Embarassed to be British

[cstorey]

JOhn : it seems to me that you have a somewhat distorted ( and far too gloomy ) view of life in Britain today. No one would dispute that there are things wrong, but there are few if any nations to which that does not apply. Equally, no one disputes that there is a real problem with disaffected youth . The same applies elsewhere also , and it is a problem which can only be solved if we find something useful for them to do . But against that, there are millions of fine young people who set out to achieve things , particularly culturally , and in technical fields , as a recent visit to Airbus and to Rolls Royce at Derby revealed . We have an unfortunate tendency in Britain to see, and almost relish, only the bad things about our nation ..... and that does make me ashamed

[J0hn]

No comment.

[TSR2]

I must admit, I'm inclined to agree with Chris. Yes we have our problems but there is a lot of good out there too. This coupled with the fact that I'm heading towards grumpy old man status often makes me take a dim view of where we are today, but every so often there will be something that makes me smile and think there is still much good in our fair land.

[cstorey]

Why "no comment" ?

[Dev One]

Context and usage with intent is everything. I remember during the 80s, any decent film that made it to the BBC was re-dubbed. The F word was substituted with the totally made up word 'Frig', as I memorably recall from a Tom Cruise movie in which someone uttered 'Frig you, and frig your brother...' (Might have been Rain Man)Clearly this was chosen because it closely matched the image the actor's lips were forming to make the 'f' sound.

I always thought 'Frig' was engineer speak for making an unauthorized adjustment......& probably predates Tom Cruise....but on the other hand there was always something to doing it in the rigging....?
Keith

[TSR2]

I certainly know my Dad used the "frig" word every time he touched a pot of paint

[Jon.M]

I thought it had a sexual definition that pre-dated BBC euphemisms, so I looked it up:

Frig

• vulgar slang
verb (frigs, frigging, frigged)

1 [with object] Have sexual intercourse with.
1.1Masturbate.

noun
An act of sexual intercourse or masturbation.

exclamation
Expressing anger, annoyance, or contempt.

Phrasal verbs
frig about/around
Spend time doing unimportant or trivial things.

Origin
late Middle English: of unknown origin. The original sense was 'move restlessly, wriggle', later 'rub, chafe', hence 'masturbate' (late 17th century).

I think that 'plonker' as "You plonker, Rodney" is a word invented to be broadcast before the watershed.

Jon

I was wrong. Plonker is apparently mid 19th century according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

[J0hn]

Sorry to bring this thread back up, but I suddenly realised this morning that things had gone slightly awry.

I actually didn't bother coming back, because I wrongfully thought I'd been accused of saying something I hadn't - but I was wrong. Oops!

So apologies about that - I titled the thread "Embarassed to be British" and most of my comments were rather tongue-in-cheek. But somewhere along the line it got changed to "Ashamed..." and that just isn't the case. That's why I just said "no comment" and made myself scarce when someone upped and started using that word. I think it was the page before, someone must have used it and without thinking, I did, too, instead of correcting it there and then.

I'm most definitely not ashamed - as many of my relatives and friends (and neighbours - especially my old neighbours in Europe!) would confirm.

But after the last weeks' worth of elections - I think a few more might be feeling just a little embarassed to be associated with the place!

Oh, how I miss Lord Sutch!

[airboatr]

Well if any of the newly elected are thinking of having the Flying Scotsman renamed after them ... It's already been done!


I think I understand .. it's the acceptance of mediocrity that has me thinking about many in the country I happened to be - left in...

In my trade, discipline, methodology, procedure are a must. Don't follow along with the program and lives and property are put at risk.

Trying to explain that to the young bucks and you get, that's not the real world pops, just get it done... I won't see it from my house..

Indeed I said to one of them .. you won't see your job from your house... Your fired.
He started to mumble something ... I said your still here? you may go now. Ok I got a little livid ....

But , you know... It's everywhere ... how many buildings have we seen collapse because of laziness, and out right stupidity. No concern for the well being of others.
the corruption in our officials ... religious and secular leaders.. Making the same excuse... Well that's the way it is.. people won't be told how to behave.
and if you do , you'll have a chance of someone filing a law suit, for taking away their "individuality".

I'd like to slap them.. not for the sake of it. But that there might be some chance I'd get them to see... wer're all in the same boat... let one get away with it and you have to let all of the same get away with it.

Where do these types think they'll find refuge from that insanity. (ie from themselves)




Joe

PS
thanks for the couch time.

[J0hn]

Nicely put, Joe!

I recently read an article on the BBC website about how "uptight" people get about incorrect grammar. Now I must admit, I used to get a bit frustrated when I first started using the internet, before I realised just how widespread it was, now I mostly find it quite amusing.

Anyway, the point is (for me at least) the BBC have completely missed the point. For me, it isn't about the grammar at all, it's about standards.

Another point that does make me angry is that we have had lots of work done on our house since we bought it in 2001. Unfortunately, it being our first purchase, we weren't very well educated about how to properly evaluate and assess the property. We relied on the 3 surveyors that looked the place over. Funny how none of them noticed the hole in the roof!

Needless to say, it was awful. A real shed - and we were left footing the bill, having paid well over what it was worth in the first place. Everywhere we looked we kept finding things broken or in a poor state of repair. Bodges galore. We still find things after all this time. (I was putting up an antenna a couple of days ago and found two loose bricks above a vent hole in one of the bedrooms - it had been replaced when the 'tradesmen' did our cavity insulation. I could pull them straight out of the wall from the outside).

So we've had lots of work done, and the only tradesman (and I use the term loosely) who did a satisfactory job was the roof repair guy (what's that profession called?). All of the others were really terrible and, worse, they insisted they had done outstanding work. Now we can't call Trading Standards to get on to them, they get away with it.

Standards.