I was going to mention this in a later post, but here's one hell of a study:
And it's been this way since the Normans. The English have traditionally been called "les goddams" by the French, because they swear all the time, and have been long known as alcoholic, fighty bastards.
Did you guys ever undergo some kind of prohibitionist culture? Like, when us Yanks averaged a handle of hard liquor every few days it kicked off a national movement that simultaneously drew attention to an issue/utterly failed at fixing it. From my limited understanding of British history no similar movement happened.
No, that has never happened. Even the stupidest elite has always known this would cause nationwide riots, and perhaps guillotines.
20 years ago, my thoughts were along the lines of forming soft alliances with other peripheral nations, like Norway and Sweden, drawing back toward a more outward-looking, scandic alignment and away from the french-continental orientation the isles have held for the last few centuries. I was an idealist. Right now my thoughts are more along the lines of reversing the relationship between the state and the people, promoting more local democracy, separation of the executive and the legislature, reduction of the power of the bureacratic state and things like that. Grand visions of how the UK interacts with the world are an entertaining diversion, but they're less than pipe dreams until ultimate authority over the nations of the union has been restored to its rightful place, in the hands of the people.
Yeah, seconding this. We could have been like Norway, but on a bigger scale, but right now that's like the owners of the Titanic thinking about fitting it out with a swimming pool while it's busy sinking.
Very true. But it seems to me that the global capital system is about to implode. Russia vs Ukraine. Arabia vs Iran. Turkey vs Greece/Syria/Iraq/Russia? China being punished by God again. Macron and Scholz are not talking. The Germans are busy exporting all of their manufacturing industry to Louisiana. I am not saying Britain is going to become any better but that Old World might about to go through a Roman Empire style collaspe. Once the inputs for global agriculture disappear, everyone is going to fend for themselves. In that case, the bar will have been sufficiently lowered that Skegness, might, MIGHT, seem less like a mislaid concentration camp.
It's one thing to make booze too expensive for the poor man to be able to buy...they will accept that, grumble but accept. It's entirely a different thing to outright ban it for moral reasons, and no one would stand for it. A poor man can imagine becoming rich, but give him no path to a pint at all, however unobtainable, and there will trouble.
I can go months and months without drinking anything and not feel the urge, despite my small collection of gin... and every time a doctor tells me, "You can't drink on this medication/while waiting for this test/until x goes down," I have to physically restrain myself from legging it to the nearest pub. I then crave alcohol like an addict craves heroin for the duration of the restraint period, and then when it's over, I suddenly stop wanting that drink and forget that I even did.
