Brits Leaving UK In Droves.

[samkydd]

Originally Posted by penfold I think our relationship with booze predates the laws. Alcohol has always been perceived as a cultural problem here....vide the Hogarth engraving, the Temperance movement from 1850's onwards...whereas the licensing hours were only brought it around 1916 to increase productivity for munitions workers...

Wasn't there a gin addiction epidemic amongst the lower classes in the mid-19th century? I recall a story about an addicted mother swapping her child for a jug of gin.

[penfold]

Originally Posted by samkydd Wasn't there a gin addiction epidemic amongst the lower classes in the mid-19th century? I recall a story about an addicted mother swapping her child for a jug of gin.

Earlier. That's the subject of the Hogarth engraving...from 1751....Gin Lane.

[samkydd]

Originally Posted by penfold Earlier. That's the subject of the Hogarth engraving...from 1751....Gin Lane.

It looks like any night of the week in any present day English town.

[Freddy]

Originally Posted by samkydd Wasn't there a gin addiction epidemic amongst the lower classes in the mid-19th century? I recall a story about an addicted mother swapping her child for a jug of gin.

I seem to recall the first vending machines were designed for gin. Found these lovely snippets on 'The Virtual Stoa'

More on gin, thanks to Katy. This is a 1705 ad for a special kind of gin brewed up in a London ginhouse:
"One glass will restore an old man of threescore to the juvenility of thirty, make a girl of fourteen as ripe as an old maid of twentyfour, a Puritan to lust after the flesh and a married man to oblige his wife oftener in one night than without it he might do in seven".


She adds: "Such dangerous concoctions were served up surreptitiously at so-called Puss and Mew shops after the hardline mid 18th century Gin Act. On walls down side alleys, there were painted signs of cats, and if you looked closely, there was a little slot under its tail for a coin. On inserting a coin, crying "Mew, mew!" and holding a glass underneath the cat's mouth, the glass would be magically filled with contraband gin via a spout protruding from beneath the cat's teeth."

The Virtual Stoa

regards

Freddy

[David Brent]

Thousands of Illegal immigrants waiting to invade Britain.

Scum and get it | News | News of the World

Afghans, Iraqis, Somalis, Ethiopians, Pakistanis, Kenyans, Eritreans and Turks are gathered in Calais, France waiting for an opportunity to illegally enter Britain - and the French authorities are doing little about it.

In the above article one Iraqi is quoted as saying "The war has made my country very dangerous, so I will go to England. Then I will get a job and house".

If all of these illegal immigrants are fleeing from troubled countries why do they not claim asylum in France? Why do they feel so strongly that they must reach the UK?

Do the words - soft and touch - come to mind?

Dave.

[Moor Larkin]

Originally Posted by samkydd It looks like any night of the week in any present day English town.

Now come on! Even the Daily Mail doesn't claim that youngsters go bingeing with their single-mothered babies in their arms!......

I do wonder how much the ghettoisation of town centres lends itself this alcoholic playground. Towns now are often utopian planning dreams - shops in the day, gin palaces in the night. Not a single 'normal' human being within two or three miles. I recall my relatively small town changing markedly twenty years or so ago when all the terraced housing near the centre was demolished to make way for car-parking, with new housing being erected a couple of miles away on ex-industrial land. It left the place like a ghost-town around 6.30pm once the shops shut. There was a sense of dereliction, especially since most of the shops had steel shutters, that was ironic as everything was pretty much brand new!

I was in Brighton recently and I noticed lots of posh flats being built right in the centre of the night-life area. I wonder if town centres become real living places again, whether some of this outlandish behaviour will diminish.

[batman]

Originally Posted by Moor Larkin I was in Brighton recently and I noticed lots of posh flats being built right in the centre of the night-life area. I wonder if town centres become real living places again, whether some of this outlandish behaviour will diminish.

They built lots of posh flats right in the heart of Norwich's 'nightlife' area. Tiny one bedroomed jobs were going for about half a million quid ..... about 9 months later most of them were back on the market!

Bats.

[Wolfgang]

Originally Posted by David Brent In the above article one Iraqi is quoted as saying "The war has made my country very dangerous, so I will go to England. Then I will get a job and house".

To be fair there is good chance that England and America have bombed his house so you could say he is owed one

[harryfielder]

I saw an old boy of 102 has gone to live in NZ. (There's a chance for me yet)

Aitch,

[Number2]

UK living standards outstrip US - Times Online

LIVING standards in Britain are set to rise above those in America for the first time since the 19th century, according to a report by the respected Oxford Economics consultancy.

Any comments from those who have visited/lived in both recently?

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by Number2 UK living standards outstrip US - Times Online Any comments from those who have visited/lived in both recently?

Are you allowed to include things like that here? I thought that this thread was for Britons who had emigrated and were desperately trying to justify their decision

Either that or for readers of the Daily Hate Mail and similar rags who believe the country's been going to the dogs ever since the death of Queen Victoria

Steve

[BristolUK]

Originally Posted by Steve Crook Are you allowed to include things like that here? I thought that this thread was for Britons who had emigrated and were desperately trying to justify their decision

I don't have any figures on this but I think there might be one or two Brits who emigrated to a country other than the US.

Also, I wonder if having experienced life in the UK and abroad - thus having been able to make their own comparison instead of relying on media or other bias - might be the reason for people leaving and mostly not returning.

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by BristolUK I don't have any figures on this but I think there might be one or two Brits who emigrated to a country other than the US.

Of course, I mean all British emigrants who were desperately trying to justify their decision

And I'm sure some of them are really happy with their decision to emigrate

Steve

[David Brent]

Originally Posted by Steve Crook Of course, I mean all British emigrants who were desperately trying to justify their decision And I'm sure some of them are really happy with their decision to emigrate Steve

Didn't you live in Wales for awhile Steve?
You cannot get more foreign than that.

Dave.

[David Brent]

Bishop warns of no-go zones for non-Muslims - Telegraph

Any comments ?

Dave.