Retrieving the American flag - live on SKY.

[nick mercedes]

Put them on their houses.

150 million of them a year???

How many houses can there be there?

Who does it hurt, harmless bit of national pride. Meanwhile here in blighty we bleat and moan about how our traditions and customs can offend new comers to the UK.

We should demand a return of bear baiting and witch drowning.

 

[nick mercedes]

nick, are you opposed to flags, Americans, or both?

If you want to fly a flag, any flag, carry on, but treating it as anything other than a nice looking bit of cloth is silly.

 

[st4]

We should demand a return of bear baiting.

Can we get fox hunting back. A great British tradition killed by unwashed university liberal sorts.

 

[nick mercedes]

Can we get fox hunting back. A great British tradition killed by unwashed university liberal sorts.

The inedible chased by the unspeakable?

Urban Dictionary: fox hunting

 

[Dryce]

If you want to fly a flag, any flag, carry on, but treating it as anything other than a nice looking bit of cloth is silly.

Whatever.

 

[nick mercedes]

Will, again you have have to ridicule another's sensibilities?

He's in training for the over 18s area?

 

[st4]

The inedible chased by the unspeakable?

Urban Dictionary: fox hunting

I'm up for bull fighting coming to Britain.

Should solve the horse meet scandal although I never cared for horses so happy to eat them.

 

[markjay]

A flag is as close as you can get to an abstract idea while still having something to look it.

It is just a piece of cloth and has no value, it is not made of woven gold and it is not encrusted with diamonds.

It is just a symbol, and it symbolises unity.

However, when there is no unity, the flag becomes worthless and meaningless once again, just a piece of cloth and nothing more.

Serve under a flag? When you next walk down the high street just look around you and ask yourself this - if this country ever came again under existential threat as it did seventy years ago, how many of those around you would go and fight for it, and how many would quickly emigrate to another country with warmer climate and lower taxation?

 

[Dryce]

I'm up for bull fighting coming to Britain.

Ever seen a bull fight for real?

First time I saw one I was rather surprised by the actual ritual vs what I was expecting. I wasn't impressed.

I'm not much impressed by fox hunting either - but then when I grew up the local hunt had a habit of annoying some of the locals with it's attitude to charging about.

 

[nick mercedes]

Serve under a flag? When you next walk down the high street just look around you and ask yourself this - if this country ever came again under existential threat as it did seventy years ago, how many of those around you would go and fight for it, and how many would quickly emigrate to another country with warmer climate and lower taxation?

No point worrying about a flag when our country has been asset stripped, and is dependant on imports...

 

[markjay]

No point worrying about a flag when our country has been asset stripped,
...

This is not about Gordon Brown selling the gold again, is it?

 

[Dryce]

Serve under a flag? When you next walk down the high street just look around you and ask yourself this - if this country ever came again under existential threat as it did seventy years ago, how many of those around you would go and fight for it, and how many would quickly emigrate to another country with warmer climate and lower taxation?

We tend to think that cynicism and social attitudes of today are modern and that courage and stoicism are something from another age.

I don't think this is true.

There are no guarantees but I think if the country was tested then the public might surprise itself.

 

[markjay]

We tend to think that cynicism and social attitudes of today are modern and that courage and stoicism are something from another age.

I don't think this is true.

There are no guarantees but I think if the country was tested then the public might surprise itself.

Perhaps we do need a war to once again appreciate the importance of the flag...

 

[Dryce]

Is not about Gordon Brown selling the gold again, is it?

I claim that bug-bear.

However I think it was only one tiny part of what's happened to the economy as a whole over more than a generation. We don't as a nation own or control as much of the important parts of our own economy as we should.

 

[Dryce]

Perhaps we do need a war to once again appreciate the flag...

No thanks ....

 

[markjay]

I claim that bug-bear.

However I think it was only one tiny part of what's happened to the economy as a whole over more than a generation. We don't as a nation own or control as much of the important parts of our own economy as we should.

I am not sure that this is the same as asset stripping. Shares can change hands but the physical assets remain in the UK.

I don't have an issue with a German company buying a British car factory.

But I am less impressed when a Chinese company buys a car factory then takes it apart and moves it to China.

 

[nick mercedes]

I am not sure that this is the same as asset stripping. Shares can change hands but the physical assets remain in the UK.

I don't have an issue with a German company buying a British car factory.

But I am less impressed when a Chinese company buys a car factory then takes it apart and moves it to China.

Did not a German company buy the British car factory, run it into the ground and cause it to be exported to China?

The Germans brought ERF, Bentley and Rolls Royce all of which are now manufactured in Germany rather than here.

 

[markjay]

I think there are two separate issues here.

Are we unimpressed with Americans' obsession with flags, or are we unimpressed with flags in general?

Criticism of America and criticism of patriotism are not the same.

 

[markjay]

Did not a German company buy the British car factory, run it into the ground and cause it to be exported to China?

The Germans brought ERF, Bentley and Rolls Royce all of which are now manufactured in Germany rather than here.

The Bentley and Rolls Royce factories are thankfully still both with us. As well as their employees.

 

[Dryce]

I am not sure that this is the same as asset stripping. Shares can change hands but the physical assets remain in the UK.

The UK has basically been selling off the insides of the house. Our bathrooms and plumbing are now rented and leased to foreign companies. Our driveway has been sold off. Our electrical wiring, sockets, and lighting is no longer our own. Our boiler and heating system likewise.

The house is still there though.