Comments on: The Unbearable Lightness Of Being British

By: Cynical

Cynical — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 09:09:00 +0000

”Occasionally” would have been a better word choice, but “It is a Britain where schools are fortresses because children are (incredibly rarely) attacked by madmen” would also work.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 21:22:00 +0000

SOON

By: Svejk

Svejk — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 17:39:00 +0000

Cheer up fella!, its not as bad as all that, you need to turn that Celtic frown upside down.

Make yourself feel better by singing Flower of Scotland over God save the Queen at medal ceremonies then obsessively counting the number of times Americans refer to the UK as England and then ranting about it to your friends.

By: Navin_Johnson

Navin_Johnson — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 17:32:00 +0000

Just let them have this.

By: Navin_Johnson

Navin_Johnson — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 17:31:00 +0000

@boingboing-9ce163c62424ac85f2f8bb64935f4ff8:disqus The part where they hung a Victorian street child for stealing an apple was pretty neat, the reenactment of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre was a bit jumbled though.

By: Shane Simmons

Shane Simmons — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 16:21:00 +0000

“British school children are, indeed, more likely to be aware of the pollution created by industry than its role in making sure they can read history at all.”

Yes, and in the U.S., school children are more unlikely to learn how much the sciences advanced under Nazis.

I mean…what? Could you expand on that? Are you angered that industrialists aren’t glorified? I understand that industrialism helped the West become more prosperous, but…what?

By: Shane Simmons

Shane Simmons — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 16:18:00 +0000

That series looks fascinating; hopefully PBS will pick it up in the U.S. They pared Story of England down to a four-parter here.

By: Shane Simmons

Shane Simmons — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 16:11:00 +0000

Is that why schools in Britain do it? In my neck of the woods in the U.S., it has less to do with shootings, and more to do with the number of kids whose parents have split, only one parent has custody, and the other parent snags the kid from school.

Rare, but not as rare as school shootings.

By: Zak McKracken

Zak McKracken — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:52:00 +0000

You’re right.
Close to the beginning, there was a video sequence flying down the thames where they played the opening to “god save the queen” — and cut the song off right after the first line.

For anyone not familiar with the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMxqcgBhWQ

I think the director didn’t really care about many of the topics adressed. It was just a nice shallow muscial-type representation of what ot could have been. But then, if you are looking for profound artistical/historical/political insight in the opening ceremoy of Olympic games, you’re doing it wrong.

By: Nick Hayday

Nick Hayday — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:36:00 +0000

It is “London 2012″ after all

By: electricdoodle

electricdoodle — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:13:00 +0000

The opening ceremony was great…It really was!

Unless you are one of the minorities in the ‘United Kingdom’ who happens not to agree with David Cameron’s overtly pomposterus rabble rousing Victoriana influenced patriotic fairy tale.

I’m a Scot and I found the majority of the themes expressed in the ceremony completely alien to me. It just seemed like they (the Tories) were rolling out another excuse to wave the Union Flag in a pathetic attempt to show how unified our nation is.

To be honest – and please excuse my crudity – I would not be surprised if they had a team of specialist working to make sure that William is shagging Kate right royally – on a rota system – to ensure we have another excuse to wave that bloody flag again soon with the announcement of a Royal pregnancy (and if it’s a daughter what’s the betting they call it Diana…Ahhhhhhh!).

This almost perpetual Britaniaolypajubaleeathon is really starting to irritate now – to the point where some of the Celtic members of Team GB have decided that they cannot bring themselves to join in the fraudulent festivities and sing ‘God Save the Queen’. Good on them, but I would of rather they have exposed the ridiculousness of the whole thing by refusing to compete at all.

By: Petzl

Petzl — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 14:28:00 +0000

The most surreal part for me was that dystopic segment where the green turf is being stripped away and the huge belching smokestacks are ascending, with Kenneth Branagh blithely overseeing the Progress. All I could think of was the movie, “Brazil.”

By: Petzl

Petzl — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 14:20:00 +0000

What I think it means is, they’re still talking about it.

By: Purkit

Purkit — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 13:03:00 +0000

Thanks for pointing this out. Those links at the top of the article are really deceptive. The shambolic link is for an article written before the Opening Ceremony even started.

By: anik

anik — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 12:43:00 +0000

@3william: I don’t think it’s wooly. The style’s a little hard to understand, but the points are good. Why say your criticism meanly?

By: Peppermint

Peppermint — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 12:12:00 +0000

I don’t actually know whether it is Tory at all because it was difficult for me to understand. I’m not a native speaker, though I usually have no trouble reading English. But when the style gets a bit complex/unusual, I do have trouble getting the point. It is a shame: what I do understand looks genuinely interesting.

By: the garage

the garage — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 11:19:00 +0000

…I’m with you David. I don’t really get all the hand wringing. There was a story. It had music and dancing and stuff. Everyone there had a good time. It started the Olympics.

By: David Evans

David Evans — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 10:23:00 +0000

I don’t really get all the handwringing. To me (as a UK resident (Welsh)) it looked like. Hello, we’re Britain, we know we’re not flavour of the month, but, rest of the world, you quite like our stuff and here’s a brief montage of some of it. As for the ‘forced multiculturalism’ others are complaining about, it didn’t occur to me that the couple were mixed-race or the some of the Brunels were black, I just saw people.

I don’t think Britain has lost its way or is uncertain of its future, we’re a mixed-up people who absorb our conquerers into our culture. Michael Wood has a hugely interesting series on the BBC at the moment called The Great British Story: A People’s History http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00r12j3 which pulls back from all the bombast about Empire, war and conquest. Definitely worth a really good look.

By: Svejk

Svejk — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 09:59:00 +0000

Wasn’t the end of Empire in the 60s? You won’t believe the amount of time me and my friends don’t spend talking about it.

…and while I’m here, what’s all this rubbish about the UK being unsure of its future? We’re a small European nation thanks and we know it. Think of us as Holland but with more drugs or Belgium but with better music.

Time to adjust your stereotypes folks!

By: GyroMagician

GyroMagician — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 08:47:00 +0000

Overlooking the link to seriouslyspain.com, complaining about the Spanish outfits without a mention of the ceremony itself, thisisstaffordshire.co.uk? Have a look at their front page to understand the quality of this publication. These guys used to fill my letterbox with free rubbish when I lived in Stoke. It must have taken some time to find this link. Please Wystan, next time you want to write such awful grumpy fluff, keep it to yourself.

By: Vuk Cerovic

Vuk Cerovic — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 07:18:00 +0000

Wow, Wystan must be a real hit at parties. It’s been a while since I read such a po-faced, overly serious, self-important article. It was a fun opening ceremony, British to the core. It was also by far and away, the most original opening ceremony of any Olympic games in my lifetime. Maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, but not sure it deserves to be infused with so much sinister subtext…

By: Rory Hamilton

Rory Hamilton — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 06:24:00 +0000

I am friends with a lot of very world weary, cynical people, whom I thought would hate a British Olympic opening ceremony (like I thought I would). The response from them and me has been wholeheartedly positive. It’s changed a lot of people opinion towards the Olympics and given the whole of London (and the UK) a really positive boost over the last week. Unlike anything I have seen for decades.
So why the whingy article here?

By: yetanotherrob

yetanotherrob — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 05:19:00 +0000

Saurabh is incorrect.

2008 OECD report on medical remuneration:

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/51/48/41925333.pdf

GPs up to 3.5x average wage (low 2)

Specialists up to 7x (low 1.5)

Out in the rest of the world, medical training varies between the ‘American’ system (post grad degree, similar to some European countries) to something along the lines of the ‘old UK’ system (5-6 year undergrad).

This allows you to become an intern.

GP/primary training ranges 3-5 years once you get on a training scheme.

Specialty training ranges from 3-10 years depending on the scheme and whether you can stay on or not.

So given the data above, minimum 10 years gets you to junior partner in a law firm level or mid-tier management levels of remuneration.

Why isn’t saurabh complaining about lawyers and managers?

Aeon’s comments about liability and lack of portability of the skill set are dead on.

By: Jeff Grygny

Jeff Grygny — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 03:57:00 +0000

”fanatic William Blake” –right on!

By: 3William56

3William56 — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 03:46:00 +0000

Of course. Because Beijing had such an excellent sequence showing the tanks rolling on Tienanmen Square, and hardy Tibetans rebelling against invasion. Just like Sydney had a long skit about the Stolen Generation in between the dancing sheds and lawnmowers.

Opening ceremonies are cliched puff for tourists ticking off as many stereotypes and famous, anodyne references that a foreign TV audience will recognise as possible. It always is.

Overanalysing a trivial song and dance show to death is what’s boring.

By: robuluz

robuluz — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 03:13:00 +0000

My takeaway was that he thought there should have been an RUC vs IRA spectacle in the arena. Would make a good opportunity to air an extended Phelps interview in the US, I suppose.

By: Brendan

Brendan — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 03:02:00 +0000

To be fair, that was the closing ceremony, where we had the leeway to indulge in a bit more camp. The opening ceremonies was a very serious affair with mountains, snow and native people.

By: Jonathan Roberts

Jonathan Roberts — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 02:05:00 +0000

It reminded me of a Fry and Laurie sketch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znmjnEMqHeg

By: Jonathan Roberts

Jonathan Roberts — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 02:02:00 +0000

I thought I heard the first few words during the trip down the Thames. Not enough to hint too much at the actual meaning of the song.

By: aeon

aeon — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 00:34:00 +0000

I think saurbh is still underestimating how long it takes to get to GP and specialist grades. I graduated in the UK 1992 after 5 years at med school and got my specialist registration in 2004. That’s 17 years of training, although I’ll admit I had some fun working abroad so that made it longer than for many. In New Zealand where I am currently the minimum time you can expect to train before you could replace me in my current post is 13 years, and many do more.
So we do a job that takes at least 13 years to learn to a high enough standard to work independently. If we screw up then someone dies or is left disabled. If we stuff up that badly we probably lose our livelihood after being pilloried widely in the press and most of us have nothing else that we can do well enough to earn a living from.

Training and risk taking/risk mitigation like that doesn’t come cheap, sorry.

(saurbh’s link also fails to factor in the large expenses slush fund that every MP has, and their rather cast-iron pension –which they are holding onto for themselves despite trying to get rid of the less advantageous NHS one).