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At the moment, the Olympics teams (Summer and Winter) represent Great* Britain rather than each separate nation of the Union. There are plans to change this in the next few years, I believe.

As it stands at the moment, though, it's celebrated as a British victory rather than a purely Scottish one. Torville and Dean are English, but again, the whole of Britain celebrated their wins, not just England. Fair's fair.

* This title doesn't mean what most people assume it does.

Ah yes.

No one is allowed to decide for themselves what to shout and when. What a wonderful world we live in, all for the benefit of 'broadcast' and we must of course always 'push the envelope'.

This woman is an arse and should be shot immediately.

That's terribly sad. I was a big fan of 'Morse'. John Thaw was a great character actor and will be missed.

What irks me when all is said and done is that Britain still thinks it has "the Empire". This comes thru initially with some Brits who settle here - and some English tourists.

Very few English people under 50 even think about the 'Empire' any more in my experience.

Might as well since they're about as degenerate as the common Jane and Joe Doe on the street.

Only as degenerate?

Good grief, what is the world coming to? Proper royals were always much more degenerate than the average person, all those illegitimate children and shagging around.

Let's have some real monarchy for a change, not all this prissy stuff!

I love my own Land too much to re-locate.

And by the way, I'm not an Englishman.

Thanks for the offers, they're greatly appreciated. If I ever get over there, I may well take you up on it!

What's wrong with the Scots?

Oh, they're OK when they're not herding people into buildings,locking the doors and then burning them down.

It is sad to see the state that the nation that practically invented both freedom of speech, and the right for the common man to bear arms has come to this sorry state.

Things will change eventually, I hope. At the moment, there's no sign of them taking away my shotguns, or my right to shoot small-bore rifles. What really got my goat about this issue was some small-minded idiot complaining to the magazine about the illustration!

'Country' activities always seem to bring those city folks out in a rash!

Nice pictures on the home page.

Thank you! I love living where I do and it has such ancient roots as an independent kingdom (Northumbria). There's a lot of history around here and don't even get me started on those Scots! ;-)

Poor guy, I bet he was genuinely envious, hope he makes it over to your family range!

We can still shoot rifles in England, but only at strictly-controlled clubs and it can very difficult to get a firearms certificate in contrast to a shotgun licence, which isn't too bad.

Oh no, shotguns are still legal, I own 2 myself (I like to do Clay shooting and the occasional grouse and pheasant).

The cartoon was banned purely on the grounds that it implied shotguns might be used to protect your property: I don't find anything wrong with that concept, nor would any of the folk in the isolated farms around my home town.

As I say, it was probably some soft southern nancy boy or girl that complained.

Thank you *blush*.

My first article post.

Thanks for the welcome, by the way and I will read the essay when I have some free time!

I understood what you meant and I agree that it's comparable with a social experiment. If we are unable to protect our properties, then of course the bad guys will capitalise on it.

Such beliefs announce loudly and clearly that those who do not respect the lives and property of others will rule over those who do.

That sounds very logical and true.

I'm a bit of an old-fashioned girl and I'd expect my boyfriend/husband to be able to protect me in any way necessary. Mind you, when it comes down to it, I'm a fair shot myself! ;-)

I find this interesting because I come from a rural area in Northern England where shotgun ownership is very common. Looks like we've come so far that it can't even be implied that a gun could be used to protect yourself or your property.

I'll bet the person who complained was some ponce from the South, London for a guess. Southerners!!

Bloody hell.

But we're a society based on law and free speech, so it takes a while to get the antibodies going.

This is excellent news!

Long overdue, though, to my mind. This man was allowed to spread his hateful rhetoric for far too long.