What is the point of the island of Great Britain

[canadagoose]

Just wondering. What is the point of this weird place from Wick to Aberdeen to Edinburgh to Newcastle to Hull to ahh fuck it can't be bothered to do the rest. Why is it so dull and shit and right-wing. Why would anyone stay here. I've seen folk who have citizenships elsewhere and yet they hang about on big muddy lump in the North Sea. What's with it? Don't get it mate. Just go elsewhere and enjoy your life. I've been here 31 years of my 32 and I can't be bothered any more. How about I do a piss until Scotland disintegrates below our feet and we all fall into the sea like a bunch of OCH NOOOO fucks in the water. That'll do.

[canadagoose]

Just wondering. What is the point of this weird place from Wick to Aberdeen to Edinburgh to Newcastle to Hull to ahh fuck it can't be bothered to do the rest. Why is it so dull and shit and right-wing. Why would anyone stay here. I've seen folk who have citizenships elsewhere and yet they hang about on big muddy lump in the North Sea. What's with it? Don't get it mate. Just go elsewhere and enjoy your life. I've been here 31 years of my 32 and I can't be bothered any more. How about I do a piss until Scotland disintegrates below our feet and we all fall into the sea like a bunch of OCH NOOOO fucks in the water. That'll do.

SCOATLAND FORIVER

Nah pal just pissed into it and it disintegrated, sorry like

[Johnny Yesno]

The Lizard.

[canadagoose]

The Lizard.

Piss on it, it'll be gone in a few days

[Blumf]

The Isle of Man would seem a bit too weird without it.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

It's just because we are cursed by living here to understand our problems deeply. If you moved abroad you would, after a time, develop hates and those might help add context. Overall there are at least 150 countries I would rather not be living in versus the UK. That will still be the case even in the glorious 8th term of Tory rule in 2040.

[Buelligan]

It's just because we are cursed by living here to understand our problems deeply. If you moved abroad you would, after a time, develop hates and those might help add context.

Heheh, yeah, must be great to live in Great Britain where there is no hate.  You should write a report on it.

[ImmaculateClump]

The grass is always greener.
What's wrong with our grass? Proper British grass.
EAT YOUR GRASS!

[Paul Calf]

Heheh, yeah, must be great to live in Great Britain where there is no hate.  You should write a report on it.

I don't think he said that. Quite the opposite, in fact.

[Paul Calf]

I mean, I don't agree really. I think the UK, while not unique in its embrace of hate and division, is definitely on the fast track along with nations like Hungary, Turkey, India, Brazil and of course, the US. But 150 countries is more than a three quarters of the nations in the world, and I really would struggle to name that many that - language and legal barriers aside - I'd consider less viable places to live with a worse quality of life than the UK; it's not in the top 25%.

[Buelligan]

I don't think he said that. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I've possibly lived out of the anglosphere too long to understand English or is it humour? 

[El Unicornio, mang]

Like a lot of ex-pats, when I lived in the US I did miss it a lot. Even just seeing a jar of Sarson's in the British section at Publix would make me long to return.

Now I've been back over 3 years, I'm pretty eager to get out again. The things I missed were mostly trivial little things, kind of like when you have nostalgia for the past but if you went back you'd realise it was a bit shit and you're just cherry-picking these little highlights. But I know I'd always miss it to some degree, wherever I went.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

There we are. Familiarity breeds contempt.

But 150 countries is more than a three quarters of the nations in the world, and I really would struggle to name that many that - language and legal barriers aside - I'd consider less viable places to live with a worse quality of life than the UK; it's not in the top 25%.

Obviously there's a big difference in the quality of your surroundings whether you're living in Henley or Darlington but what are you actually basing this on? There are so many metrics in terms of average salary, the cost of living, amount of accessible green space, healthcare, childcare, working hours, paid holiday, life expectancy, infrastructure etc. I'm going off people wanting a regular existence too, not moving somewhere just because it's sunny and fewer people are there.

It isn't to say the UK doesn't have its problems but we are comfortably in the top quarter of all countries on the globe. That isn't showing off, that's how shit the world is.

I did a tot up, yep, comfortably in the top 25% and very similar to much of those in the 25% too.

[bgmnts]

I mean there is no piece of land which is like less cunty than the others. Its not like britain was built on an ancient burial ground of the natives and so is cursed to be shit or anything.

If its not shit here it'll be shit somewhere else I suppose. Just have to try and change our patch of land for the better right?

[TrenterPercenter]

If its not shit here it'll be shit somewhere else I suppose. Just have to try and change our patch of land for the better right?

Absolutely and that is the spirit (though working internationally to do this is key imo).

I was speaking to a developer I'm currently working with who is just in the process of getting his British citizenship; he is originally from Romania and he was telling how illiberal it still is around homosexuality; racism; women's rights (a lot to do with the church and religious hold it still has over society).  We both have a healthy dislike of the Tories and Brexit etc but he was still pointing out many Brits don't seem to realise how lucky they are (of course why they are so lucky is another question).  Of course that doesn't mean experiences are uniform within countries this what inequality does.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Likewise, my partner's friend came from Romania and is now fully naturalised with British citizenship. You couldn't get her to go back to live there if you paid her. Obviously there are so many things to dislike about the UK and she spends a lot of time talking about them, but there is a clear distance between the problems for ordinary Romanians and our own (even though overall I have found British people have an overly negative, almost ridiculously outdated stereotype of Romania).

[Buelligan]

I work with quite a few Romanians (outside pandemic hours), they all love Romania - at least 50%, more(of the ones I've worked with), definitely want to live in Romania.  They come to France to earn money and to see what the world outside Romania is like - these are poor people, not gap year kids.  They're also, the ones I've met, intelligent and open-minded.  The greatest problem they face without any doubt at all is poverty.

There's plenty of that in the UK and elsewhere.

[thenoise]

Basically clinging on to the fact that comedy was quite good here 20 years ago.

[TrenterPercenter]

I work with quite a few Romanians (outside pandemic hours), they all love Romania - at least 50%, more(of the ones I've worked with), definitely want to live in Romania.  They come to France to earn money and to see what the world outside Romania is like - these are poor people, not gap year kids.  They're also, the ones I've met, intelligent and open-minded.  The greatest problem they face without any doubt at all is poverty.

There's plenty of that in the UK and elsewhere.

This guy I'm talking about still loves Romania; it's home.  He is just not keen on aspects of the society specifically regarding aspects of social justice; which what I think a lot of people are complaining about in the UK; He said when he gets naturalised he is going to be 51% British 49% Romania and the reason being in his words "if I'm on a plane and something kicks off it's better to be British as you think anyone is going to care about any Romanians".  He is joking of course but he is making a good point about British exceptionalism (as mention why the Brits have been so lucky is absolutely worthy of discussion).

[evilcommiedictator]

The point is either the towns of Lizard or Sennen, now LET THEM FIGHT FOR THE TITLE!

[Mister Six]

I've possibly lived out of the anglosphere too long to understand English or is it humour?

He said that the person in question would develop hates about any country they move to for a sufficiently long period of time, nothing about how much hatred is present in any particular country.

I've lived in Dubai, Beijing and now the US. All more extreme in their authoritarianism than the UK, but I still buckle at moving back to Britain. Maybe it's just that I feel more responsible for, or connected to, the shitness of the UK. But there's also a feeling like England in particular is a smaller, more mean and squalid place. It's the pettiness that bothers me. I'd rather live where I do, with knife, gun and axe (!) crime nearby, than be in some little suburban hole with curtain-twitching gammony cunts lurking about, saying horrible things about anyone who's not a Brexit-voting white old piece of shit.

I understand that this is not a rational position.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Yeah you're right I'll just move. I will tell the wife in a mo.

[Twit 2]

Whole world is a marble dipped in shit, best it rolls into the astral drain. I wouldn't even live in Bora Bora in a thatched palace. I went to Romania once, reckon the stray dogs there had it right: short life expectancy, count the exposed ribs while you wait to die.

[Paul Calf]

It's interesting to see how even people who haven't swallowed the nationalist kool-aid see Britain's position as a top-table favoured nation with basic social cares and a vaguely social democratic government as a permanent, unchanging axiom of international politics. Even as aristocrats plunder the NHS and what remains of the Welfare State, we cling to this idea. Even as Britain's credit rating is devalued again and again, and Britain slips further down the list of wealthiest nations, even as senior elected officials speak unabashed eugenics, openly experiment on the population and kill about a quarter of a million people, this image of a wealthy Britain where no-one will be allowed to starve or die of preventable illnesses persists.

Is it because we need to believe that Britain cannot radically change for the worse?

[Paul Calf]

Whole world is a marble dipped in shit, best it rolls into the astral drain. I wouldn't even live in Bora Bora in a thatched palace. I went to Romania once, reckon the stray dogs there had it right: short life expectancy, count the exposed ribs while you wait to die.

I've always wanted to go to Romania but the prospect of dying in the gutter in a backstreet of Bucharest, ravaged by starving dogs, is a major factor in my not having been there.

[BlodwynPig]

It's just because we are cursed by living here to understand our problems deeply. If you moved abroad you would, after a time, develop hates and those might help add context. Overall there are at least 150 countries I would rather not be living in versus the UK. That will still be the case even in the glorious 8th term of Tory rule in 2040.

small p patriot

[BlodwynPig]

I've always wanted to go to Romania but the prospect of dying in the gutter in a backstreet of Bucharest, ravaged by starving dogs, is a major factor in my not having been there.

Hope this is a joke*

*it's Moldova where you will be gutter fucked by starving dogs, racist.

[Fr.Bigley]

Romania really is a shithole, as is the majority of Slovakia..I'd rather live in a hybrid city of Hull/Luton than ever visit such places again. Uk is a miserable place, but not as miserable as those places.

[bgmnts]

I've always wanted to go to Romania but the prospect of dying in the gutter in a backstreet of Bucharest, ravaged by starving dogs, is a major factor in my not having been there.

Bit racist as fuck this no? Are there no decent places in Romania?

[Paul Calf]

Bit racist as fuck this no? Are there no decent places in Romania?

Loads. The Carpathians are amazing and the countryside and history, especially in the west of the country is astounding.  But Bucharest has a massive problem with feral stray dogs.