Ask a Brit!

[livkx]

As in, historically, what are your thoughts on the way the British Empire worked, it's policies and the
different ways you think it may have positively or negatively affected the modern day UK.

That's what I was trying to say, basically.

I wanna answer one so here goes,

My stance on it is, the way the world used to work was some-what based on who has the biggest army. This lead to Britain being a major power, ruling over colonies thousands of miles away. However, this did cause the birth of the slave trade, which I personally find as something atrocious. Alternatively, our colonies brought about things like Tea and Sugar for Britain, which shaped today.

My personal opinion. For all the goof they brought, they caused a shot ton of bloodshed and slavery, all of which I don't see as "worth it" for a few colonies.

I wanna answer your answer so here I go,

The British Empire saw all right to do it as they had power, We gave civilisation to tribes which caused tons of civil wars today, We lost our empires due to the bloody World Wars. The colonies wanted new democracy and not high tax which is why we have the commonwealth which Is a stupid group of countries who have a commonwealth games for 0 reason.

Such an ignorant answer, you can't class that as an answer when it's so wrong. That is an opinionated answer not factual, but even then if you think that's how and is how it works, then you can't really have a proper opinion on the matter.

[Faustie]

I can speak from personal experience that the NHS is fantastic. Yes, they have cuts, but they manage extraordinarily well. There are a couple of terrible hospitals that seem to drag the national average down, but on the whole it's one of the best systems in the world. If your condition is serious you'll be seen quickly, and a fantastic suite of doctors, nurses, and surgery theatres will be at your disposal in an emergency (and it won't even bankrupt you!). A lot of people like to complain about NHS waiting times and care because they've had to wait in pain in an A&E waiting room for 3-4 hours with a broken arm. So f*cking what? There are people coming in to A&E who're having heart attacks, strokes or actual serious injuries and would very possibly die in the 4 hours you have to wait in pain. The triage system works 99% of the time. And despite the cuts, the doctors, nurses, orderlies, and support staff are nearly all fantastic; and contrary to Mr Farage's belief, many of the best doctors are immigrants.

Yes, of course there are outliers and some serious problems in the system, but it doesn't mean that the NHS isn't one of the best health services in the world.

And tea is the only drink. I love it.

I'm interested in hearing what a few fellow Brits' views are on self defence here though. Seems you can't even put up a barbed wire fence without being told to take it down because a burglar hurts himself on it. Knives are very prevalent, but there's never been any talking of allowing citizens any possible means of self defence other than "call the rozzas n wait 10 mins m8".

[Cujo]

-snip-

 "call the rozzas n wait 10 mins m8"~xX_Davo-CazZza-XxX, King of London

[James_Gaff]

Faustie

I somewhat disagree with the self defence statement. The was I see it, personally, is that there are those dumb fools that would decide to "defend" themselves against that knife wielding maniac with fists. That's gonna get them hurt more than if they'd just given them their money and allowed the judicial system to take care of it.

[DVN]

1. Do you like your own country?
2. Do you like your accents?
3. Do you wish that the old colonies (especially USA) were still part of the UK?

1. Yes, I'm lucky to live in the UK.
2. Don't mind them.
3. Nope, as said in previous statements the relationships we currently have are solid and loyal, I think if we took over and ran too much it would cause more problems.

DVN
As in, historically, what are your thoughts on the way the British Empire worked, it's policies and the
different ways you think it may have positively or negatively affected the modern day UK.

That's what I was trying to say, basically.

My thoughts are simple. I don't like some aspects of the British Empire, but I like some at the same time. I love the royal feeling and general reputation it gave us as a Country, although as stated in other points above this lead to enslavement of innocent, black males and females. This, in my opinion also played a huge part in racism/discrimination back then as well as today!

Do you enjoy tea, or did you say "*** you!" to the stereotype?

Let me sum it up, tea is aload of crap.

Please escort yourself to the door.

*Grabs him by the collar and shots him out the door*

[Barkles]

Heard someones disrespectin' the British cuppa?

I'll ave you know it's a tradition and I for one am proud to be a "tea drinking bastard"

[DVN]

Faustie

Self defence is such a touchy subject, and it shouldn't be.

Families that are well off, happy and generally do no wrong in the world are sometimes subject to low-life, scum, criminals of society and would have to endure horrible situations like robbery and more tragic incidents. I feel that if someone wrongfully enters your property, I think you should be permitted to use lethal force. The only reason people get penalised for using defence in their own home is because the justice system here is just too fucking soft.

That's a problem us Brit's have. Killers walk the streets after serving a maximum of 25 years after committing extreme crimes, and we let them roam free. I've always backed the idea of whatever the suspect/criminal did, and was found guilty of, it should be played out on them as punishment (e.g. Murder = Death Penalty).

[Dauntless]

Whats your opinion on Northern Ireland being part of the UK and the rest of Ireland leaving the UK? Would you prefer the British Isles to all be part of the UK or are you happy with Southern Irish Independence?

[dig]

Whats your opinion on Northern Ireland being part of the UK and the rest of Ireland leaving the UK? Would you prefer the British Isles to all be part of the UK or are you happy with Southern Irish Independence?

Not british, but wanna give my two cents anyhow
I think border-changes or even the transfer of land in a modern day society just do not work, if the UK ceded NI to the Republic of Ireland, that might stir trouble, if
you keep it within the boundaries of the UK, that might also stir trouble, but likely less then some sort of secession.

[Image: map8.jpg]

The world has so far evolved from the days when a map would change tens of thousands of times a decade, now even the slightest geopolitical shift could send a rupture
through that local or even global society.

Take a look at Crimea, a small province of Ukraine, annexed by the Russian Federation (Though not recognized as official by most) sent a rupture through the globe in the 21st
century, but in the 19th or 20th centuries? Annexations happened all the time and was common practice in the means of imperialism, times have changed and we really must stop
measuring and categorizing territories by their nationalities, as the only thing that seems to come of it is civil war and instability.

As for whether the British Isles should unite, direct above for my opinion on geo-political unification.

Economically, I suppose they are both pretty different in the sense that they use different currency, but other than that I do not quite see 
what would benefit either of the countries so much as to unite, but yeah just my opinion.

Also for anyone curious about Northern Ireland, TLDR: English & Scottish began settling the island next to Great Britain known as Ireland in the 1400s/1500s, eventually a large amount of the population in the north were protestant english/scotts and yeah, ulster became Northern Ireland after Ireland declared independence from the United Kingdom in the 1920s after a local referendum had the people vote whether to stay with the UK or leave, they voted to stay.
[Image: ireland_map1609.gif]

[Greed^]

How do you like your tea, with sugar, honey, or plain and bitter?