Where is Great Britain?

[Rockstar]

Though it was part of the spearhead to overthrow Gadaffi it ducked out shortly afterwards leaving Libya to extremists and in a state of chaos.

Then the biggest thing to happen in Europe since the Cold War when Russia annexed Crimea and supported the war in Ukraine. The major players to travel to Russia for negotiations were only France and Germany.

Last I heard there was news of people having a good laugh about a prime minister using a knife and a fork to eat a hotdog and thats been about it.

[leo01]

gather

[Eichhörnchen]

Our armed services are just spread too thin now; instead of bolstering US forces with brigades of our own, for example, we're now compelled to attach our soldiers to American forces to operate within, rather than alongside, them. This is what I hear on the news, anyway.

Maybe our politicians are having to admit we're no longer the great player we ought to be...

[Jimbuna]

Nothing much left of the 'Great' anymore but still doing its best punching above its weight for fear of becoming an isolationist.

[August]

I was listening to an NPR report the other day that basically said Britain is stepping off the world stage. Hope it's not true. John Bull has been a force for far more good than bad and his loss will be keenly felt.

[XabbaRus]

To be honest I think there are other priorities that need to be tackled now.
I was once a staunch defender of Trident and the armed forces but seeing what we have got ourselves into of late I wonder is it worth it. Being a father and with my daughter now in secondary school and my son following a few years later I think the money saved on defence could be better spent elsewhere. Free education for one thing, including a first degree. Does that mean Britain can't have world beating defence technology companies, would it meant BAe Systems would wither and die? Of course not. Sweden doesn't have a huge defence budget but she sure as hell exports a lot.

The fact is a lot of European countries look at the UK and how she is kind of in Europe but not and think she isn't worth it. That is why France and Germany have led the negotiations and the process regarding the Ukraine. The UK needs to make a commitment to the EU one way or the other. But we just antagonise people. Ergo - no one really wants us involved.

[Oberon]

You can't be a power without the muscle to back it up. We've been putting this off since WWII bankrupted us and whilst we've tried to do more with less, it's gotten to the point where we just can't do it any more.
We're going to have to fall back for a couple of decades to rebuild ourselves. I think that even the US will have to do a similar thing in the coming century as the debt ceiling is pushed ever higher.
We'll still be around, not as a great power, but as a regional one and if we're called I dare say we'll answer to the best that we can.
In regards to Trident, it is, I fear, a necessary evil in a world where the possibility of nuclear proliferation is still high, but we'll just have to see where the next government, in whatever form it takes, will do.

EDIT: I think our future lies as part of a European power bloc, rather than isolated and alone. We just don't have the clout for individual actions any more.

[Eichhörnchen]

We are, are we not, supposed to be subscribing to this European Rapid-Reaction Force? That's something, I suppose, but more about putting fires out than enforcing Policy.

[MGR1]

1: There's a General Election campaign going on, so no one's really paying attention to the rest of the planet.

2: The UK is currently undergoing a monumental identity crisis which has come to a head after the Scottish independence referendum last year.

3: The UK's fundamentally broke and none of the political parties have any real idea as to how to fix it.

As for Trident, it's regrettable necessity, but it'll have to be moved from Faslane. Not because I support the SNP's position, but it'll hopefully stop Glasgow gurning about it!! I'm fed up with the constant "We're no wantin' it hear, pal"!!!!! If they're prepared to take the jobs hit, I'm sure somewhere else would simply love to have the boost to their economy!

Arguably the best location for it would be Cornwall or Devon as those are the closest to the continental shelf and deep water.

Mike.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Eichhornchen

We are, are we not, supposed to be subscribing to this European Rapid-Reaction Force? That's something, I suppose, but more about putting fires out than enforcing Policy.

I meant more as an entity, rather than the infighting collection of nation states we have right now. Individually none of the states in the EU can compete on an international level with the likes of the US, Russia or China, but together as a whole entity, it's one of the most powerful economic and political forces.

[STEED]

Great Britain.

[Catfish]

I do not see it as bad as you, obviously, i really do not think Great Britain is off the stage in any respect

But i could throw in some cheap advice:
1. Go off the financial market, do not rely on financial juggling as the sole means of wealth (because you only generate debt, and the breakdown of the middle class)
2. Ban interest (and screw the banks and their promises).
3. Begin to produce something real again; you have been great at it, you will be again.
4. Decide what you want to do. Finally get along with the EU, or create an exclusive five-eyes commercial zone.

I know what the EU will say to this


P.S: on a cynical sidenote: Maybe you should use your information advantage, and put your GCHQ industrial spying results to some better use

[Harvs]

If you look on the world map its under awesome Scotland.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Catfish

I do not see it as bad as you, obviously, i really do not think Great Britain is off the stage in any respect

But i could throw in some cheap advice:
1. Go off the financial market, do not rely on financial juggling as the sole means of wealth (because you only generate debt, and the breakdown of the middle class)
2. Ban interest (and screw the banks and their promises).
3. Begin to produce something real again; you have been great at it, you will be again.
4. Decide what you want to do. Finally get along with the EU, or create an exclusive five-eyes commercial zone.

I know what the EU will say to this


P.S: on a cynical sidenote: Maybe you should use your information advantage, and put your GCHQ industrial spying results to some better use

Can't disagree with this, but there are some distinct problems, sadly.
Brace yourself, I'm going to waffle a bit here, and it might get of Skybirdian length.

1. Go off the financial market, do not rely on financial juggling as the sole means of wealth (because you only generate debt, and the breakdown of the middle class)
3. Begin to produce something real again; you have been great at it, you will be again.

I shall bring these two together because the answer lies in both.

Britain had a thriving manufacturing industry at the turn of last century, we produced coal, steel, ships, and so forth, just as Germany did. However, our productivity declined through two World Wars and when we got to the 1970s the industries were not as profitable as they had once been, the car manufacturing industry was losing out to Japan and Germany, the steel industry was in decline after being used as a political football and the coal mines were also operating under par with a major conflict taking place between them and the governments of the day. The 1970s and early 1980s were marked with major industrial action and strikes.

Then came Margaret Thatcher, and she had an axe, a very sharp axe.

She swung that axe and sold off nearly everything that was run by the government, it was advertised as a way to make them more efficient and to generate money that would then be put back into the public through their ability to buy shares in these new companies.

It didn't work out that way. The new privatised companies couldn't compete in the international market and were soon eaten by multinational companies and the various manufacturing plants shut down. The coal mines were butchered, the steel industries gutted, and thousands of people made unemployed. It was a great and abrupt swift from secondary industries (steelworks, manufactured goods, etc) into the teritary industries and service sector (IT, banking, supermarkets, etc) and we're still recovering from the abruptness of it. The mid to late 1980s was when the seeds of the 2008 recession were planted, people were encouraged to borrow money to spend it to make more money, 'speculate to accumulate' was the phrase and it was, in short, a form of financial gambling. It created a new form of people which were dubbed the 'yuppie' who were usually seen talking loudly into their brick-like mobile phone whilst driving an open top car into the business sector of the city. Gone were the men in the bowler hats and suitcases trudging to work on the 7:45 train, and in were men in shirts and slacks, chewing gum and wearing sunglasses. 'The Wolf of Wall Street' summed up the era very well, the excesses and extremes that this new class of people went to.
Meanwhile the average public were encouraged to get credit cards and buy things now to pay later, houses, cars, holidays, TVs, VCRs, anything you could dream of could be yours and you wouldn't need to worry about paying it right now. Britain came into an era of plenty, buoyed by cheap goods from places like Taiwan and Japan, and the people spent because they could, because it was good to spend, because they had to spend, because someone without the latest commodity was someone who was to be looked down upon.

And so we racked up the personal debt, and so our government went from Conservative to Labour, who promised great works and great achievements, we saw the Millenium in with the Millenium Dome...which ran massively over-budget and over-timetable. The Financial sectors grew and grew, the old Docklands and run down areas of London were transformed within a decade from abandoned warehouses to upmarket flats and apartments.
The factories stayed closed, the coal mines did not reopen, the railways remained privatised. We became a nation where our success was measured by how much we earnt rather than what we made.
Then all our pigeons came home to roost and we didn't have the industry to fall back on.

These days China is where the cheap manufacturing comes from, and there's not a great deal that Britain can do in order to out-produce China, we might be able to make better quality materials but those people who seek only profit will go for the cheaper option rather than the better quality one. Thus any industry we created would have to be heavily government funded, and would struggle in the international market. In fact, most of our agricultural industries are only still running because of EU subsidies, if they were taken away they would likely collapse shortly after. Another reason why I am vehemently opposed to the UK leaving the EU without taking adequate measures in order to counterbalance the massive loss of trade that would take place. Farage may state that we can save £10b from leaving the EU, but I'd wager that the cost would far exceed that saving.

2. Ban interest (and screw the banks and their promises).

I believe it's sitting at 0% at the moment anyway. I'd love to say screw the banks and their promises, but they're the primary industry of this country at the moment, so that would be problematic.

4. Decide what you want to do. Finally get along with the EU, or create an exclusive five-eyes commercial zone.

Fully agree, I do feel sorry for Tante Merkel with our constant 'In' 'Out' 'In' 'Out' attitude, the UK honestly can't compete on its own without our links to the EU, we are the gate-way to Europe and if we pulled up the drawbridge we would lose all relevance.

Here's an episode of 'The History of Modern Britain' which gives you an idea of the change that Britain went through in the 1980s:
http://rutube.ru/video/66256fcb3fc2f...a459/?ref=logo

[Betonov]

Originally Posted by Catfish

I know what the EU will say to this

We'll protest, we'll yell, we'll cry and we'll adapt.
Great Britain taking the iniciative and bringing Brussel down a notch would help reform the entire union back to a purely economic entity.