Looks like it's sweeping statement time again. I will freely admit
to
being on the left of politics, yet even my assessment doesn't rank
with Gavin's in terms of doing the UK down.
Merely responding to Richard's apparent longing for the Empire, old
bean. If you want to read up on the decline of Britain, check out "The
Audit of War" by Correlli Barnett. Note also, that I didn't mention
that the UK now has the highest number of CCTVs per capita in the
world: which ought to give pause for thought to those who still think
the UK is the bastion of democracy.
As for the transport being the worst in Europe, it's very hard to
actually come up with a direct comparison. On the other hand it's
easy (as Gavin has done) to quote a somewhat misquoted politician
and
say the UK has the worst tranport infrastructure in europe
I was referring to the report published a few weeks back which looked
at transport objectively. The UK was rated dead last. I cannot
remember if it was the EU or the OECD, though, which did the work.
It's very easy to make a direct comparison: subjectively, you can try
getting from A to B, or objectively, you establish a set of criteria
and evaluate them.
As for bashing the UK... if you travel a lot or live abroad, as I do,
then it's very easy to make the comparisons and realise that the
British are, on the whole, lazy and complacent. On the other hand, you
can continue to live in a nice cosy world, reading the Sun, and
blaming any and all your ills on those damn foreigners.
Gavin
ยทยทยท
On 13/01/02 4:45 PM, taurimuk@yahoo.co.uk wrote: