British people are miserable

What appears as dourness is infact a high sense of purpose and foresight.

Darker and shorter races in particular lack this quality - sure they have spontaneity and passion - but in terms of success nearly everything of importance comes from NW Europe.

Roflmao? the culture of the western civilization pratically comes from the mediterranean. Nothing of importance comes from NW. Vikings and arrows? Everything that the Northern Europeans did was just a continuation of the ancient/medieval culture which flourished in the mediterranean. Theater, poetry, literature, philosophy, medicine, political science, maths, historiography are southern european traditions. The north westerners started "producing" culture only after they came in contact with the Romans and the Greeks. Everything is based on their works. They came up with virtually nothing...

So chill with the success all right? Even in modern times, Jews have dominated most of the scientific/literary fields. The Southern Europe has contributed to the "success" of the west as much as the Western Europe has (if not more).

And it's not really true what you're saying OP. British people are not miserable... you can't generalise... maybe more miserable than the Spanish for instance But I think that the French are worse! I dunno though. I like the self-deprecation of British people. It can be very funny and British humor in general

The size of the British Empire was really quite impressive. What Southern European would have the wherewithal to travel, conquer and civilise like we did? Wops and Itis are all talk whereas we innovate and get things done: the telephone, electricity, some ****** great bridges, penicillin, ya know what im sayin bruv? We have also equipped countries like India with some rather impressive institutions and of course the beautiful English language and now they are learning from our success.

Nordic people are pretty darn miserable btw..

Of course we're not happy. Those who work are heavily taxed, removing private incentives to maximise personal benefit. Those on benefits are lacking direction and self-esteem. Those on pensions have been defrauded by the financiers with the full support of the government.

It is also becoming apparent to everyone that the UK is a threatening place to live. The average citizen is threatened both by feral street yobs, and also by the state - databases, ID cards, CCTV, monitoring, control, fines for everything, remote controlled parking tickets because a camera saw you stop for a second on a yellow line etc. etc. We are treated as a nation of suspects rather than law-abiding citizens, which is what the vast majority of us are. A country where you can be arrested for defending yourself (much unlike the US) and where a child can be arrested for tossing a piece of cucumber or chalking on the pavement - it's a scary place.

No wonder we aren't happy. My grandparents say they have the same feeling now in the UK of being watched that they used to get when visiting the old Eastern bloc over 20 years ago - it's deeply unpleasant.


Having said that, etiquette is about cultural norms and general standards of acceptable behaviour. What is polite in one culture may be rude in another. If you take your cultural norms into another culture, you may well think people are rude, but the fault lies with you. The people who return your concept of "perfect politeness" with a grunt may well be offended by your own behaviour - being out of step with the people who you're interacting with. Etiquette is culturally relative. If the majority of people in the culture which you associate with disagree over a matter of etiquette with you, then it's your fault regardless of the situation. We should celebrate these cultural differences rather than fight them.

Agreed. We are miserable due to the political system, the law etc...which are left in tatters.

Yes, and no, undoubtedly these are factors but I'm not so sure that they have changed the way we as a society interact. After all the characterization of being miserable is age old.

I'm sure the headline was similar when they switched to Labour from the Conservatives. The Sun is an appalling publication. What makes me feel 'miserable' is that it could be so influential in our democratic election, run by the vulgar xenophobic scaremongerer Rupert Murdoch.

We are far more polite than in the USA. (well with driving at any least)