I’ve been to the UK several times and generally enjoyed my time there. My best visit was in 1980, where I spent many happy hours in the Royal Air Force archives doing research on photographic reconnaissance during WWII. I also visited the town of Benson, home of RAF Benson, the leading base for PR during the war. I was quite the novelty, an American who knew of their participation in the war effort. Good times.
However, the restrictions on free speech and the crime issues have forced me to put the UK on my Countries To Never Visit Again list. They join Russia, China, and Turkey on the list. I’m sure no one there cares, but original ideas are rare. If I come to that conclusion that the UK is too dangerous to visit, the odds are a lot of other people feel the same way. If true, we may see declines in their tourist and airline industries. Time will tell.
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you’re older
Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say
Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
When I come home, cold and tired
It’s good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away, across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells
I don’t think the UK is too far gone, but I also think recovery may be measured by decades rather than years. I have hope, because there are still voices in the UK that are saying the right things and have yet to be censored. Those voices are able to rally thousands to the streets, which frankly is more than the “right” can manage in the US to keep us from following the UK. The only reason we are not right there with the UK are the majority red states and Trump.
Trump had a lot of rallies. The reason you don’t see big right-wing rallies now is that we succeeded in electing Trump to office and he’s doing pretty much what we wanted. The British right still has a reason to be in the streets.
The problem with the thesis that the Islamification of England “is purely a function of the perpetuation of the English class system, and as common Englishmen became middle class, a new class of low-wage laborers was necessary to sustain the aristocracy” is that the U.S. is following hard on England’s heels.
There are certainly Muslims in the US who would like that, and more than a few “progressives” who would be happy – at least at first – to aid and abet. But I think “hard on England’s heels” badly overstates the actual situation.
Touring Bletchley Park has been a bucket list item for me since it opened. If I could fly directly there I’d probably book it tomorrow but that isn’t possible, basically Heathrow or Gatwick and stay the night somewhere and then getting there and back without using the train.
I’ve been to the UK several times and generally enjoyed my time there. My best visit was in 1980, where I spent many happy hours in the Royal Air Force archives doing research on photographic reconnaissance during WWII. I also visited the town of Benson, home of RAF Benson, the leading base for PR during the war. I was quite the novelty, an American who knew of their participation in the war effort. Good times.
However, the restrictions on free speech and the crime issues have forced me to put the UK on my Countries To Never Visit Again list. They join Russia, China, and Turkey on the list. I’m sure no one there cares, but original ideas are rare. If I come to that conclusion that the UK is too dangerous to visit, the odds are a lot of other people feel the same way. If true, we may see declines in their tourist and airline industries. Time will tell.
I seem to remember this from a song I once heard: …desperation is the English way…
Ah, yes. Time from Pink Floyd.
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you’re older
Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say
Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
When I come home, cold and tired
It’s good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away, across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells
I don’t think the UK is too far gone, but I also think recovery may be measured by decades rather than years. I have hope, because there are still voices in the UK that are saying the right things and have yet to be censored. Those voices are able to rally thousands to the streets, which frankly is more than the “right” can manage in the US to keep us from following the UK. The only reason we are not right there with the UK are the majority red states and Trump.
Trump had a lot of rallies. The reason you don’t see big right-wing rallies now is that we succeeded in electing Trump to office and he’s doing pretty much what we wanted. The British right still has a reason to be in the streets.
They are running out of respectable solutions and will be left with nothing but disrespectful solutions
Yes. Any US Muslims looking to try that grooming gang stuff here can expect an extemely unpleasant visit from an ad hoc vigilance committee.
The problem with the thesis that the Islamification of England “is purely a function of the perpetuation of the English class system, and as common Englishmen became middle class, a new class of low-wage laborers was necessary to sustain the aristocracy” is that the U.S. is following hard on England’s heels.
There are certainly Muslims in the US who would like that, and more than a few “progressives” who would be happy – at least at first – to aid and abet. But I think “hard on England’s heels” badly overstates the actual situation.
Touring Bletchley Park has been a bucket list item for me since it opened. If I could fly directly there I’d probably book it tomorrow but that isn’t possible, basically Heathrow or Gatwick and stay the night somewhere and then getting there and back without using the train.
So yeah, no.