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Divided Britain


islandgun
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I've never seen Britain so divided, 50/50 for and against just about everything. every politician ready to back stab the next in line, Brexit,  independence votes,  crowd funding and petitions, banning of foods and vehicles,  everyone claiming that they are right, Pc environmentalist's, extremes in everything...used to be that Britain was a lot more easy going, excepting of others and exponents of the live and let live philosophy.. anyone else notice this, and any ideas what has caused it or how to cure it... think i need a nice cup of tea..🙂 

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3 minutes ago, islandgun said:

I've never seen Britain so divided, 50/50 for and against just about everything. every politician ready to back stab the next in line, Brexit,  independence votes,  crowd funding and petitions, banning of foods and vehicles,  everyone claiming that they are right, Pc environmentalist's, extremes in everything...used to be that Britain was a lot more easy going, excepting of others and exponents of the live and let live philosophy.. anyone else notice this, and any ideas what has caused it or how to cure it... think i need a nice cup of tea..🙂 

I dont think its quite that bad, theres division yes, but its more about the media whipping it up and putting ideas in peoples heads ,than a conscious decision to be divisive .

I think its important to get a line drawn under Brexit, and move on, its given the media more ammo than they need or deserve.

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36 minutes ago, islandgun said:

I've never seen Britain so divided, 50/50 for and against just about everything. every politician ready to back stab the next in line, Brexit,  independence votes,  crowd funding and petitions, banning of foods and vehicles,  everyone claiming that they are right, Pc environmentalist's, extremes in everything...used to be that Britain was a lot more easy going, excepting of others and exponents of the live and let live philosophy.. anyone else notice this, and any ideas what has caused it or how to cure it... think i need a nice cup of tea..🙂 

It's all down to social media innit. 

It's now possible to go onto the likes of Chris Packham's twitter account and call him a ladies foo foo or whatever you want, knowing that he will see and read it, and often respond too.  Back in the day a strongly worded letter of complaint to the BBC would end up in the bin. The same with politicians, media folk, so called celebrities etc. The division and distrust has always been there, but it's never been so easy to stick it to the man as it is today... 

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51 minutes ago, islandgun said:

I've never seen Britain so divided, 50/50 for and against just about everything. every politician ready to back stab the next in line, Brexit,  independence votes,  crowd funding and petitions, banning of foods and vehicles,  everyone claiming that they are right, Pc environmentalist's, extremes in everything...used to be that Britain was a lot more easy going, excepting of others and exponents of the live and let live philosophy.. anyone else notice this, and any ideas what has caused it or how to cure it... think i need a nice cup of tea..🙂 

I believe a lot of this has to do with access to information - it is well documented as the paradox of the information age. Instant access to information should be a mechanism that enables our collective opinions to merge and drive us to a greater common understanding and better alignment on most matters. Instead we get content tailored to reinforce our biases and this drives further division.

There is also the fact that this instant access to information allows some people to have, and willingly express, an opinion on just about everything. Couple this with people who are not able to adequately comprehend the complexities of the real world who then form black and white opinions on most matters as some kind of coping / defence mechanism and voila! 

Then of course there are people who turn everything into a discussion about Brexit 😛 

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58 minutes ago, Raja Clavata said:

I believe a lot of this has to do with access to information - it is well documented as the paradox of the information age. Instant access to information should be a mechanism that enables our collective opinions to merge and drive us to a greater common understanding and better alignment on most matters. Instead we get content tailored to reinforce our biases and this drives further division.

There is also the fact that this instant access to information allows some people to have, and willingly express, an opinion on just about everything. Couple this with people who are not able to adequately comprehend the complexities of the real world who then form black and white opinions on most matters as some kind of coping / defence mechanism and voila! 

Then of course there are people who turn everything into a discussion about Brexit 😛 

:lol:

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Ok I get social media, instant access, and making your voice heard but, lots of people feel the need to interfere with things that dont effect them. for instance the wild justice thing, most of the people that pay their money to ban the evil blood sport, have no knowledge about the countryside or pheasants, yet still object. same with eating beef, no understanding of permanent pasture but want it stopped. I on the other hand do not object to anything, want to have a religion ? fill your boots, stick nails in your spine ? go for it [my daughter actually knows someone that had spikes in their back] If i dont agree or like something I dont feel the need to crowd fund and get it stopped !

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I think most of the blame lays at the feet of the media! It wasn't long ago that they were telling us that the eu had banned bent bananas and all sorts of other ****, and before that we were all going to be killed in the new ice age (back in the 1970's) now its all about the cow farts that will kill us all. The government should take most of the rest for being too pc and not having the backbone to stand their ground against extremists of all types and the eu.  The eu should take a bit of the blame for not taking in to account cultural differences when making the rules that we are meant to follow. 

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So many of our historic freedoms have been stolen in my lifetime that I could bang on all night about it but here's just one little episode from 20 years ago: I was driving along a lane between the village of Charfield and the small town of Wotton-under-Edge. As I took took the turn by the vets I saw an elderly "Countryman" walking along the grass verge. He had baler twine around his middle and in his right hand was a shotgun, open but not cased. Even as recently as 1999 no one batted an eyelid but now someone would ring the police who would send in the ARU. The old guy would lose his ticket for sure, probably for ever and yet another "Gun Crime" would be recorded.

How unutterably sad this once great nation has become.

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We are far more united than divided. We are just trying to face the reality of our changing status as a nation. Most people still want the best for the country. The media and our access to information and lack of ability to handle the data has much to do with the apparent division. 

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49 minutes ago, islandgun said:

Ok I get social media, instant access, and making your voice heard but, lots of people feel the need to interfere with things that dont effect them. for instance the wild justice thing, most of the people that pay their money to ban the evil blood sport, have no knowledge about the countryside or pheasants, yet still object. same with eating beef, no understanding of permanent pasture but want it stopped. I on the other hand do not object to anything, want to have a religion ? fill your boots, stick nails in your spine ? go for it [my daughter actually knows someone that had spikes in their back] If i dont agree or like something I dont feel the need to crowd fund and get it stopped !

That's the HOLIER THAN THOU Brigade!

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2 hours ago, poontang said:

It's all down to social media innit. 

It's now possible to go onto the likes of Chris Packham's twitter account and call him a ladies foo foo or whatever you want, knowing that he will see and read it, and often respond too.  Back in the day a strongly worded letter of complaint to the BBC would end up in the bin. The same with politicians, media folk, so called celebrities etc. The division and distrust has always been there, but it's never been so easy to stick it to the man as it is today... 

This. Everyone now has a voice and they all want to be heard. 

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5 hours ago, Westward said:

So many of our historic freedoms have been stolen in my lifetime that I could bang on all night about it but here's just one little episode from 20 years ago: I was driving along a lane between the village of Charfield and the small town of Wotton-under-Edge. As I took took the turn by the vets I saw an elderly "Countryman" walking along the grass verge. He had baler twine around his middle and in his right hand was a shotgun, open but not cased. Even as recently as 1999 no one batted an eyelid but now someone would ring the police who would send in the ARU. The old guy would lose his ticket for sure, probably for ever and yet another "Gun Crime" would be recorded.

How unutterably sad this once great nation has become.

Admittedly, I dont have baler twine around my waist, but when crossing the road, and walking along it from one entrance to another on my friends and familys land, I dont bother to sleeve my gun. I can also remember shooting down in Somerset about five or six years ago when the shoot captain almost demanded that the guns didn't sleeve their guns as we walked from the meeting point to the first drive along a country lane.

This said, I wont walk down a main street with my gun under my arm, but - and this isn't my area of law, so I am more than happy for someone to correct me - my understanding is that the person who owns the land on one side of the road, owns the land underneath it, and therefore (in most cases) the sporting rights, up untill the middle of the road.

 

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  "The Abolition of Britain"  by Peter Hitchens.  This book really summarises all you need to know about today's UK.

It was published 2008 and goes through the rapid changes to the UK after the 2nd World War;  Church going decline, literacy drop, reading of less and less history, working women, the Communist influence on UK education as academics moved more and more to the Left, the pills arrival, drop in morality/responsibility etc etc, things that many here will recognise (because we live in that echo chamber) and know to be true.

  Personally I do not see the current system as sustainable, there are no longer any moral compasses for children, parents, even, have relinquished all childrearing responsibility to the State or a childminder. 

  This is not unique to the UK, but to the whole of what used to be called "Western Civilisation".

  Change is coming, and I do not think it will be pleasant, we simply cannot go on like this.  It is, in my opinion, either Civil disruption or some larger conflict.

  Those to the Right of center will prevail and children will once more read Shelley and Keats, Enid Blyton and Arthur Ransome, they will play outdoors and climb trees with no fear, but broken limbs will follow.

 

RS

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9 hours ago, PeterHenry said:

Admittedly, I dont have baler twine around my waist, but when crossing the road, and walking along it from one entrance to another on my friends and familys land, I dont bother to sleeve my gun. I can also remember shooting down in Somerset about five or six years ago when the shoot captain almost demanded that the guns didn't sleeve their guns as we walked from the meeting point to the first drive along a country lane.

This said, I wont walk down a main street with my gun under my arm, but - and this isn't my area of law, so I am more than happy for someone to correct me - my understanding is that the person who owns the land on one side of the road, owns the land underneath it, and therefore (in most cases) the sporting rights, up untill the middle of the road.

 

No from a hedge or wall to the main road would be classed as part if the highway .

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18 minutes ago, RockySpears said:

  "The Abolition of Britain"  by Peter Hitchens.  This book really summarises all you need to know about today's UK.

It was published 2008 and goes through the rapid changes to the UK after the 2nd World War;  Church going decline, literacy drop, reading of less and less history, working women, the Communist influence on UK education as academics moved more and more to the Left, the pills arrival, drop in morality/responsibility etc etc, things that many here will recognise (because we live in that echo chamber) and know to be true.

  Personally I do not see the current system as sustainable, there are no longer any moral compasses for children, parents, even, have relinquished all childrearing responsibility to the State or a childminder. 

  This is not unique to the UK, but to the whole of what used to be called "Western Civilisation".

  Change is coming, and I do not think it will be pleasant, we simply cannot go on like this.  It is, in my opinion, either Civil disruption or some larger conflict.

  Those to the Right of center will prevail and children will once more read Shelley and Keats, Enid Blyton and Arthur Ransome, they will play outdoors and climb trees with no fear, but broken limbs will follow.

 

RS

hello, very good post R S, 

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Yep agree with all the above particularly the huge damage social media and media more generally has done to the baviour of a very small but vociferous number of people who now have a voice. In times gone by they would not have been heard. Today they are heard and this encourages others to speak out. I worry but I'm determined to make the most of my hobbies for as long as I'm allowed.

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1 hour ago, henry d said:

Why do people want to cling on to the rosy past? "It was oh so much better back then..."

No those days are gone, get over it! "For the times they are a changing..."

I dont see anyone wanting to cling on to a rosy past, the thread is about the almost 50/50 divisions that we now seem to face, . what happened to give and take, live and let live etc 

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1 hour ago, henry d said:

Why do people want to cling on to the rosy past? "It was oh so much better back then..."

Who even says that anymore ? 

 

1 hour ago, henry d said:

No those days are gone, get over it! "For the times they are a changing..."

Changing for he better, for some, for others, not so much.

Are we talking global averages , people of the UK , in general I do think people lives in the UK have got better..for some..

1 hour ago, Penelope said:

For the worse from what I see and my experience.

Exactly, what about the people who live and work in London, do they feel safer, are their live 'better' than what 10 , 20 , 30 years ago, the place is unrecognisable from 30 years ago, is it better ?

 

1 hour ago, henry d said:

Put the kettle on, sit down with the drink of your choice and have a listen to this...

Which tells us what ? One mans perspective, with a load of massaged figures to back it up ?
This is what division means, one persons life might not be as good as it once was , they might yearn for the past and hate their present.
Whilst others think their present and possible future are looking great, because they have come from darker times.

If one thinks the best course of action for their personal happiness and prosperity lies by supporting one ideology, and that ideology is opposed by another, because he believes HIS personal happiness is best served by an opposite ideology, then we have division.
Its always been here, from tribal, cultural, religious, racial and national reasons.
The difference is we usually practice acceptance of others point of view.

Lately , we seem to have a total disrespect of views that oppose the mainstream, the word nazi and racist bandied about, ending any discourse or discussion, as any person accused of these heinous thoughts, whether they have them or not, is not entitled to an opinion.
Those progressives that make the call for unity and equality, seem to not find it at all ironic, that these noble qualities only apply to those that hold onto their own personal ideologies.

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