The English

One thing I want to know. Do any of you really say "water closet"?

Have changed incredibly, and in virtually every possible way, over the last 40 years: some old prejudices and attitudes die hard, but I think we've adapted to multi-culturalism and redefined ourselves better, and quicker, than many comparable countries.

I think we've adapted to multi-culturalism and redefined ourselves better, and quicker, than many comparable countries.

to what extent is this true??

the extent of own petard

my roommate's ex-girlfriend used to have a british roommate who video-chatted with her boyfriend (who was still in the UK) every night. one spring break we all went camping up at the beach and everyone ate some pot brownies and this english chick wouldnt cause i guess she was afraid, so instead she got WASTED and spent the night crying for her boyfriend and throwing up right outside my tent while my roommate's ex comforted her.

so, dud

qed

that's queued, to you

altho on the other hand i had a bro from england when i was living in spain who i hung out with a lot and then one day like 2 years later after not talking for a long time i ran into him in the middle of san francisco and it was pretty weird and awesome

Most Englishes I have come across in Aus have been awesome. I avoid places where Brit backpackers congregate tho, obv.

a family friend's daughter got engaged to one of these and brought him back here. lazy, ill-mannered slob. he needed a good foot up the arse.

We don't need the English.

Telling us what to be...

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/09/12/style/tmagazine/16english1.jpg

is that the beatles

close

is it parliament

lj family portrait

(lj, ken c, dog latin, ronan)

all as english as the queen

You sound like Mohammed Al Fayed

classic, because they are endless material for dave q rant-a-thons!

though strangely not on this thread

There's a wee bit of a rant upthread

"I think we've adapted to multi-culturalism and redefined ourselves better, and quicker, than many comparable countries."

to what extent is this true??

-- gershy, Thursday, February 21, 2008 3:39 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Link

lol.

i guess we're doing better than france or, you know, serbia.

Serbia seems to very welcoming of American nutjobs

I think we've adapted to multi-culturalism and redefined ourselves better, and quicker, than many comparable countries.

to what extent is this true??

See the Ronaldinho bottle opener thread (i.e. it is true)

RIP dave q, heaven needed a grumpy canadian to upset genteel message boards

Most Englishes I have come across in Aus have been awesome. I avoid places where Brit backpackers congregate tho, obv.

-- W4LTER, Thursday, 21 February 2008 04:16 (10 hours ago) Link

This was pretty much my experience when I was there (doing astrophysics, not backpacking). All the English people I met in academia or suburban Sydney were fine, but you get the worst kind of Englander in the city bars and clubs.

The Australians and South Africans I know in Oxford say the same thing: they enjoy talking to countrymen outside of London, but if they meet one in London they're pretty much guaranteed to be a cunt.

I have a couple of good Australian friends in London, and they tend to avoid their countrymen in this city. They went to a Walkabout for the first time recently, and said it was a harrowing experience.

I've been in one of those, harrowing about covers it

I went to a Walkabout in Newquay. Not cool.

Oh god, I've only been to the one on Upper Street, I can't imagine how awful one in Newquay must be.

I went once to the one in Reading.

Not all that 'populated by aussies' or so it seemed.

What's a Walkabout exactly? I've got an idea by context, but...

Is it anything like an Outback Steakhouse?

it's a chain of australian-themed sports bars in the uk

It's a hellhole of a pub, generally populated by desultory hellish Aussies and/or New Zealanders and/or Sarf Ifikans

Oh nooes, the "sports bar" part is even worse. At least an Outback Steakhouse is, at the worst, a noisy place where you can get a beer and a mediocre steak. Which isn't terrible by any means.

And no Australian would go near one, I imagine, except for comic relief.

No Australian who isn't a twat, yes.

and pato

I suppose it's useful if you want a venue in England where you can happily enjoy England losing at various sports; knowing that your fellow drinkers are probably enjoying it even more than you are

I've been to Walkabout in Bristol. I watched football and drank beer and ate ribs. Didn't see anything wrong with that tbh.

Oh wait, it's a dreaded "chain" - that'll explain why people suddenly don't like beer and ribs and football.

i don't like football. or loud aus/nz sports-fan dudes. i don't have a problem with chains.

The Walkabout off Tottenham Court Road is always full of Ozzies, so was the one in Lancaster. These are the two I have most familiarity with, and would like to see nailbombed.

Were you there at night tho? (xxp)

Has anyone ever been in a Springbok Bar? That one street in Covent Garden that has that pretty much next to a Walkabout = worst street in London.

never heard of Springbok, but I'm guessing it's the SA equivalent of Walkabout, am I right?

voluntary Apartheid, I say.

A Bokabout

Oh wait, it was a Springbok I went to in Newquay, not a Walkabout. The queue for the Walkabout was too long. Yeah, that was a good holiday.

Tom D, I was in said Walkabout with onimo and it was evening rather than the After Chucking Out Time session (although I had to do this once on a works' night out and it was as bad as you can imagine). SO and I once went in of a Sunday afternoon (may have been to try and catch a bit of a footy match before we went to the pictures?) and it was full of hen/stag parties trying to get a late breakfast as they carried on drinking through. One of them was sick on the floor, but there was no real effort by the staff to do anything about it.

Also, Bristol one has no Aussies therefore you can't even enjoy watching England lose in it. If there's a general rule, it seems to favour other sports more than football and is pretty much the only place you can consistently watch rugby league.

"I think we've adapted to multi-culturalism and redefined ourselves better, and quicker, than many comparable countries."

to what extent is this true??

-- gershy, Thursday, February 21, 2008 3:39 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Link

lol.

i guess we're doing better than australia or, you know, south africa.

every walkabout i've been to felt like an unloved train station pub -- if that's where you want to eat ribs, be my guest

walkabout is where fairground dj's work in the off-season.

"Screeeeeeeeeam if you wanna go faster. Cobber."

This thread has transformed into The English belittling members of their former colonies, and I think I had a hand in that. Heh.

Northampton has Bar Serengeti, which is where all the Nigerian and Ghanaians drink. Someone should franchise that.

i never did get round to going to the 'zulu bar' in leytonstone

"I think we've adapted to multi-culturalism and redefined ourselves better, and quicker, than many comparable countries."

There's been a sizeable dark-skinned population of immigrants in the UK since when, the 40's, 50's?

Pretty much: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Windrush

yeah, the 50s.

not sure if michael white is saying woah that's a long time, or a short one?

There's been a notable black prescence in Britain going all the way back to the 16th or 17th Century, I believe. But the 50s was when the black/asian population exploded.

That's Asian in the British sense, not the American one

There's been a notable black prescence in Britain going all the way back to the 16th or 17th Century, I believe. But the 50s was when the black/asian population exploded.

-- chap, Thursday, February 21, 2008 6:01 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

yeah, a very, very localized one, in the pre-democratic, pre-transport, pre-literacy era, so notable in a peculiar sense -- notable now more than then, i'd guess. also there were 'notable' chinese communities in the east end before the 50s; and obv the jewish population after the pogroms was regarded as 'other' also.

40s-70s immigration was bigger than these and less localized.

are you all still wearing boat-like shoes of wood, and going to the bathroom in the middle of those tall rocks?

That's only for Ned Raggett's benefit

Don't listen to these guys, USAers. Britain is exactly like "Four Weddings and a Funeral" Now come and spend some of that tourist cash, plz.

Taking off yer tops and hitting each other.

Because this thing is going to be here for months (and a vaccine is 18 months away) so they figured that if they start too soon people will just go "fuck this" and start spreading it again at the worst possible time.

From the outbreak thread - this is both amazing and feels completely true.

Also calzino's post over there did make me wonder if the refusal to have mixed hot and cold taps might be what finally does for this once-great race.