Proud to be BRITISH?

rivonia

rivonia

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Makes me feel a bit better on a grumpy day


Being British really does open doors! UK passport holders can visit 173 countries without a visa
Passports
The UK’s citizens are on a par with those from Finland and Sweden for visa-free access - while nine out of the top ten in a new index are European Union countries.

Peter
 
Sorry, but I just don't see that as a source of pride. It's just a fact.
Mind you, I think the same in terms of Nelson, The Few, etc, etc. Since I didn't contribute in even the slightest way to any of their achievements, I see no logical reason why I should feel any pride in them. Respect is another matter.
 
OR4751 said:
Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it.
George Bernard Shaw

Each nation feels superior to other nations. That breeds patriotism - and wars.
Dale Carnegie
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[Britain has] "A misplaced sense of superiority, sustained by delusions of grandeur and a tenacious obsession with the last war."
(Nick Clegg). Whatever one thinks of him as a politician, that description fits, IMO.

When I first went permanently abroad as an expatriate a lifetime or two ago, the conception of an Englishman was one of a gentleman with high standards of tolerance and fair play; a person of character and quality. It took a long time to die out, even through the years of football hooliganism, when exported abroad. But now I think that image (never very accurate) has finally become defunct, replaced by the primitive, tattooed and pierced, binge-drinking, lager-lout Brit, causing mayhem wherever he gathers in tribal groups throughout the world. To observe them at play is truly cringeworthy.

I now travel everywhere on my Swiss passport (not easy to obtain from a country practicing more democracy than the UK) and avoid being associated with the Brit abroad. Visa-free access has never been a problem in the many countries I travelled to on business and pleasure and certainly not any reason for patriotism and pride. The oft-repeated quotation from Dr Johnson: "patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel" rings so true despite interpretation that what he meant was false patriotism.
 
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There are Americans who wear T-shirts with slogans "American by birth - Texan (or whichever State) by the grace of God". Of course, Political Correctness would prevent this in UK; witness the banning of the A.B.E. (Anybody But England) shirts at the last Scotland/England rugby match in Edinburgh.
 
1940 is a long time ago now, but tenacious obsession with freedom certainly helped then.

The politically correct do seem to take pride in their lack of pride.
 
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rivonia said:
Oh dear I really did not intend to start such a vociferous discussion. I was just GRUMPY and felt good reading about the good old British Passport.

Peter
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Oh dear

This could get messy , i smell a locked then deleted thread coming on !

For what its worth : most countries have their own issues , Britain has its problems but airing them here is pointless , am i personally proud to be British ? I would say in general yes i am proud ( and privileged ) to be from a country that has a democracy and a high standard of life style - of course how we got there is HIGHLY questionable and as pointed out by someone else we are living on a false sense of superiority that i find highly amusing .

(There are much nicer countries out there , but many more that are **** !)

Like that russian fella said " a small insignificant island that everyone ignores "
 
tri39 said:
Has all the Nazi gold in Swiss banks been traced yet!?
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I have no idea. I do know compensation has been pursued for all claims of stolen assets and Swiss banks are anxious to redeem their tarnished reputations over a very dubious history perpetrated by those involved who are no longer even alive.

So aware of cleaning up their act are they that foreign accounts, no matter how innocent, have been closed. I have ex-business colleagues throughout the world for whom I assisted in enabling Swiss accounts to facilitate perfectly legal negotiations, complaining to me, now retired, of this action.

Certainly more reparations have been enacted by Swiss banks for stolen gold than was returned by the Bank of England when the gold assets stolen from the Czech National Bank were passed to them by the Reichsbank and subsequently sold.
 
ribrage said:
For what its worth : most countries have their own issues , Britain has its problems but airing them here is pointless , am i personally proud to be British ? I would say in general yes i am proud ( and privileged ) to be from a country that has a democracy and a high standard of life style - of course how we got there is HIGHLY questionable and as pointed out by someone else we are living on a false sense of superiority that i find highly amusing .

(There are much nicer countries out there , but many more that are **** !)
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Wow, that is spot on for how I feel about being an American. In any case, you all should be proud, it's a great country and I thank you for being our friends even when we don't deserve it.
 
Ludd said:
Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel ! ( Quote,but I forget who by----Oscar Wilde, maybe?)
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No, that was "The unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable" (He was referring to an anchor thread at the time.)

See post #7 and go to the back of the class.

Incidentally Johnson thought simple patriotism a fine quality; his objection was to 'false patriotism' of the kind manipulative politicians are wont to employ, notably (in Johnson's view) Edmund Burke. Another man of letters disagreed with Johnson about "last refuge": With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit it is the first.
Perhaps the only quote we might agree on is William Ralph Inge's, written just after WW1: Patriotism varies, from a noble devotion to a moral lunacy.
 
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rivonia said:
Makes me feel a bit better on a grumpy day


Being British really does open doors! UK passport holders can visit 173 countries without a visa
Passports
The UK’s citizens are on a par with those from Finland and Sweden for visa-free access - while nine out of the top ten in a new index are European Union countries.

Peter
Click to expand...

Einstein called nationalism an infantile disease.
 
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