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Are we still on with this? Has anyone found Tony the Tiger yet?
km79 - MemberI do work in such industry. Trust me, there is nothing amazing about 'only' having one fatality in a project of that size. Not in this country anyway.
The accident rate was under half the industry average for this country.
Whiile, the giddy heights of the summer of 2012 might be the peak of Britain's greatness for some 😕
For me it's all been downhill since the encroachment of the Danelaw
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We had a vote,we're out of the EU
You sure about that? Last time I checked we were still a member...
This may be a quite uncomfortable thing for people who don't work in heavy industry but actually it was an amazing achievement.
No deaths would not even be an amazing achievement. I am not aware of any building project having an acceptable death rate- yes they happen but its,almost, always the result of failure somewhere as the point is for no one to die- even then its not amazing its just well executed.
It may be "acceptable" or to be expected but its not amazing.
Anyway zero does not equal one and jamby was wrong as usual even if he thinks they mean the same
I aim to show the difference by hoofing him in the slats once and him doing it zero times to me 😉
"@clod I wasn't aware of the ONE fatality. Point still very much valid, thanks for backing up my point. Only 1 fatality on a construction project of that size is a spectacular achievement."
'Point still valid'? Are you for ****ing real? 😯
Yes, it's a 'spectacular achievement' that [u]2[/u] human lives were lost as a direct consequence of the games. Yes, 2 lives, not zero, not one. Two.
Enough of your revisionism, Jamby. We're sick of it.
The thing I hardly ever see mentioned is the fact that we buy most of our food from the EU. The Adam Smith Institute guy I heard on the radio the other day seems to be of the opinion that Europe wouldn't dare impose trading conditions on us that would see a massive hike in food prices here. His logic was that they need our business; we can always buy our food elsewhere e.g. Kenya. Is it just me who finds this unlikely as well as morally repugnant?
What little food we do grow here is largely picked by EU workers. I guess the plan is to chuck these people out and get the longterm unemployed to do the job instead? Hmmmm...
we can always buy our food elsewhere e.g. Kenya. Is it just me who finds this unlikely as well as morally repugnant?
We do already import a lot of salad from Kenya.....
I guess the plan is to chuck these people out and get the longterm unemployed to do the job instead?
When you say Plan, this would be the 'official one' where we just say 'Two world wars and one world cup' and everything just miraculously sorts itself out, including the rotting fruit left in the fields....
Great Britain?
Well, not too long ago we managed to host a global sporting event. We made people from around the world welcome, revelled in our diversity AND somehow made the trains to and from the Olympic stadium function.
We made people from around the world welcome, revelled in our diversity
Don't worry, we're rapidly correcting all those horrible mistakes.
The 52% are working tirelessly to make GB an unwelcoming as possible: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-racism-uk-post-referendum-racism-hate-crime-eu-referendum-racism-unleashed-poland-racist-a7160786.html
The thing I hardly ever see mentioned is the fact that we buy most of our food from the EU.
I don't. I reckon 80% of my food is UK produced.
Sorry for getting all dictionary pedantic on you on a Friday, but there is more than one meaning to "great" through history and you are all assuming the modern meaning.
My understanding is that the "Great" in Great Britain did not originally refer to the level awesomeness possessed by the country, but the size of the combined unit ? I think the term was coined when all the bits joined up.
It is an interesting topic for a square like me - I have often pondered at what point we stop referring to "New" Zealand - and just go with Zealand or the preferable "Aoteoroa". I mean, it was first spotted by a white guy in 1642 - hardly new any more ?
And if Texas votes to go it alone - will USA become the "Disunited States of America" ?
[I]We might be able to deliver an Olympics; we can't, however, build a new nuclear power station without French engineering and Chinese money, and promising them double the rate per[/I]
Ahhh, seems we can't even do it WITH them..
[I]I don't. I reckon 80% of my food is UK produced. [/I]
Eh, do you live on barley and potatoes? 😉
Ahhh, seems we can't even do it WITH them...
even after offering then the highest electricity prices on the planet, guaranteed for 30 years!
Only 'Great' Britain can manage such epic incompetence and still think it's Great!
Eh, do you live on barley and potatoes?
No.
Meat and veg mainly.
All of my meat is UK sourced, except I will at times buy imported bacon.
The majority of my veg is UK produced and seasonal, I'm tight and I like veg to taste good.
It isn't hard to buy UK produced food.
I don't. I reckon 80% of my food is UK produced.
Eh, do you live on barley and potatoes?
80% might be pushing it but I reckon a pretty high percentage of mine is home produced. My wine consumption tips the balance though.
revelled in our diversity
With that in mind this is what happens when you stifle diversity:
[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36916431 ]Inbreeding[/url]
A couple of months back I think we were the 6th biggest economy in the world, then we slipped to 7th...
So would getting back to 6th be great?
Aparrently we are fifth
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/022415/worlds-top-10-economies.asp
Huzzah!
Londons fifth the rest is just a ****ing nuisance
Apparently 64% of Food sold in the UK is produced in the UK but it's probably less as ingredients are imported
Hilary and Donald have been shouting it about the US too... (was it ever called Great America?)
To me it's just a soundbite phrase that makes idiots wave their hands and yell.
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I think where food ingredients are produced is more relevant to the argument than where it is processed and packaged. I would guess the figure is more like 20%. Depends if you measure food by volume, retail or source value or calories though.
Anyone else fancy clubbing together and buying a small island somewhere to stay until the Brexit/Trump dust settles?
I'm in.
Reading through the above I think loddrick's quote
How far back are we talking? Do you mean dog shit everywhere, 'NF' written all over busses and Lasagne as an exotic food great again?
is pretty spot on. Can anyone really identify a golden era where things were really "Great"? I can't.
It's vital we have a certain proportion of our food imported from abroad, even for produce that we can produce ourselves. If we produced the vast majority of our food then in a year of drought or some environmental event, or something like mad cow disease that significantly ruins crops and slashes the amount of food we have available we would be in trouble. You can't just at short notice demand to import food. Global farmers are not overproducing, this stuff has to be grown months ahead of demand, so you'd be having to wait until next season before you saw the imports come in.
Bikini Atoll, going cheap...
When it comes to greatness, the last time the UK demonstrated that was the Falklands War IMO. Unfortunately it was the tail end of greatness and it could easily have gone the other way.
It was the end of greatness because it made it plainly obvious that the country was seen as getting weak by those who would not have dared that sort of attack any time in the preceding 100 years.
lunge - Member
I genuinely believe Britain is better now than it has been at any other point of history. We have a high life expectancy than we ever have, infant mortality is lower, standard of living are higher, generally, we're in a good place.Yes there are thinks that could change and be improved, but to look at the 50's (or 60's/70's/80's) and say it was "better" then is just plain naive.
Exactly, although I will concede that there are many people who feel 'left behind' and there are many depressing places around the country.
Having said that, those that have been 'left behind' are still living in far better conditions than the poor of recent decades.
My grandparents rented a house with an outside toilet, single-glazed windows and no central heating, up until they died at around the age of 80 in the mid-1980s. My grandad's only foreign trips were courtesy of the British Army in the 1940s
(a venture that was successful thanks to the contributions of the USA and the Soviet Union, don't forget)
-They were working class and had a very modest income, but would not liked to have considered themselves POOR as they could afford to eat.
They would be amazed at how things have advanced in the past 30 years.
Can anyone really identify a golden era where things were really "Great"? I can't.
Its just something that happens as you get old, peoples spectacles get ever more rose tinted
hence why all them oldies decided that back in the day b4 we were all ruled by brussles technocrats it was all lovely so they voted to turn back the clock
It isn't hard to buy UK produced food.
But its gets harder if everyone else wants or has to do it
the sun never set on the British Empire in Victorian times
This is a misunderstood saying. It simply means that the Empire covered so much of the world's surface that there was always some bit of it in daylight.
And don't get me started on the "What's so Great about Great Britain" wilful misunderstanders.
"Make Britain great again" really means "proud" again. That means not saying sorry when somebody steps on your toe.
Britain was the one country in Europe that came out of WW2 with dignity intact (if Britain had sued for peace in 1940 then the Nazis would probably still rule over most of Europe. Of course it was the US and Soviets who largely won it). The rest of Europe has had to reshape its attitudes to its neighbours after the war, Britain has not. It is our general low opinion of other nations that means we only listen to negative messages about them. A lot of us read the Daily Mail, forgetting that it thought Hitler the bees knees right up until 3rd Sept 1939 and hasn't had a good thing to say about any European citizen since.
Britain won't be great again in the way it used to. Globalism has put paid to that. We were great historically because who took control of power and wealth away from the church and monarchy (centuries before other nations did) and by and large managed to appoint competent and incorruptible people to run the whole show. And had most of our raw materials supplied by slave labour of course.
Nico - MemberThis is a misunderstood saying. It simply means that the Empire covered so much of the world's surface that there was always some bit of it in daylight.
Yes. I think that most people understand that, don't they?
And don't get me started on the "What's so Great about Great Britain" wilful misunderstanders."Make Britain great again" really means "proud" again. That means not saying sorry when somebody steps on your toe.
but isn't that what makes Britain great? -similarly for somebody spilling their pint on you. Oh, and queueing too?
It's Friday - LETS GET PISSED!
Binge Drinking, what truly makes us Great.
Britain won't be great again in the way it used to. Globalism has put paid to that. We were great historically because who took control of power and wealth away from the church and monarchy (centuries before other nations did) and by and large managed to appoint competent and incorruptible people to run the whole show.
Yes. Living on a big island provided some defence/isolation at times, although there have been conquerors.
Living on this big island also required that we needed decent boats if we wanted to go out and conquer. As technology improved, we built a formidable navy to do so.
Our climate and geology helped us too.
The relative lack of day-to-day and large-scale corruption in the UK is interesting.
If you define Great as being how much we contribute to the world rather than how much we take, then we're heading in completely the wrong direction at the moment....
The relative lack of day-to-day and large-scale corruption in the UK is interesting.
Still plenty about, it's just not as blatantly illegal as in places like Nigeria. Large corporates spend 100s of £m lobbying HMG to get laws passed / changed. We allow billionaires to own huge estate of Media and have undue influence etc. Corrupt but technically legal.
footflaps - Member
If you define Great as being how much we contribute to the world rather than how much we take, then we're heading in completely the wrong direction at the moment....
The balance of trade used to be broadcast on the news in the old days. I don't recall hearing about it much in recent times.
footflaps - Member
Still plenty about, it's just not as blatantly illegal as in places like Nigeria. Large corporates spend 100s of £m lobbying HMG to get laws passed / changed. We allow billionaires to own huge estate of Media and have undue influence etc. Corrupt but technically legal.
Hence my use of the word , "relative".
The UK is relatively uncorrupt, especially in day-to-day life/interaction with public officials etc.
but isn't that what makes Britain great? -similarly for somebody spilling their pint on you. Oh, and queueing too?
It's certainly a charming quality, if not unique to these islands.
The only reason Britain is "Great" is to distinguish the largest island in the British Isles from other definitions of Britain.
As for people understanding the sun setting bit, many people seem to think that it means it will go on forever like the 1000 year Reich, and use that as a tool to ridicule the Victorians for their arrogance.
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Aristotle - Member
...The relative lack of day-to-day and large-scale corruption in the UK is interesting.
Large scale at the top end is blatantly obvious. The middle classes aren't though. One of the nice things about Britain is the basic decency of most people.
When it comes to greatness, the last time the UK demonstrated that was the Falklands War IMO.
I have to admit to feeling proud at the time of what our forces achieved down there. But, I think it's a shame that greatness is so often linked with military prowess.
This kind of challenge makes us great.
...and I'd stand in line to kick him in the nuts until my foot was sore.
slowoldman - Member
...I think it's a shame that greatness is so often linked with military prowess.
I was living in Australia at the time. None of the media gave the UK a chance. It may have been a military action, but the response of the country to adversity raised the UK's plummeting prestige in at least our part of the world.
Well its a shame this how the world perceives us just now:
Meanwhile, the world stares at Britain and sees a drunk, dank rock crawling with Shrek-faced bigots and delusional schoolboys in grownup suits
No, thats how a not very good Scottish novelist who writes for the Guardian sees us
If you look at more impartial sources, like those that are actually from abroad, then you will see that the reaction is generally, well, mixed, but certainly not all negative:
Nipper99 - Member
Well its a shame this how the world perceives us just now:Meanwhile, the world stares at Britain and sees a drunk, dank rock crawling with Shrek-faced bigots and delusional schoolboys in grownup suits
POSTED 1 HOUR AGO #
Rather a bizarre comment to say this is how the world perceives us "just now" backed up with a rather puerile piece from a rather puerile writer in a rapidly declining newspaper.
As a more serious genuine and truly observant social commentator would say :
“There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.”