Originally Posted by pichlo

You know, that is almost exactly what I have been saying. A lot of things changed since you were young. The music, the fashion, technology, the curency (decimalisation), you are no longer 20 and handsome, can't drink as much, have a family and responsibilities, a lousy job that you hate but cannot leave because of the aforementioned responsibilities... In short, everything is worse than when you were young. You cannot change any of that, which makes you even more frustrated and angry. But look, someone has offered you a chance to change something. Even though it has nothing to do with any of your voes, you grab it because you have nothing else.

Originally Posted by pichlo

You know, that is almost exactly what I have been saying. A lot of things changed since you were young. The music, the fashion, technology, the curency (decimalisation), you are no longer 20 and handsome, can't drink as much, have a family and responsibilities, a lousy job that you hate but cannot leave because of the aforementioned responsibilities... In short, everything is worse than when you were young. You cannot change any of that, which makes you even more frustrated and angry. But look, someone has offered you a chance to change something. Even though it has nothing to do with any of your voes, you grab it because you have nothing else.

Originally Posted by mscion

Yes! Let's make Britain great again!

Originally Posted by endsormeans

Britain spent much of its existence going it alone.

Originally Posted by pichlo

That is another problem. Britain is an island and suffers from the typical island mentality. Brits, and especially the English, think of themselves as a special race, quite apart from and above anyone else in the world, especially their nearest neighbours across the channel. Having lived in isolation for centuries, they are not used to the fluency of change so typical of mainland Europe. I visited Slovakia last summer and on the 30 minutes' car drive from the airport to our destination, I heard songs on the radio in four languages (Slovak, German, Italian and English). In the 20 years I have lived in the UK, I have never heard any other language on the radio than English.

Originally Posted by pichlo

That is another problem. Britain is an island and suffers from the typical island mentality. Brits, and especially the English, think of themselves as a special race, quite apart from and above anyone else in the world, especially their nearest neighbours across the channel. Having lived in isolation for centuries, they are not used to the fluency of change so typical of mainland Europe. I visited Slovakia last summer and on the 30 minutes' car drive from the airport to our destination, I heard songs on the radio in four languages (Slovak, German, Italian and English). In the 20 years I have lived in the UK, I have never heard any other language on the radio than English.

I have an English friend who repeatedly argues that thing X or thing Y (the imperial system, the lack of written constitution, the monarchy, the education system, separate hot and cold water taps, driving on the left...) is better than the alternative not because of some silly objective reasons like practicality, the ease of use, the achieved results - who cares about those? - but because they are English. He even went as far as arguing that it is OK to... err, let's just say teach history in a way that promotes national pride better, though he later denied it when I called him up on that.

And this is an educated person with a degree in engineering who studies philosophy as a hobby and understands politics better than I ever will. Now imagine a factory worker, a plumber or a fisherman in the pub surrounded by a bunch of his peers, exposed to decades of tabloid propaganda telling him that every ill of the world is caused by the evil, corrupt EU full of unelected officials whose only purpose is to force the metric system on and suck money from our noble motherland.

Another problem is the archaic, uncompromising, all-or-nothing approach to politics. It has to be either-or, the idea of a compromise is completely alien. Coalitions, part of a normal day-to-day political life pretty much everywhere else in Europe, are seen as a sign of weakness and instability. There are two major parties and either one or the other rules, there is no way of two or three parties sitting together and reaching some sort of a common agreement. Even the layout of the Parliament promotes this: you have two sides facing each other, not an arch layout like everywhere else that promotes the idea that there is a continuous spectrum of ideas. (This two-party, either-or system is also seen in other English speaking countries.)

The EU referendum cut across many lines. People on the political left and right, young and old, rich and poor voted this way or that in equal proportions. There was a noticeable preference of people with higher education to vote Remain but, as far as I see it, the main division was along the line of what I described above. People who cannot imagine it any other way and those who can.

Originally Posted by mscion

Living in an English speaking country (US) , probably the first time I ever heard French was listening to the radio and I heard the Beatles song Michelle. Was that song banned in England?