58% of UK teens think Sherlock Holmes was real. 20% say Churchill was fake.

[Sava]

dingaling for my dingaling

[OneFootInTheGrave]

English want to be like Americans and it looks like they are succeeding with new generations.

[Sava]

I wonder what percentage of Croatian teens think Ustaše was a pop group.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Not yet, give it another 50 years.

[kentonio]

English want to be like Americans and it looks like they are succeeding with new generations.

No, we really don't.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Three of the last four PM's would disagree...

You have broken down the unions, reduced housing benefits greatly, made universities payable by the students, privatized "everything", ie gas, water, utilities, railways - to questionable success... even going in the direction to privatize NHS. Going to ludicrous wars, all in all - 51st state - I guess it is rubbing off on the quality of primary education as well.

[kentonio]

Three of the last four PM's would disagree...

You have broken down the unions, reduced housing benefits greatly, made universities payable by the students, privatized "everything", ie gas, water, utilities, railways - to questionable success... even going in the direction to privatize NHS. Going to ludicrous wars, all in all - 51st state - I guess it is rubbing off on the quality of primary education as well.

Unions were broken down because they needed to be broken down. There's a still a significant union presence and hopefully will continue to be. They just can't plunge the country into depression if their political goals aren't met these days.

As for housing benefit, it was previously far too generous in some cases, so I'm not going to lose any sleep about that. The way it was carried out was clumsy and poorly handled in many cases, but I'm yet to hear a good explanation for why the state should be paying for multi-bedroom houses for people who don't need them. I'm all for ensuring that everyone has housing, but when the taxpayer is covering your rent you can't expect that to be a top drawer property. A vast number of people renting don't get the luxury of an ideal home either.

Fully with you on much of the privatization and at least one of the wars however.

[kentonio]

My favourite dumb British kids thing is that not only do they not know who Winston Churchill is - but that they think he's black!

Awesome! I just googled and there's a great Yahoo Question page about it.

Was Winston Churchill black?

no

[loinburger]

[molly bloom]

They just can't plunge the country into depression if their political goals aren't met these days.

.

And when exactly in history did they and they alone do that ? I think I missed that in the rewritten Thatcherite history of the world.

[kentonio]

And when exactly in history did they and they alone do that ? I think I missed that in the rewritten Thatcherite history of the world.

Oh, you skipped the seventies then?

[molly bloom]

Oh, you skipped the seventies then?

The 70s with the oil crisis ? That one ?

Or did you have another one in mind ?

Also the 70s with a property boom bust cycle under the Tories. How terribly innovative! Didn't we have those in the 80s and 90s too ?

That's Tory love of tradition for you.

Unlike Sister Bendy, I have read a few history books.

[kentonio]

Oh yawn, let's have some more romanticized fiction about that glorious age when Britain was a half decrepit ruin with endless electricity blackouts, rubbish filling the streets because the binmen were constantly on strike etc etc. Before Thatcher Britain was a mess, after Thatcher we were back on track to becoming a modern thriving country. If you want to claim that's all down to oil, then feel free, but it's actually because she had the courage to stand up and carry out incredibly bold strategies to reshape the country at a time when the previous 'leaders' had done their best to run it into the ground. Today she'd be a nightmare for Britain, but back then she was the leader we needed at the time.

[molly bloom]

Before Thatcher Britain was a mess, after Thatcher we were back on track to becoming a modern thriving country.

Oh, as in Nineteenth Century modern ? Because I'd seen street beggars precisely twice in my life before Thatcher's period as Prime Minister- in Eire and Franco's Spain.

It was her politics that brought back that lovely picturesque Dickensian touch to Victorian values Britain.

And I didn't notice anywhere me romanticising the 70s- power cuts are no fun whether you grow up to vote Socialist or not. You're the one with rose coloured spectacles.

Today she'd be a nightmare for Britain

She was then too.

Unemployment had been rising throughout the 1970s as companies set about restructuring and modernising their businesses.

But it picked up speed after the Conservatives took power in 1979, rapidly rising to over three million out of work in 1983.

Unemployment hit hardest in Northern Ireland, where one in five people was out of work in the early 1980s, along with the industrial areas of northern England and Scotland.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22070491

There were a lot of people having bad dreams thanks to her governments.

However tough budgetary measures meant that growth suffered in Mrs Thatcher's first term, with a deep recession in the early 1980s followed later in the decade by a boom.

A deep recession in the early 1980s ? Clearly it was the unions wot done it!

[kentonio]

Oh, as in Nineteenth Century modern ? Because I'd seen street beggars precisely twice in my life before Thatcher's period as Prime Minister- in Eire and Franco's Spain.

It was her politics that brought back that lovely picturesque Dickensian touch to Victorian values Britain

And I didn't notice anywhere me romanticising the 70s- power cuts are no fun whether you grow up to vote Socialist or not. You're the one with rose coloured spectacles.

Make your mind up, either Britain was worse before or better before (or the same before). Because the Britain in the seventies I know was a absolute ****hole.

There were a lot of people having bad dreams thanks to her governments.

A deep recession in the early 1980s ? Clearly it was the unions wot done it!

You mean she didn't come in and immediately fix all problems in the country overnight? Gosh, she must have been a failure then..