are not interested in is UK multiculturalism.  No one outside Britain is really bothered about  any of the hyphenated British-Indian, British - African etc communities because they can all get the real thing elsewhere if they want it. 

Edited July 8 by Virgil Caine

[Sgt Hartman 6,233]

1 hour ago, PatronizingGit said:

Some tweets i saw a minute ago...this is probably the kind of women who cheers at 'anti-fascist' mobs...not realizing that she is categorizing people by, er, their ancestry. 

 

 

 

 

 

I'd say her problem is she ran a hostel. Go to a more historic type town and hotel, Bruges, Cologne etc, and the english seem much the same as anywhere else. A hostel in a stag party town, of course you are going to have to host lairy, drunk guys. I wouldnt say the English are the best behaved, but in my experience, English holiday makers are a lot more pleasant than,say, Russians. 

 

I certainly think other cultures are more proud of their history. I don't see Turks prostrating themselves over the Armenian genocide, or the Japs their war crimes. My feeling of when politicians like Cameron or Bliar decide to apologize on my behalf for our history, is one of mystification. I have no idea why someone would be sorry for things that were entirely normal at the time. 

If veganism takes off and meat becomes illegal? Will I be an evil doing meat-eater in 50 years time?

I'd like to direct Ms Malin to Kuta beach in Bali or many other areas in SE Asia popular with bogan Aussie tourists. The Australians in these places are some of the worst of the worst. I've seen it with my own eyes.

I'd imagine looking after British stags in Budapest is thoroughly grim however I'm absolutely fucked if I'm taking lectures on British tourist behaviour from an Aussie after some of the shit I've seen from them.

For the record, the worst tourists in general are the Russians and mainland Chinese. If I found myself in a hotel abroad with that lot, I'd probably bin it off and go home.

Edited July 8 by Sgt Hartman

[Austin Allegro 5,256]

Oddly enough I was speaking to a Greek gentleman the other day, who has lived in London for a couple of years. He was all for Brexit, thought the Brits had the right idea and said his own country had been f*cked over by the EU, particularly Germany. 

I have found this attitude fairly common  with EU-ers who are not part of the EU gravy train or who have not lived in London long enough to be sucked into the pro-EU London mindset. 

In other matters, I have found foreigners to be very admiring of Britain and its culture and traditions, with little or no interest in all the things we are told we must love about Britain such as multi-culti and the NHS. They also tend to see Britain as still an important world power. Again, this changes when said foreigners move to Britain and start to absorb the cultural self-hatred of the ruling classes, particularly in academia. 

[spygirl 8,690]

13 minutes ago, Sgt Hartman said:

I'd like to direct Ms Malin to Kuta beach in Bali or many other areas in SE Asia popular with bogan Aussie tourists. The Australians in these places are some of the worst of the worst. I've seen it with my own eyes.

I'd imagine looking after British stags in Budapest is thoroughly grim however I'm absolutely fucked if I'm taking lectures on British tourist behaviour from an Aussie after some of the shit I've seen from them.

For the record, the worst tourists in general are the Russians and mainland Chinese. If I found myself in a hotel abroad with that lot, I'd probably bin it off and go home.

Nope.

Worse are mainland chinese in a hotel with a buffet eatery.

Fuck.

[MrPin 3,580]

2 hours ago, Frank Hovis said:

I know some Germans call us "island monkeys"; as in not proper compliant Europeans but always wanting to be different.

I think the general worldview is a mixture of a historical theme park with being a middle ranking modern economy and fairly prosperous.

Similar to how we view Japan.

We are exactly like Japan. A small island driving on the other side of the road, with a healthy obsession with large girls in school uniforms.

[Sgt Hartman 6,233]

9 minutes ago, spygirl said:

Nope.

Worse are mainland chinese in a hotel with a buffet eatery.

Fuck.

Been there, seen that.

It's like a shoal of piranhas descending upon a floating corpse, except with less manners.

[mooncat69 719]

16 minutes ago, spygirl said:

Nope.

Worse are mainland chinese in a hotel with a buffet eatery.

Fuck.

When I was in Japan, the Chinese stood out a mile and generally seemed very rude. Mind you, the countries are completely different. I found China quite frightening, especially the communist authority figures. It was quite 1984 in places.

I've noticed that lots of airports now have signs in Chinese as well as English. Is this a recent thing?

[MrPin 3,580]

1 minute ago, mooncat69 said:

When I was in Japan, the Chinese stood out a mile and generally seemed very rude. Mind you, the countries are completely different. I found China quite frightening, especially the communist authority figures. It was quite 1984 in places.

I've noticed that lots of airports now have signs in Chinese as well as English. Is this a recent thing?

Chinese aren't as polite as the Japanese. The Koreans are very funny (I mean they have a good sense of humour!)

[No Duff (troll) 3]

Posh resort restaurant fills up with Russian mafiaosa and their kids.  Out comes the portable DVD players and games at full volume drowning out the musician.  Ask the staff to do something and they wet their pants.

[Happy Renting 3,974]

They all hate Britain and the British, which is why they all want to come and live here.

[wherebee 4,833]

I have travelled a lot and lived in a lot of places amongst natives.  

In my experience, the rest of the world still sees the Uk as:

• white (I have had several funny reactions when I say that London is less than half native white british now)
• english speaking
• edcuated
• law abiding
• have a sense of fair play
• the monarchy
• britpop/beatles
• truth telling - the So-Called BBC is almost universally seen as beyond reproach
• peaceful

however, some of the world - such as china - still remember the actions of the empire and think that underneath the civil veneer are a bunch of muderous killers who will knick your resources.  

 

Very very few foreigners understand ANY of the challenges facing the UK.

[JoeDavola 6,812]

Classy English ladies, out for a night at the theatre. Fine british stock:

[spygirl 8,690]

3 minutes ago, JoeDavola said:

Classy English ladies, out for a night at the theatre. Fine british stock:

I did see that and wondered about posting it.

The white trouser suit one is horrenodous.

She appears to have a crap boob job - the skin is way tooo tight.

The, to accentuate the boobs crapness, the tattoo.

 

[JoeDavola 6,812]

Just now, spygirl said:

I did see that and wondered about posting it.

The white trouser suit one is horrenodous.

She appears to have a crap boob job - the skin is way tooo tight.

The, to accentuate the boobs crapness, the tattoo.

It's fairly representative of what you see wandering around a UK town on a Friday and Saturday night.

Overweight. Self-mutilation in the form of crap tattoos. Loads of makeup. Resting bitch face.

Be still my beating heart. 

[One percent 19,896]

4 minutes ago, spygirl said:

I did see that and wondered about posting it.

The white trouser suit one is horrenodous.

She appears to have a crap boob job - the skin is way tooo tight.

The, to accentuate the boobs crapness, the tattoo.

 

That’ll sort itself out with time. 

Wtf has she got tattooed under the plastic breat plate?