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"Anyway, running a country on eloquence alone hasn’t worked out disastrously – or at least not yet" Good grades are certainly not enough, but they are almost a

by srgseg 15y ago

"Anyway, running a country on eloquence alone hasn’t worked out disastrously – or at least not yet" Good grades are certainly not enough, but they are almost always required. Oxbridge only invites the best students to interview, and even the top 5 most academically competitive schools in the UK struggle to send more than a third of their students to Oxford or Cambridge in a good year.

raffaelc 15y ago
"Anyway, running a country on eloquence alone hasn’t worked out disastrously – or at least not yet" The largest empire the world has ever seen whittled down to its homeland, a naval base in the med, and some godforsaken islands in the south atlantic. I'd call that pretty disastrous. It'll only get worse. In an increasingly technical world, the brits have the wrong culture of Snow's two cutures running the show.
- ErrantX 15y ago
  Yes... but all of the aforementioned was built by people even closer to the caricature he paints. So I am unconvinced the problem is as described :) The problem is that the world became suddenly a lot smaller and social perspectives changed very very quickly.
- Hume 15y ago
  The decline of the empire and being whittled down to 'just our island' has coincided with the best possible time to be alive in britain, very far from being a disaster. As for having the wrong culture for the modern world; the UK for all its flaws, is an open and creative society and has been so for many generations, more than the vast majority of societies worldwide. There's no good reason to believe that the brits won't keep on taking in and improving on the best ideas form around the world.
- AlisdairO 15y ago
  > The largest empire the world has ever seen whittled down to its homeland, a naval base in the med, and some godforsaken islands in the south atlantic. I'd call that pretty disastrous. Actually, I would count the graceful degradation of the British empire (i.e without the entire country going to hell) as quite an achievement - particularly considering it happened with a surprisingly low level of long-term resentment incurred from the former colonies. Further, the claim that it was due to poor management more than, for example, two ludicrously expensive wars, is more than a touch disingenuous. I suppose one could argue that the first of those wars was rather a waste, but Britain was hardly the only country to be affected by that particular insanity.
- fanf2 15y ago
  America deliberately bankrupted the UK after the second world war in order to ensure it had the balance of power in the west.

by srgseg 15y ago

raffaelc 15y ago

"Anyway, running a country on eloquence alone hasn’t worked out disastrously – or at least not yet" The largest empire the world has ever seen whittled down to its homeland, a naval base in the med, and some godforsaken islands in the south atlantic. I'd call that pretty disastrous. It'll only get worse. In an increasingly technical world, the brits have the wrong culture of Snow's two cutures running the show.

ErrantX 15y ago
Yes... but all of the aforementioned was built by people even closer to the caricature he paints. So I am unconvinced the problem is as described :) The problem is that the world became suddenly a lot smaller and social perspectives changed very very quickly.
Hume 15y ago
The decline of the empire and being whittled down to 'just our island' has coincided with the best possible time to be alive in britain, very far from being a disaster. As for having the wrong culture for the modern world; the UK for all its flaws, is an open and creative society and has been so for many generations, more than the vast majority of societies worldwide. There's no good reason to believe that the brits won't keep on taking in and improving on the best ideas form around the world.
AlisdairO 15y ago
> The largest empire the world has ever seen whittled down to its homeland, a naval base in the med, and some godforsaken islands in the south atlantic. I'd call that pretty disastrous. Actually, I would count the graceful degradation of the British empire (i.e without the entire country going to hell) as quite an achievement - particularly considering it happened with a surprisingly low level of long-term resentment incurred from the former colonies. Further, the claim that it was due to poor management more than, for example, two ludicrously expensive wars, is more than a touch disingenuous. I suppose one could argue that the first of those wars was rather a waste, but Britain was hardly the only country to be affected by that particular insanity.
fanf2 15y ago
America deliberately bankrupted the UK after the second world war in order to ensure it had the balance of power in the west.