# The U.K. Is Done.  The U.K. Is Also The Canary In The Coal Mine

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-u-k-is-done-the-u-k-is-also-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/478097>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [December 20, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-u-k-is-done-the-u-k-is-also-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/478097 "2008-12-20T18:43:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 14\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-u-k-is-done-the-u-k-is-also-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/478097/101 "2008-12-25T15:52:05Z")

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> [@Racer1](#):
>
> Heh, I actually thought that website was serious when you first posted it. 🙂
> 
> Makes me realise I haven’t had a 99 in years.

I haven’t had a 69 in about twenty years, if it comes to that.

_sigh_

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**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-u-k-is-done-the-u-k-is-also-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/478097/102 "2008-12-25T16:14:47Z")

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> [@Rune](#):
>
> btw. did you know that “Struan” was Mussolinis nickname in Danish. Well of course you do.

Hey, at least the trains ran on time.

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**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-u-k-is-done-the-u-k-is-also-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/478097/103 "2008-12-25T16:19:13Z")

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> [@Huerta88](#):
>
> Would this not require that there be some field of endavor in which the U.K. were superior?
> 
> Binge drinking?
> 
> Wives and girlfriends reportage?
> 
> David Cameron’s windmill?
> 
> One could readily feel a lot of things toward the British of today. Sympathy, even, for their diminished state. But no one in the Anglophone First World could sanely be supposed to be envying or feeling inferior to them.
> 
> You are going nicely down a checklist of every eighth grader’s rhetoriical arsenal, though.
> 
> Godwin, check.
> 
> Amateur psychology from Freud For Dummies, 1951 edition? Check.
> 
> Genetic Fallacy? Done?
> 
> Man, I’m worried. If you pull out your copy of Catcher In The Rye and inform me I’m a big phony, or declare “Huerta’s a total fag,” I don’t know what I’ll do. Game set match at that point.

So much effort for so little reward!

Anyway, a Merry Christmas to you, you big fat Nazi. 😉

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**Author:** ![Racer1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee59a6/32.png) [@Racer1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Racer1)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-u-k-is-done-the-u-k-is-also-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/478097/104 "2008-12-25T23:35:55Z")

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> [@Huerta88](#):
>
> Would this not require that there be some field of endavor in which the U.K. were superior?
> 
> Binge drinking?
> 
> Wives and girlfriends reportage?
> 
> David Cameron’s windmill?
> 
> One could readily feel a lot of things toward the British of today. Sympathy, even, for their diminished state. But no one in the Anglophone First World could sanely be supposed to be envying or feeling inferior to them.
> 
> You are going nicely down a checklist of every eighth grader’s rhetoriical arsenal, though.
> 
> Godwin, check.
> 
> Amateur psychology from Freud For Dummies, 1951 edition? Check.
> 
> Genetic Fallacy? Done?
> 
> Man, I’m worried. If you pull out your copy of Catcher In The Rye and inform me I’m a big phony, or declare “Huerta’s a total fag,” I don’t know what I’ll do. Game set match at that point.

Must be nice to be so simple. 🙂

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**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-u-k-is-done-the-u-k-is-also-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/478097/105 "2008-12-26T11:07:16Z")

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The only half interesting thing he has said so far, is that there are 3 Brit’s who he’d like to punch in the face before Thom Yorke got his turn. I wonder who they are?

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**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-u-k-is-done-the-u-k-is-also-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/478097/106 "2008-12-26T11:20:34Z")

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> [@Struan](#):
>
> Our friend may as well just post “I have an inferiority complex about Britain” over and over and over again for all the sense he is making.

This. Please tell. If ours is such a crappy insignificant island, why the fuck do you care? How come you know (sorry, google) so much about us?

I’ve got it. You’re French. Maybe even Mr Le Pen.

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**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-u-k-is-done-the-u-k-is-also-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/478097/107 "2008-12-27T08:16:44Z")

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> [@SanVito](#):
>
> This. Please tell. If ours is such a crappy insignificant island, why the fuck do you care? How come you know (sorry, google) so much about us?
> 
> I’ve got it. You’re French. Maybe even Mr Le Pen.

Right, I only know anything about you because I’ve Googled it, as opposed to having served my time living in yon green and pleasant land and its tributary states and done my share of observing and reading on it.

And by your logic, any of the two or three (million) SDMB posts on “GWB Sucks And Here Is Why” are facially invalid because hey, if he sucks so much, why bother posting about him, how could his suckdom affect you, and besides, why single out his suckiness when U.S. Grant also sucked? Because his suckdom is current and relevant to my constituency? Because I felt like noticing his? Because I expected better from his quarter (true, in the case of both GWB and the U.K.)?

Or because, as I noted in my OP w.r.t. the ludicrous frenzy over the “bullying” issue, which has clearly emanated outwards from the U.K. to most of the Anglosphere, I worry that when rot sets in in the home realm, rot spreads even to the less decadent former ouposts.

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**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-u-k-is-done-the-u-k-is-also-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/478097/108 "2008-12-27T09:16:17Z")

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> [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](#):
>
> They like to hide in people’s closets you know, and they come out when you turn off the light.

You bastard.

I _knew_ I shouldn’t have said all those mean things about the Tao’s mother.

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**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-u-k-is-done-the-u-k-is-also-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/478097/109 "2008-12-28T14:46:51Z")

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I like this one from today, age-ratings for websites:

> [@](#):
>
> **18 certificate: Why websites could get cinema-style age ratings to tackle offensive online activity**
> 
> Offensive or indecent websites will be branded with cinema-style age certificates in a Government crackdown on dangerous online activity.
> 
> In a bid to limit the ease to which ‘unacceptable’ material is accessed, Culture Secretary Andy Burnham, last night called for ‘clearer standards’ in cyber space.

[18 certificate: Why websites could get cinema-style age ratings to tackle offensive online activity](http://beeqube.com/article/18)

- hundred of millions – possible billion+ (how damn big is the Internet anyway?) – internet sites. And they want all them should be age-rated for children? heh. that is pretty funny.

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**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-u-k-is-done-the-u-k-is-also-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/478097/110 "2008-12-28T21:20:29Z")

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Yep, that one’s pretty stupid. That’s why Andy Burnham isn’t the Minister for Technology, he’s the one for Culture. But then again, “politician wonders who will think of the children” is possibly the most universal political trope there has ever been, or ever will be. Find me a country where moronic censorship hasn’t been mooted and we’ll talk. Or, you could wait until he actually tries it, rather than just runs off his mouth.

It’s almost touching really, your faintly demented obsession with other people’s problems (be they real or imagined). If only you were a little brighter than ham, you might actually be able to do some good. Shame, eh?

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**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-u-k-is-done-the-u-k-is-also-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/478097/111 "2008-12-28T22:31:06Z")

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> [@Dead\_Badger](#):
>
> Yep, that one’s pretty stupid. That’s why Andy Burnham isn’t the Minister for Technology, he’s the one for Culture. But then again, “politician wonders who will think of the children” is possibly the most universal political trope there has ever been, or ever will be. Find me a country where moronic censorship hasn’t been mooted and we’ll talk. Or, you could wait until he actually tries it, rather than just runs off his mouth.
> 
> It’s almost touching really, your faintly demented obsession with other people’s problems (be they real or imagined). If only you were a little brighter than ham, you might actually be able to do some good. Shame, eh?

What problems? I think it’s absolutely hilarious. Reminds me of the time my boss wanted me to download the Internet to his laptop. So you think it’s bad form to make fun of stupid politicians and imaginative bureaucrats or are you just having your knickers in a twist because it’s your neck of the woods, which is being made fun of. Btw. as a Jewish Muslim I take offence at being compared unfavourable to ham. I strongly suggest you make that chicken instead.

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**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-u-k-is-done-the-u-k-is-also-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/478097/112 "2008-12-29T07:14:08Z")

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> [@ivan\_astikov](#):
>
> The only half interesting thing he has said so far, is that there are 3 Brit’s who he’d like to punch in the face before Thom Yorke got his turn. I wonder who they are?

I am so glad you asked.

Can I (pretty please?) count C. Hitchins? If not, drat, what with all the Iraq warmongering.

In the clerical division: a dead heat between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the “Rev.” Ian Paisley Jr.

Peter Mandelson/Alistair Campbell.

Tiebreakers: D. Cameron and some combination of Salman/Padma.

No?

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**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-u-k-is-done-the-u-k-is-also-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/478097/113 "2008-12-29T07:24:42Z")

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> [@casdave](#):
>
> Well if you want to believe in the shite that is published by right wing rags whose stock in trade is bigotry, **patriotism** and mysogyny then knock yourself out.

Here’s one of the original responses to the OP that I had not gotten around to responding to.

Now, the attacks on the “right wing rags” (Genetic Fallacy) are what they are and are (as demonstrated) fairly pointless.

The more interesting part is what I have highlighted.

In what healthy functioning virile polity is “patriotism” a bad word? Blind endorsement of government policy is bad, sure. But being proud of your country in any way as a bad thing per se ? Wow.

Hatred of one’s own patrimony=surefire sign of decrepitude and irrelevance.

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**Author:** ![Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petrobey_Mavromihalis)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-u-k-is-done-the-u-k-is-also-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine/478097/114 "2008-12-29T09:00:55Z")

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> [@Huerta88](#):
>
> In what healthy functioning virile polity is “patriotism” a bad word? Blind endorsement of government policy is bad, sure. But being proud of your country in any way as a bad thing per se ? Wow.

You’re being thick. He refers to the Samuel Johnson version of “patriotism” as the “last refuge as a scoundrel”. That’s pretty obvious.

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