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When did it all start to go wrong in the UK...?


Wendy
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[quote user="Jura"]As most people here are British ex-pats I would like to ask; just when did British society start to fail...? [/quote]

I don't believe it has, certainly no worse than anywhere else.  We moved to France because we always wanted to try to live in a different country.  We came from Portsmouth, terrible reputation, completely unfounded as it was a great place to live.  Now we live here and have an equally good life, just different.

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[quote user="Jura"]

As most people here are British ex-pats I would like to ask; just when did British society start to fail...?

[/quote]

Not just the UK, of course, but the failings in huge areas of modern day society started with the introduction of........

Political Correctness

History will, no doubt, prove me right.

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[quote user="Jura"]

I have been reading over the past few years about all these dreadful cases of child abuse and child murders in the UK - the one's committed by the mothers or the 'boyfriends' (the 'sink estate' types).

When I was growing up in Australia my view of life in England was gleened through episodes of Black Beauty, Catweazel, Last of the Summer Wine and All Creatures Great and Small...what ever happened to that side of English life or was all that just a parody...?

As most people here are British ex-pats I would like to ask; just when did British society start to fail...? when did the UK start to spawn females who breed without discrimination, without one iota of feeling towards their young...?

When did a welfare cheque become the ultimate goal in life...?

I mean no offense - but I really would like to know just how things have come to be the way they are these days.[8-)]

In Australia the rot set in with the advent of the Labor Party in 1972...

[/quote]

I cant see anything which Jura has said which merited some of the replies, she has not tried to compare England with either France or Australia neither did she say or infer that these countries do not have their own problems, she tacitly admits the problems in Australia and gives her own view of when they started.

She speaks of her view of life in the Uk from afar and asks a genuine question even saying "I mean no offense" so why some of the responses?

I think that you hae touched a nerve Jura [:)]

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There was never a "golden age" in the UK, nor anywhere else. As previous posters have pointed out, children in Victorian England were beaten, abused and exploited routinely. One reason why we are so shocked by child cruelty now is that is happens so infrequently. Jura should start to worry when child abuse no longer makes headlines.
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[quote user="NormanH"]"The train ....... was more often than not delayed because of a suicide on the track." Can't quite believe that one. [/quote]

We have lived in - relatively peaceful - southern Morbihan for 3 years and in that time our son has taken the TGV from Paris or Lille to Vannes 3 times ie a total of 6 journies - and for 2 of those times there have been delays of up to and over 2 hours, both caused by suicides somewhere on the line, either before or after Vannes.

Sue

 

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 I think the original premise is quite wrong - I live in the UK and I certainly don't feel' it's ALL gone wrong', there are things wrong here, but there are things wrong in France and other countries too.

We are no better or worse across the board.

At least we are fairly open about our faults, I read just last week that France has just admitted to its cattle having had mad cow disease - wait another few years maybe they'll discover that they too were really in recession.[;-)]

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[quote user="Nellie the Elephant"]There was never a "golden age" in the UK, nor anywhere else. As previous posters have pointed out, children in Victorian England were beaten, abused and exploited routinely. One reason why we are so shocked by child cruelty now is that is happens so infrequently. Jura should start to worry when child abuse no longer makes headlines.[/quote]

Nellie, I entirely agree.

This "Golden Age" or its equivalent "Good Old Days" never actually existed IMO.  Or, if it did and you lived through it, you wouldn't have known any different so then you'd still think "business as usual", wouldn't you?[:)]

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[quote user="Will"]

Of course, in any such discussion one person's positive is another's negative. I mean not the serious issues above, things more like 'fantastic food' being quoted in a list of pluses, and 'boring cuisine with no diversity' in the next person's minuses. Also, a bit more food for thought - plus: 'great and cheap booze'; another plus: 'no pub/booze culture, happy hours, etc.'

[/quote]

The fantastic food must be the UK then Will, I have yet to eat such good food round here, its all either pizza or steak and chips. There is of course cassoulet (or whatever its called), leg of duck, sausage and a tin of baked beans but then there is only so much of the stuff you can eat. [;-)] . You can't get a decent Chinese or curry in France either. Never a kebab van outside the local bar at one o'clock in the morning either especially after rugby. Have not had fish and chips since 2005. French TV now theres a good one [:-))] .

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Catalpa, there was nothing subversive at all in my original question. Or anything sarcastic. Don't get defensive please! I was simply asking the members here, who mostly would be British, just when did THEY start to see a difference in their own nation...when did they think to themselves...'right, it's time to leave...'?

Put it this way - when living in Northern Ireland I met American tourists there who had been down to the Republic of Ireland and had told me how they thought Dublin would be all 'fiddle players and people with ginger hair'...I recall visiting the village of Avoca in Co.Wicklow several times (which was the location for the filming of 'Ballykissangel') and the Yanks there (just off their tour coaches) were wondering why it was not as it was on the telly...

The rest of the world, thanks to TV, has a rose-tinted view of jolly-old England and the English. But for most of us that's all we had. No doubt the UK has changed alot in in past 40-50 years, but I was wondering WHAT caused it...and there are no better people to ask than the Brit's themselves.

If people still assume that kangaroos still hop down Pitt Street in Sydney then I suggest they take a reality check - because they never did!

 

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Quillan; French TV sucks - enough said. We were in Northern Ireland in August and I had fish and chips at a cafe in Derry that made me feel like I had died and gone to heaven...not like the anorexic 'frites' you get here. And fish with REAL BATTER !

The food here is pathetic...duck, duck and more duck - pizza, veau milanese, pasta is all you get - and the local kebab shop closes at 8pm!

We paid 60 euros for an 'Indian takeaway' for 4 people in Perpignan 2 years ago - it was all bones and obviously made with supermarket-shelf spices. The rice was the boil-in-the-bag type. And cassoulet is fine if you like lots of grease and want to fart for a week afterwards...[;-)]

And steak...nice so long as it is not dangerously undercooked and served to you swimming in blood despite your plea of " tres, tres bien cuit!! " [+o(]

 

 

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[quote user="Jura"]Quillan; French TV sucks - enough said. We were in Northern Ireland in August and I had fish and chips at a cafe in Derry that made me feel like I had died and gone to heaven...not like the anorexic 'frites' you get here. And fish with REAL BATTER !

The food here is pathetic...duck, duck and more duck - pizza, veau milanese, pasta is all you get - and the local kebab shop closes at 8pm!

We paid 60 euros for an 'Indian takeaway' for 4 people in Perpignan 2 years ago - it was all bones and obviously made with supermarket-shelf spices. The rice was the boil-in-the-bag type. And cassoulet is fine if you like lots of grease and want to fart for a week afterwards...[;-)]

And steak...nice so long as it is not dangerously undercooked and served to you swimming in blood despite your plea of " tres, tres bien cuit!! " [+o(][/quote]

 You may find that fresh fish is readily available from your local market or even from the supermarket. I believe that there are also potatoes, eggs and flour. So you can have your fish and chips quite easily.

You complain that eating rare steak is dangerous but are happy enough with the products of the kebab shop.

We had some great food when we visited Perpignan several years back - yes I do think that duck featured but not exclusively.

Try and enjoy the marvellous produce that is available rather than hankering after the delights of the takeaway.
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Hmmm - sorry agree with Jura on this one.  The range of food available in France is naff and seems to revolve around duck, duck and more duck.  You may decry the influx of immigrants in the UK but it has brought with it a much greater variety of food.  On the whole I find food in the UK to be of better quality, better variety and far better value.  We far prefer to eat out in the UK than in France.

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Cassoulet is awful wherever you are.....[:)]

There is, from memory, a really good fish and chip shop on the sea-front in Grimsby...................yum, yum.

As regards food here, well, it's true, there is some strange stuff about, but generally, we eat a far healthier diet here than we ever did in dear old Blighty.

.

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I suppose it depends where you eat [:)]  I rather like the local traditional cuisine, and holidaymakers just love it, but I wouldn't want to eat it regularly (I'd be the size of house, for a start).

Back to the original topic, has anyone seen the advert on page 11 of this month's Living France mag? [8-)]   I shouldn't speak ill of my paypacket ([:-))] ) but it seems that Britain is Broken!  When did that happen?  I must have blinked and missed it.  Why the rather theatrical blood? 

Sure, it has its problems, but where doesn't. 

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How did a discussion on what went wrong in the Uk end up a debate on which cuisine is better[8-)]

As I have stated my position on the (non) state of the UK, for the record we eat a mix of english and local french food and enjoy both, and watch a mix of both flavours of TV.  To my mind its all about balance.[8-|]

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[quote user="Jura"]... I was simply asking the members here, who mostly would be British, just when did THEY start to see a difference in their own nation...when did they think to themselves...'right, it's time to leave...'? [/quote]

The assumption here is that people are somehow forced to "leave" because they have a negative view of the UK.

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[quote user="Jura"]... I was simply asking the members here, who mostly would be British, just when did THEY start to see a difference in their own nation...when did they think to themselves...'right, it's time to leave...'?

[/quote]

In my case it was when I started to SHOUT at the television..............[Www][:D]

.

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