Why is Britain so backwards?

Question

What happened to this once-great nation? We see countries like America and Japan developing exciting new technology and launching rockets in to space. We see great sportsmen coming from all areas of the globe and thrashing the British at the very sports that we invented.
Other countries manage to cope with so much, whilst we are panicing every time we have 1/2 an inch of snow.
Our education and healthcare are suffering, whilst at the same time, even third-world countries are becoming more developed and sophisticated every day.
Has Great Britain been swallowed by a cloud of political correctness that is slowly destroying us? How have we gone from being one of the worlds super powers, to a country that couldn't even fight it's way out of a paper bag? Has Britain become a nation of under-achieving whingebags that have been too pampered?

What happened to us?

Answer 1

The vocal minority have been allowed to go unchecked for far too long. The majority of the people who are sensible and reasonable aren't the ones who are speaking up.

Empty vessels make the most noise.

Answer 2

What goes around comes around. The sad thing is we are still an inventive people ( I'm an exception) but inventiveness needs some financial backing. The People who were most likely to back these risky schemes were people who inherited money. Taxation has seen this off so the next thing is government. You may remember Concorde it was not until the late 70's that it went into service. it was with 1950's technology because HMG dithered and f---t--d about the costs for so long that it cost more than it should. The same thing happend with TSR 2 which was at the time far ahead of anything the Americans had. It is my belief that the worst enemy this Country has in industry, education, innovation and commerce is HMG

Answer 3

to be honest I feel it is the same here in the US. There are a group of people that bring the media in on everything...too politically correct, too much tax, too few honest people running things, too few rights, 911 gave this government the opportunity to take 1/2 our rights away, people want to be compensated for being called a b*tch, when it is probably the truth. would you like 11 million for being called a b*tch? It is sad and pathetic. Everyone wants to pay attention to what everybody else is doing, not minding what their own children are doing...then they blame the government when their stupid kid gets hit by a bus. There is no end to the stupidity. It is really depressing that we live in a time when most people are more interested in how much they can buy the latest phone for, and not how they will be able to defend themselves when someone breaks into their house in the middle of the night.

Answer 4

No, we are just paying for all those interludes we had when we voted for a Socialist Government. They crippled our industries, destroyed your creativeness. All our best inventors, scientists and wealth creators went abroad during the period called the "Brain Drain," because success was taxed at 95p in the pound.

So if you created jobs by a new invention you only got to keep 5p in every pound you made.

So now we pay. Let's not forget that a symposium of the worlds top scientists who voted for the 100 most important inventions or discoveries of all time, 54% came from our little island. Yep, out of 200 countries, 54% of the most important scientific breakthroughs came from one little Island, ours.

Our governments wouldn't support these breakthroughs and our banks wouldn't finance them. So they all went to America. American banks are enterpreneurial, and will take a chance. British banks only lend money to home owners or businesses that are already successful.

That's why we are where we are. We are the worlds greatest creators, but the worlds worst at benefitting from it's own creations.

Answer 5

Strangely enough that is the same question i asked my hubby this evening after watching the news. How can they possibly feel sorry for a person who has raped,attacked, stolen etc etc and not send him back to his country, who cares if he was only 6 years old when he moved here. Don't they care about the British woman who have been raped and attacked by this criminal. I thought that Britain had a just system, but it is just so wrong. Those sitting at the top there are giving too much leeway to the criminals and the normal person on the street is paying the price. Why don't you stand for President, i will vote for you at least you can see that things are just not right here.:)

Answer 6

The whingebag bit is accurate, and thats just what you are doing. How ironic!

Launching rockets into space is not the sign of a great nation, it is highly expensive and highly pollutive. As well as highly dangerous to the astronauts in question and highly unneccessary!

The F1 racing team McClaren is British, an example of us designing great technology, and also an example of a great sportsmen, Lewis Hamilton! And the football team aren't doing so well at the moment, but the Rugby team have reached two world cup finals in a row.

There will always be issues with education and healthcare, just like there will always be in ALL other countries!

Now try to look at it from another countries point of view, the largest superpower itself for example; They're President bought the election, and this has been allowed to happen,
Guns are legal and as a result about 50 times more people are killed due to gun crime than over here
I could go on.

Point is Britain is still a great country with diverse popular culture and a rich history thats unmatched. We continue to produce fantastic minds at some of the worlds top universities (2 obvious ones), greats sports men and women, great music, and literature as well.

Stop bloody whinging :-)

Answer 7

I can answer this. Great Britain is no longer great directly due to multiculturilism and the European Union etlites that want to erase Euroepan ethnicities and try to unite everyone under the false guise of them all being 'European'.

Britain needs to say NO to immigration, Especially massive third world immigration.

Britain should take American Libertarian views on Healthcare, its the best way.

The educational system needs to throw out this Political correctness.

Vote BNP, please.

And by the way everyone reading this, can you answer my last question I asked on this page? I noticed no one answered it, its really important.

"Guns are legal and as a result about 50 times more people are killed due to gun crime than over here
I could go on."

The guns that are used in school shootings are ALL bought illegaly, incase you hadn't heard.
Tyrants from MAO to Stalin has tried to disarm the general population.
Plus, its common sense-- you wouldn't rob a house if you knew someone could shoot you.

Like one of my favorite radio host said, "Its not the guns I'm worried about, its the people that are violent enough to kill someone". Thats like saying "ban knives because people get stabbed".

I don't understand why liberals support gun control.

And for any Americans like me:
Vote Ron Paul in 2008. Look him up.

Answer 8

It goes back toi the sixties when innovative people and entrepreneurs were taxed out of this country (my grandfather paid tax of £1.08 for each £1.00 he earned). At the same the scientists and inventors were tempted abroad by large salaries and better facilities. We have never recovered.

Answer 9

Its called being over run by people who are not British! And now we as a nation are no longer great coz were full of scroungers who want everything for free!

For the record i'm a English person born and bred!!

Answer 10

Er, gosh, that's a good question but it's a bit late for me to engage my brain sufficiently to even attempt an answer tonight. Can you put the same question tomorrow, after my breakfast, say 8.00? I will still be living in Britain then and I think I like being in your second-rate country; less pressure, see?