Britain - The Official Thread

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How will you vote in the 2024 UK General Election?

  • Conservative Party

    Votes: 2 6.9%
  • Green Party

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Labour Party

    Votes: 14 48.3%
  • Liberal Democrats

    Votes: 2 6.9%
  • Other (Wales/Scotland/Northern Ireland)

    Votes: 1 3.4%
  • Other Independents

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other Parties

    Votes: 2 6.9%
  • Spoiled Ballot

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Will Not/Cannot Vote

    Votes: 8 27.6%

  • Total voters
    29
  • Poll closed .
Right, have a look at these pictures. Clickie to make them bigger. What the 🤬 are those poses about? Surely they must be aware how ridiculous they look.

They look like humanoids still adapting to Earth society. Just stand like a bloody normal person!

 
To mark today's occasion of the 95th birthday of His Royal Highness Nick "The Greek" Princopolous the Mirror has published 95 of his most memorable quotes. Mostly offensive, of course.

Daily Mirror Phwoar
1 After being told that Madonna was singing the Die Another Day theme in 2002: “Are we going to need ear plugs?”

2 To a car park attendant who didn’t recognise him in 1997, he snapped: “You bloody silly fool!”

3 To Simon Kelner, republican editor of The Independent, at Windsor Castle reception: “What are you doing here?” “I was invited, sir.” Philip: “Well, you didn’t have to come.”

4 To female sea cadet last year: “Do you work in a strip club?”

5 To expats in Abu Dhabi last year: “Are you running away from something?”

6 After accepting a conservation award in Thailand in 1991: “Your country is one of the most notorious centres of trading in endangered species.”

7 At a project to protect turtle doves in Anguilla in 1965, he said: “Cats kill far more birds than men. Why don’t you have a slogan: ‘Kill a cat and save a bird?’”

8 To multi-ethnic Britain’s Got Talent 2009 winners Diversity: “Are you all one family?”

9 To President of Nigeria, who was in national dress, 2003: “You look like you’re ready for bed!”

10 His description of Beijing, during a visit there in 1986: “Ghastly.”

11 At Hertfordshire University, 2003: “During the Blitz, a lot of shops had their windows blown in and put up notices saying, ‘More open than usual’. I now declare this place more open than usual.”

12 To deaf children by steel band, 2000: “Deaf? If you’re near there, no wonder you are deaf.”

13 To a tourist in Budapest in 1993: “You can’t have been here long, you haven’t got a pot belly.”

14 To a British trekker in Papua New Guinea, 1998: “You managed not to get eaten then?”

15 His verdict on Stoke-on-Trent, during a visit in 1997: “Ghastly.”

16 To Atul Patel at reception for influential Indians, 2009: “There’s a lot of your family in tonight.”

17 Peering at a fuse box in a Scottish factory, he said: “It looks as though it was put in by an Indian.” He later backtracked: “I meant to say cowboys.”

18 To Lockerbie residents after plane bombing, 1993: “People say after a fire it’s water damage that’s the worst. We’re still drying out Windsor Castle.”

19 In Canada in 1976: “We don’t come here for our health.”

20 “I never see any home cooking – all I get is fancy stuff.” 1987

21 On the Duke of York’s house, 1986: “It looks like a tart’s bedroom.”

22 Using Hitler’s title to address German chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1997, he called him: “Reichskanzler.”

23 “We go into the red next year... I shall have to give up polo.” 1969.

24 At party in 2004: “Bugger the table plan, give me my dinner!”

25 To a woman solicitor, 1987: “I thought it was against the law for a woman to solicit.”

26 To a civil servant, 1970: “You’re just a silly little Whitehall twit: you don’t trust me and I don’t trust you.”

27 On the 1981 recession: “A few years ago, everybody was saying we must have more leisure, everyone’s working too much. Now everybody’s got more leisure time they’re complaining they’re unemployed. People don’t seem to make up their minds what they want.”

28 On the new £18million British Embassy in Berlin in 2000: “It’s a vast waste of space.”

29 After Dunblane massacre, 1996: “If a cricketer suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, are you going to ban cricket bats?”

30 To the Aircraft Research Association in 2002: “If you travel as much as we do, you appreciate the improvements in aircraft design of less noise and more comfort – provided you don’t travel in something called economy class, which sounds ghastly.”

31 On stress counselling for servicemen in 1995: “We didn’t have counsellors rushing around every time somebody let off a gun. You just got on with it!”

32 On Tom Jones, 1969: “It’s difficult to see how it’s possible to become immensely valuable by singing what are the most hideous songs.”

33 To the Scottish WI in 1961: “British women can’t cook.”

34 To then Paraguay dictator General Stroessner: “It’s a pleasure to be in a country that isn’t ruled by its people.”

35 To Cayman Islanders: “Aren’t most of you descended from pirates?”


36 To Scottish driving instructor, 1995: “How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the test?”

37 At a WF meeting in 1986: “If it has four legs and it’s not a chair, if it’s got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane and if it swims and it’s not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.”

38 “You ARE a woman, aren’t you?” Kenya, 1984.

39 A VIP at a local airport asked HRH: “What was your flight, like, Your Royal Highness? Philip: “Have you ever flown in a plane?” VIP: “Oh yes, sir, many times.” “Well,” said Philip, “it was just like that.”

40 On Ethiopian art, 1965: “It looks like the kind of thing my daughter would bring back from school art lessons.”


41 To a fashion writer in 1993: “You’re not wearing mink knickers are you?”

42 To Susan Edwards and her guide dog in 2002: “They have eating dogs for the anorexic now.”

43 When offered wine in Rome in 2000, he snapped: “I don’t care what kind it is, just get me a beer!”

44 “I’d like to go to Russia very much – although the bastards murdered half my family.” 1967.

45 At City Hall in 2002: “If we could just stop the tourism, we could stop the congestion.”

46 On seeing a piezo-meter water gauge in Australia: “A pissometer?”

47 “You have mosquitoes. I have the Press.” To matron of Caribbean hospital, 1966.

48 At a Bangladeshi youth club in 2002: “So who’s on drugs here?... HE looks as if he’s on drugs.”

49 To a children’s band in Australia in 2002: “You were playing your instruments? Or do you have tape recorders under your seats?”

50 At Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme, 2006. “Young people are the same as they always were. Just as ignorant.”

51 On how difficult it is in Britain to get rich: “What about Tom Jones? He’s made a million and he’s a bloody awful singer.”

52 To Elton John on his gold Aston Martin in 2001: “Oh, it’s you that owns that ghastly car, is it?”

53 At an engineering school closed so he could officially open it, 2005: “It doesn’t look like much work goes on at this university.”


54 To Aboriginal leader William Brin, Queensland, 2002: “Do you still throw spears at each other?”

55 At a Scottish fish farm: “Oh! You’re the people ruining the rivers.”

56 After a breakfast of bacon, eggs, smoked salmon, kedgeree, croissants and pain au chocolat – from Gallic chef Regis Crépy, 2002: “The French don’t know how to cook breakfast.”

57 To schoolboy who invited the Queen to Romford, Essex, 2003: “Ah, you're the one who wrote the letter. So you can write then?”

58 To black politician Lord Taylor of Warwick, 1999: “And what exotic part of the world do you come from?”

59 To parents at a previously struggling Sheffield school, 2003: “Were you here in the bad old days? ... That’s why you can’t read and write then!”

60 To Andrew Adams, 13, in 1998: “You could do with losing a little bit of weight.”

61 “Where’s the Southern Comfort?” When presented with a hamper of goods by US ambassador, 1999.

62 To editor of downmarket tabloid: “Where are you from?” “The S*n, sir.” Philip: “Oh, no . . . one can’t tell from the outside.”

63 Turning down food, 2000: “No, I’d probably end up spitting it out over everybody.”

64 Asking Cate Blanchett to fix his DVD player because she worked “in the film industry”, 2008: “There’s a cord sticking out of the back. Might you tell me where it goes?”

65 “People think there’s a rigid class system here, but dukes have even been known to marry chorus girls. Some have even married Americans.” 2000.

66 After hearing President Obama had had breakfast with leaders of the UK, China and Russia, 2010: “Can you tell the difference between them?”

67 On students from Brunei, 1998: “I don’t know how they’re going to integrate in places like Glasgow and Sheffield.”

68 On Princess Anne, 1970: “If it doesn’t fart or eat hay, she isn’t interested.”

69 To wheelchair-bound nursing-home resident, 2002: “Do people trip over you?”

70 Discussing tartan with then-Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie: “That’s a nice tie... Do you have any knickers in that material?”

71 To a group of industrialists in 1961: “I’ve never been noticeably reticent about talking on subjects about which I know nothing.”

72 On a crocodile he shot in Gambia in 1957: “It’s not a very big one, but at least it’s dead and it took an awful lot of killing!”

73 On being made Chancellor of Edinburgh University in 1953: “Only a Scotsman can really survive a Scottish education.”

74 “I must be the only person in Britain glad to see the back of that plane.” He hated the noise Concorde made flying over Buckingham Palace, 2002

75 To a fashion designer, 2009: “Well, you didn’t design your beard too well, did you?”

76 To the General Dental Council in 1960: “Dontopedalogy is the science of opening your mouth and putting your foot in it, which I’ve practised for many years.”

77 On stroking a koala in 1992: “Oh no, I might catch some ghastly disease.”

78 On marriage in 1997: “You can take it from me the Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance.”

79 To schoolchildren in blood-red uniforms, 1998: “It makes you all look like Dracula’s daughters!”

80 “I don’t think a prostitute is more moral than a wife, but they are doing the same thing.” 1988.

81 To female Labour MPs in 2000: “So this is feminist corner then.”

82 On Nottingham Forest trophies in 1999: “I suppose I’d get in trouble if I were to melt them down.”

83 “It’s my custom to say something flattering to begin with so I shall be excused if I put my foot in it later on.” 1956.

84 To a penniless student in 1998: “Why don’t you go and live in a hostel to save cash?”

85 On robots colliding, Science Museum, 2000: “They’re not mating are they?”

86 While stuck in a Heriot Watt University lift in 1958: “This could only happen in a technical college.”

87 To newsreader Michael Buerk, when told he knew about the Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Awards, 2004: “That’s more than you know about anything else then.”

88 To a British student in China, 1986: “If you stay here much longer, you’ll go home with slitty eyes.”

89 To journalist Caroline Wyatt, who asked if the Queen was enjoying a Paris trip, 2006: “Damn fool question!”

90 On smoke alarms to a woman who lost two sons in a fire, 1998: “They’re a damn nuisance - I’ve got one in my bathroom and every time I run my bath the steam sets it off.”

91 To a professional fundraiser at East End community centre in London: "Do you have any friends left?"

92 To an attractive blonde well-wisher during a Diamond Jubilee visit with the Queen to Bromley, South London: "I would be arrested if I unzipped that dress."

93 To a Filipino nurse as he unveiled a new cardiac centre at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital in February: "The Philippines must be half empty, you're all here running the NHS."

94 To a group of women at a community centre in Chadwell Heath, east London "who do you sponge off?"

95 To a professional photographer at the RAF club "just take the ******* picture"
 
To mark today's occasion of the 95th birthday of His Royal Highness Nick "The Greek" Princopolous the Mirror has published 95 of his most memorable quotes. Mostly offensive, of course.

I was just about to post this!, gosh it is literally a wall of FACEPALMS!
 
Right, have a look at these pictures. Clickie to make them bigger. What the 🤬 are those poses about? Surely they must be aware how ridiculous they look.

They look like humanoids still adapting to Earth society. Just stand like a bloody normal person!
This is how politicians should pose...


1a3334568e6871a7e82f038c3295c04b.jpg
 
I don't see it as a reflection of England, just of Football, and its fans.
Three million people a week go to watch football games in the UK and yet things of this level never happen. Our domestic game isn't even close to being blighted (these days) by this kind of thing - in fact the worst thing I can think of in recent memory is the Manchester United team bus being pelted with bottles at the end of this season and before that... I can only think of a couple of ill-tempered pitch invasions and some bellendery in the Tyne-Wear derby a couple of seasons ago.

It only seems to happen when our clubs - or country - go abroad, particularly in Turkey.


This begs the question that if it's football and its fans, why don't we see this week-in, week-out in the UK - and why is it almost always Englishmen who are involved in these skirmishes?

If you've ever spent any time in any English town on a Friday or Saturday night - or Ibiza - you'll recognise a lot of what's going on in Marseilles. It's chavs having a skinful and then having a fight, because that's what you do on a Friday or Saturday night - or in Ibiza. Football isn't even involved. I'm not even sure if Ibiza has a football team or stadium...


The truth about Marseilles is probably much closer to football merely being the excuse for these berks to go on holiday have a load of Friday nights in a row. And typically, they're the racist chavs - ever noticed how many Britain First people and BNP voters have England football tattoos? Three lions, references to 1966, or Wayne Rooney's face and the like?

Football's not the cause, it's more the catalyst - the thing that assists the reaction (in this case: racists + alcohol + foreign holiday -> a scrap) without actually taking any part in it.
 
Three million people a week go to watch football games in the UK and yet things of this level never happen. Our domestic game isn't even close to being blighted (these days) by this kind of thing - in fact the worst thing I can think of in recent memory is the Manchester United team bus being pelted with bottles at the end of this season and before that... I can only think of a couple of ill-tempered pitch invasions and some bellendery in the Tyne-Wear derby a couple of seasons ago.

It only seems to happen when our clubs - or country - go abroad, particularly in Turkey.


This begs the question that if it's football and its fans, why don't we see this week-in, week-out in the UK - and why is it almost always Englishmen who are involved in these skirmishes?

If you've ever spent any time in any English town on a Friday or Saturday night - or Ibiza - you'll recognise a lot of what's going on in Marseilles. It's chavs having a skinful and then having a fight, because that's what you do on a Friday or Saturday night - or in Ibiza. Football isn't even involved. I'm not even sure if Ibiza has a football team or stadium...


The truth about Marseilles is probably much closer to football merely being the excuse for these berks to go on holiday have a load of Friday nights in a row. And typically, they're the racist chavs - ever noticed how many Britain First people and BNP voters have England football tattoos? Three lions, references to 1966, or Wayne Rooney's face and the like?

Football's not the cause, it's more the catalyst - the thing that assists the reaction (in this case: racists + alcohol + foreign holiday -> a scrap) without actually taking any part in it.
Something to add to that is the 'Ultra' culture which has passed down to many generations where in their times would seek anything rebellious against the norms of society but now its something which has been regarded as 'cool' plus films like 'Green Street' had advocated football hooliganism because some fall into becoming passive.
 
football, bellendery, football, berks, racist chavs, Britain First, BNP voters, football, racists

I have no inclination towards serious debate at the moment, so all I'm going to say is that this is a bunch of words I am not surprised to see together.
 
I have no inclination towards serious debate at the moment
Then it's probably not a good idea to make a post that's little other than flamebait.

Football fans enjoy football without destroying anything or fighting anyone. Football fans will laugh and joke with people who support other teams and from other countries. These guys who go to foreign countries to get slashed and demolish cafes are not any kind of football fan I recognise.

Football does not generate racist chavs. Football does not generate violence or drunkenness. Football is merely a highly-popular activity that gives violent, drunk, racist chavs an "us" to identify with for their "them vs us" mentality - but even without it, they still act the same way. You only have to look at literally any British town on a Friday night to immediately dispel any concept that football is to blame.

Wanting to blame football exclusively ignores that there is a distinctly malicious undercurrent in the mentality of a significant proportion of English society that you can witness by being in any town centre at around 10.30pm on any Friday night.

It's no less facile than blaming 'violent' videogames...
 
To mark today's occasion of the 95th birthday of His Royal Highness Nick "The Greek" Princopolous the Mirror has published 95 of his most memorable quotes. Mostly offensive, of course.
To be honest, the vast majority of those I wouldn't call "gaffes". In between the typical old-man racism - which admittedly makes up about a quarter of those - there are some great observations and some killer one-liners...
A VIP at a local airport asked HRH: “What was your flight, like, Your Royal Highness? Philip: “Have you ever flown in a plane?” VIP: “Oh yes, sir, many times.” “Well,” said Philip, “it was just like that.”
On Princess Anne, 1970: “If it doesn’t fart or eat hay, she isn’t interested.”
:lol:
 
Haven't seen any trouble from the Welsh fans. Might change next week.

You mean when you play Russia? They may not even be in the tournament by then. It wouldn't surprise me if they are ejected because of their "fans".
 
You mean when you play Russia? They may not even be in the tournament by then. It wouldn't surprise me if they are ejected because of their "fans".
No, when Wales play England on the 16th. All it takes is a few Swansea/Cardiff/Bristol fans to kick off.

Russians certainly seem to provoke the issue last night in the stadium.
 
How much did today's Royal Parade on t'Mall cost? What a shower of complete ****.

In soccerballing news; Russia and ingerland (la laaa) face disqualification from the Euroballings if their fans are involved in any more mischievous rioting.
 
How much did today's Royal Parade on t'Mall cost? What a shower of complete ****.

In soccerballing news; Russia and ingerland (la laaa) face disqualification from the Euroballings if their fans are involved in any more mischievous rioting.
Any news on the French policing having an impact on their national team?
 
Any news on the French policing having an impact on their national team?

Presuming that I understand your point correctly... I can see how the policing (or lack of) in segregation areas within the Velodrome caused problems by allowing the Russians across into the English area, I'm not sure that the police were so involved in the ingurlanders drinking so heavily or starting to fight bar staff when they were told they couldn't buy any more tipples.
 
Then it's probably not a good idea to make a post that's little other than flamebait.

Football fans enjoy football without destroying anything or fighting anyone. Football fans will laugh and joke with people who support other teams and from other countries. These guys who go to foreign countries to get slashed and demolish cafes are not any kind of football fan I recognise.

Football does not generate racist chavs. Football does not generate violence or drunkenness. Football is merely a highly-popular activity that gives violent, drunk, racist chavs an "us" to identify with for their "them vs us" mentality - but even without it, they still act the same way. You only have to look at literally any British town on a Friday night to immediately dispel any concept that football is to blame.

Wanting to blame football exclusively ignores that there is a distinctly malicious undercurrent in the mentality of a significant proportion of English society that you can witness by being in any town centre at around 10.30pm on any Friday night.

It's no less facile than blaming 'violent' videogames...
Whilst all true, there is something about football that attracts the worst of society like 🤬 to a Blanket. Whilst it would have nothing to do with the game itself.

Here in Australia where Football has started to gain big traction we are now seeing the kind of hooliganism found in Europe, that seems to be different to what we see in other codes.
 
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I would say it's European societal thing.
Which bit? Football, violence, violence at football, football's wide supporter base?

If you're talking about crowd violence and unrest, it isn't. By far the most violent nations in Europe when it comes to football are Russia and Turkey - and they're countries that are mostly within Asia - with Russia fined, threatened with suspension and provisionally deducted points after crowd trouble at every match in Euro 2012. Riots in football are common in south-east Asia and Africa, while supporter groups in Central and South America are considered criminal or terrorist organisations, with targeted murders of rival fans and players.

Football is often considered the world's simplest sport. You need something to kick and something to kick it at and you can play football. It attracts the most people because of how simple it is and how widespread it is (again, because of how simple it is). The more people you attract, the more likely it is that you'll attract some people who are incredibly stupid and poorly-behaved.

It shouldn't be a surprise then that football attracts a lot of morons - it attracts a lot of people across a wide spread of society - but they aren't morons because of football. They're morons anyway and you could see exactly the behaviour they're exhibiting now in France in any town centre in the UK on any Friday night, without any football being necessary to trigger it.
 
Guess i'm just looking at it from a simplistic Australian point of view, where the only thing that gets people angry here is when the beer tastes different.
 
Guess i'm just looking at it from a simplistic Australian point of view, where the only thing that gets people angry here is when the beer tastes different.
Holden or Ford?
 
Presuming that I understand your point correctly... I can see how the policing (or lack of) in segregation areas within the Velodrome caused problems by allowing the Russians across into the English area, I'm not sure that the police were so involved in the ingurlanders drinking so heavily or starting to fight bar staff when they were told they couldn't buy any more tipples.
I wasn't trying to make a point. I've been too busy to keep up to date with all the news. I read a bit yesterday about how some English security experts say that the French police are making mistakes, & wondered what had come about from all of that.
It was genuinely just a question.
 
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