The UK is in every possible way somewhere between the USA and continental Europe - discuss

Here's two for starters:

Working hours

Niudity on TV

So, er, no.

"Proof is in the voting" - well, disastrous electoral showing for Tories does, I think, prove that there is not that much support in Britain for Bush-inspired rock-bottom taxation etc. Or is that what you meant?

And, yes, John H-H both is and is not me. It's a long story ...

Working hours

Niudity on TV

>>

I don't get this one, our working hours & nudity on TV ARE between USA and Europe, I thought??

Church attendance

Duh, sorry, I just reread it. I'm a dumbass.

Absolutely

America believes in freedom and liberty, whereas Europe believes in oppressive state control bordering on fascism. Blair is taking Britain frighteningly close to the latter model. At least with Iain Duncan Smith as Tory leader we are in a position to reassert our status in the free world!

― John Hay-Heddle, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 01:00 (11 years ago)

http://www2.erewash.gov.uk/moderngov/UserData/8/5/1/Info00000158/bigpic.jpg

Councillor John F Hay-Heddle BSc

Not currently an elected councillor.

Party: Conservative

holeee shit

"Not currently an elected councillor"

oh

26 September 2001

I have never been an overly fastidious dresser, but the slovenly way in which some of my contemporaries treated the school uniform
never ceased to amaze me. The basic suit of grey herring bone tweed was very smart if worn with a dram of care, but some always
conspired to resemble piglet after‘rolling all the way home in the dust and mud to get his own comfortable colour again’; and what
some of the lads did with their poor long suffering ties is something into which I would rather not enquire. As a little act of
rebellion I tried always to look my best with polished shoes and everything neat and just so.

So what did I take from Repton? A respect for the ordered and disciplined life, a love of choral and classical music, the makings of
a moderately successful scientific career sadly cut short by illness, and a blank spot for English Literature. What else? Perhaps the
most valuable thing I learnt at Repton was that if God has given one a part way decent brain one need never be lonely, however,
alone and isolated one may feel, even if surrounded by hundreds of fellow human beings: and one need never be bored in an
infinitely fascinating universe, however boring and humdrum the everyday routine may be.

Not trying to mock BTW, I though it was quite evocative.

At least with Iain Duncan Smith as Tory leader

Always good to be reminded of that cunt's embarrassing tenure as the least successful leader in the history of the Conservative Party

Proposal for Rescuscitating US Economy

What a fine young man Dave Q is. We should all put the peasantry to such edifying work!

America has provided the model for a successful economy and society, and it has my unquestioning support in its attempt to ensure a world victory for freedom and liberty.

― John Hay-Heddle, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 01:00 (11 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bring back John Hay-Heddle imo

can see why he was a valued member of OG ILX

The Bishop of Gloucester referred to Repton as 'Hauntingly beautiful.' It is that, but even though it has escaped the worst of
the architectural vandalism that afflicted so much of Britain since the 1950s, I find that the 'haunting beauty' runs much deeper than the
merely physical. In 'Brideshead Revisited' Evelyn Waugh described how the Roman Catholic Mother Church could exert a 'twitch
apon the thread' to bring the lapsed faithful home: so it is with Repton to those whom it formed. For me the 'haunting beauty'
is an all pervading sense of the numinous; an air of ancient sanctity.For over a thousand years the Christian Faith has been venerated
here, and before that the site may have been revered as sacred for millennia.

This is the other point which I think adds to the 'haunting beauty' of the place. As the Bishop pointed out, referring to the
lesson from Paul's epistle to the Philippians, at Repton that which is honourable, true, just, noble, lovely and of good report is encouraged,
honoured and venerated; a world a way from the cheap, the gimcrack and the trashily meretricious that seems to thrive all too well
beyond its hallowed portals. Long may this veneration continue to flourish; Floreat Repandunum!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3d/Repton_level_L.jpg

showing_my_age.jpg

http://www.harrywood.co.uk/repton3/repton-waiting.gif

I have a cousin-in-law, a German baroness, who tells me that Europeans are much more attached to old-world gender roles than we Americans. Men go out into the world to do serious man business while women care for house & home, get food on the table without having to be asked, handle childcare, etc. Having spent no time in Europe as an adult, I can't say how true this is. Perhaps it reflects the aristocratic families with whom she associates more than "the soul of Europe". And maybe it's a German thing, I dunno.

Wondering whether anyone more well-traveled than myself could shed some light on this: gender dynamics in families, US v UK v EU.

that is more of a german thing

http://dodiej.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/closed-case.jpg

the proportion of female chief executives in german public companies is sthing like 2% in germany, it's lower than in the uk/france/scandinavia

angela merkel is no more representative of the german labour force as a whole than margaret thatcher was in 1979

i'm surprised to hear that. had no idea that germany was so backward in that regard, though i suppose it squares with stereotypes of the national character.

showing_my_age.jpg

Around the world in 40 posts...

It's not just a German thing - iirc Italy and the Netherlands both have similar or lower percentages of women in the workforce - but it's certainly not true for most of Europe.

idk whether it's easier to support a family on one income in those countries.

Is this one of your jokes, Robin?
― DG, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 01:00 (11 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And, yes, John H-H both is and is not me. It's a long story ...

― Robin Carmody, Friday, 28 September 2001 01:00 (11 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Wait, so is John Hay Heddle a Robin Carmody sock named after a real Tory councillor, or was the real John H-H posting here, or something else entirely?

Feel like this is going to be like that TLS article about the guy who invented the meeting between Doestoevsky and Dickens, and that I'm going to find out that 30% of ilx posters are just one academic in a London bedsit arguing with himself about Death Grips.

Christ, that's an awful attempt at a joke, I wish I'd never spoke. sorry. Would still like to know the real identity of JOhn H-H, though.

it was robin

Are wealthier British more American-styled than poorer British?

In an interview with The Radio Times, the Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels star said that England was “past its sell by date.”

Mr Jones added: “It’s not the country I grew up in. It’s a European country now. If someone blindfolded you and put you on a plane in LA, and you landed at Heathrow and they took it off, you wouldn’t have a clue where you were.”

I might have guessed Gatwick, that's had a pretty swish refurb lately.

idk why i care but im intrigued as to what europeanization has occured to the uk, or just to the heathrow corridor in the last 10 or 15 years

it makes a change to thinly veiled references to veiled women and halal &c

i read it as a thinly veiled reference to Poles tbh

Faceless Brussels bureaucrats waiting for you at arrivals instead of the pearly kings and queens of yore.

Isn't this fucker welsh anyway?

polish people aren't really a visible minority, at least from the windows of a cab, what would he actually see to give him the impression that the uk has now become a european country?

people eating things like croissants instead of blood sausage i expect

blood sausage is pretty eastern european imo

the lack of crescentness that you find in a lot of croissants now is an indication that they have been fully naturalized as a pastry form

bakers and customers no longer feel the need for the novelty of the crescent shape

you can totally tell the polish lads

they all look like vinnie jones

lol they have the close cropped hair and trackies but polish brickie type dudes often seem strangely sullen and usually less aggro than their english counterparts

recently on the last train back to london a load of them got in the same otherwise nearly deserted carriage drinking tyskie or whatever, and i wasn't really looking forward to an hour of drunken slavbantz but they were fairly chill and less noisy than the antequated rolling stock

rolling stock suspension creaks are among my favourite found sounds and croissants are vile

that was the thread where I said

also, important Gatwick update: the Holiday Inn is a £3 busride away and charges you £10 for 4 hrs internet. the burgers are dope though

vile? no way can you stand up that generalization.

eastern europeans round our ends do usually have a dour reticence about them even when pissing it up in the park, long may their sense of social decency continue

maybe this doubletree tower my prison is the precise midpoint if Europe and the USA - dope, dope burgers atom-smashed with extortionate add-ons

Luxembourg has a fierce and cruel energy to it

lived with a Polish couple a while back. The guy worked 12-hour shifts 7 days a week and seemed to relish this. Wasn't grumpy, more stoically inexpressive

I said in this thread where one will have said things that croissants are vile and u are invited to package me a counterexample

Poles in the UK drink in public because it's a cheap way to socialise. I'd guess that a lot of the British ppl who do the same are either too young, too drunk or too lairy to get served in pubs.

yeah i worked that out ages ago, it's a total different vibe to yr asshole UK winos who mostly seem to crave a bit of attention

oftentimes like to think of Vinnie as Vince as this Panini sticker was my introduction to him

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BJSi0U6CcAE3yA9.png

wonder if nominative determinism would have changed his life trajectory at all if he'd stuck with Vince

one Polish quasi-stereotype I've noticed is the thing where you think you're party to a blazing argument then you actually look over and it's all joeks and beaming smiles. kinda like that Simpsons bit w/ the chess game between the two elderly Russians

'stereotype' might be pushing it a little but 'thing I've noticed on a number of occasions' at any rate

do the poles fit in well there

ime they fit in well here but then what's there not to fit? they're like better irish ppl.

Poles in the UK drink in public because it's a cheap way to socialise. I'd guess that a lot of the British ppl who do the same are either too young, too drunk or too lairy to get served in pubs.

lots of people in the uk drink in public ime. even the pubs allow people to spill all over the streets. most parks in london have people drinking in them if the weather is good.

xp guess so, never known of any meaningful Pole-based beef round my way, plus if you want to buy a giant tub of protein powder you can get one from a Polski Sklep without being patronised by someone in a health food shop

Not had many dealings with Polish men but Polish women don't seem to be radically different from British ones ime

xp we have these guys

https://sphotos-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/p480x480/1146566_649679981728501_2137407686_n.jpg

ime they fit in well here but then what's there not to fit? they're like better irish ppl.

I was in a bus going through Offaly or Meath or somewhere and a bunch of aggro Irish guys got on and started harassing the Poles sitting at the back - 'what are you doing here, taking our jobs?' etc. Within about 90 seconds they were all happily chatting together about property prices.

that's what the EU should be

Takin our seats imo

i love it when there's a group of lads dressed head to toe in southeast asian sweatshop polycotton giving it the "their taking our jerbs" routine

there it is

surely that would actually be a case in point tbh

It's about whom you blame

Just sitting and drinking cans of lager in the street has never felt exactly socially acceptable in Britain though. Obviously green spaces etc are different but the further you go east in Europe the seemingly more commonplace it is to just hang out with a big bottle of lager or something.

Beer isn't really seen as "alcohol" in parts of Eastern Europe, but that's changing a bit now.

I can't really recall seeing that much drinking from cans in Poland but the bars are cheaper and people probably have more space at home.

^^^space is a big issue I think, when sharing with 10 people in a 3 bedroom flat I would imagine anywhere is better than staying at home when you fancy a drink.