Julia shouldn't have been so keen to start a political debate among a bunch of "BA literature students, photographers, actors and people in the theatre". This lot were bound to have been brainwashed by the liberal/leftist press and the Bolshevik Broadcasting Corporation. Please don't believe that the average Briton has the same anti-American bias as these middle class toffs.
When Julia says: "I've realised that young British people don't like America; in fact, now that Bush is waging his war on terror, they hate it." She fails to take into account that this generation can not remember the cold war, and the supreme wickedness of the Soviet Union. They have also been deceived by the media, most of whom just have a pathological hatred for successful countries and a love of the "underdog", regardless of what outrage the underdog might have committed.
My family were working class people from West Yorkshire in Northern England. My grandfather fought the NAZIS in Europe and was brought back during the Dunkirk evacuation, less than 5% of his unit survived. Even though the USA were not even in the war at that time (May 1940), he did not bear Americans any malice. In fact, he had a deep affection for the USA and really wished to visit. Unfortunately, my grandmother was ill throughout her life and grandfather had to work very hard to make ends meet, so they never could travel to the USA.
Why did he like the USA? Because unlike Britain the USA has a real democracy, not a pretend one, and real freedom. British democracy is a constitutional anachronism, the head of state is unelected as is the upper chamber of Parliament. There is no constitution and so the government erodes the rights of its subjects whenever it has a good excuse. This is especially true of late, given the recent email surveillance and ID card debacles. We British have lost our right to own arms, many of our rights to conduct a peaceful demonstration, our right to defend ourselves, our freedom of speech has been curtailed and unwarranted government surveillance is at an all time high. Britain, unlike the USA, has forgotten the words - freedom and responsibility.
I agree with my grandfather. The USA has more going for it than Britain and any other country I know. Don't let a minority of ignorant idiots make you believe that all Britons are anti-American, they aren't. The victory of George Washington and the USA's founding fathers over Britain's evil autocracy, was more than just a victory for Americans, it was a victory for international freedom. I too drank a toast to the USA on the Fourth of July, and was very relieved that those al Qaeda psychopaths didn't manage to pull off another outrage as they had threatened to.
Now, they have a system that I call "easy-chair socialism". Its a decadent political and social system where no one has to work too hard or risk anything in any way. The women are easy, the wine is good, and everyone (everyone, that is, who bothers to work at all) has 15 weeks vacation. Has europe produced one great military leader in 50 years? One great captain of industry? One great ANYTHING? Nope...its easier to sit back in the easy chair.
As for the UK...the scary thing is, they are probably the best of the whole sorry lot (except for the Russians and Serbs...who both have some fire left).
I read a story recently that sums up the UK quite well: A thug broke into a guy's house. The homeowner pulls a FAKE gun and calls the cops. The police arrive, and arrest the homeowner for "instilling fear in another person with a 'gun-like object'. The thug was out of jail quickly, while the homeowner was still in the slammer. To top it off, the thief got to TESTIFY AT THE HOMEOWNER'S PAROLE HEARING as to whether he was "worthy of early release".
I submit to you that any nation that allows that to happen is finished. The UK is no longer the nation of Drake, Nelson, and Victoria.
We should have let the Nazis have them.
Why bother going to the expense of traveling to The UK for such a conversation? A trip to Berkley would yield the same result.
Exactly my take, What in the world is wrong with this writer that she simply accepts this crap without counter attacking. Oh yeah, she went to college in America recently.