6 ms·

In a way it feels like the writer despises the UK and thinks that the NHS will implode. Not saying that it can't happen but so can the German economy or any oth

by jp0d 4y ago

In a way it feels like the writer despises the UK and thinks that the NHS will implode. Not saying that it can't happen but so can the German economy or any other nation for that matter. The UK gave her family shelter when the fatherland was busy murdering millions of Jews. I think it's important not to forget history, especially one's family's.

n4r9 4y ago
I really didn't get this feeling. The feeling I got is that the writer's British identity is intertwined with their European identity, and no longer feels whole after the referendum. A lot of people feel similarly.
brigandish 4y ago
> In a way it feels like the writer despises the UK It's the Guardian, that is their schtick. Orwell summed up this attitude well in England Your England[1]: > In intention, at any rate, the English intelligentsia are Europeanized. They take their cookery from Paris and their opinions from Moscow. In the general patriotism of the country they form a sort of island of dissident thought. England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during ‘God save the King’ than of stealing from a poor box. Plus ça change. [1] https://orwell.ru/library/essays/lion/english/e_eye https://orwell.ru/library/essays/lion/english/e_eye
- brigandish 4y ago
  As someone who's bought and read the Graun more times in the past quarter of a century than most people have had hot dinners, I feel vindicated by those downvotes, they feel a lot like the response most Graun readers would give. What kind of response do you think the people Orwell described would give?
Mashimo 4y ago
> Not saying that it can't happen but so can the German economy or any other nation for that matter. Yes, but now she got more options. > I think it's important not to forget history, especially one's family's. I don't think she did. Or what do you mean?
netsharc 4y ago
And 80 years on it's the UK where the corrupt rulers are getting worse day by day and racist rhetoric is on the increase, even from their own home secretary (and previous home secretaries were busy doing harm to the Windrush generation). There's history, and there's the present, and future trajectory..
ErikCorry 4y ago
Update: The NHS is actually imploding. It's a mixture of lack of money, lack of foreign (EU) workers, a wave of early retirement because of Covid and a huge increase in sick leave also mainly because of Covid. https://news.sky.com/story/nhs-crisis-how-did-we-get-here-and-is-there-a-potential-route-back-12785174 https://news.sky.com/story/nhs-crisis-how-did-we-get-here-an... Waiting an hour and a half for an ambulance when you have a stroke or heart attack is the sort of thing that has long term consequences for your recovery, even if you don't die of it immediately.
- marton78 4y ago
  The German health system is also imploding. It was systematically dismantled by the previous governments in the past 15 years and then came COVID, during which nothing was done to improve the situation. Scores of burnt out health workers have left since 2020.
pjc50 4y ago
> The UK gave her family shelter when the fatherland was busy murdering millions of Jews. Reluctantly, and it's not clear the same courtesy would be extended today given the anti-asylum rhetoric. The history of Allied countries accepting Jewish refugees early - before it was too late - is .. patchy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_St._Louis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_St._Louis
mmarq 4y ago
She said in 2017: > If the NHS implodes or the country sinks into a Brexit-induced quagmire – poorer, more fractured and less influential – we now have the option of moving sooner than that. This is a precise description of what happened in the UK since then. I shouldn’t have to say that, but she doesn’t owe anything to anybody and she is free to criticise the UK (and being quite spot on), whatever happened to her family 100 years ago.
ElfinTrousers 4y ago
> The UK gave her family shelter when the fatherland was busy murdering millions of Jews. Factually correct. But so what?

by jp0d 4y ago

n4r9 4y ago

I really didn't get this feeling. The feeling I got is that the writer's British identity is intertwined with their European identity, and no longer feels whole after the referendum. A lot of people feel similarly.

brigandish 4y ago

> In a way it feels like the writer despises the UK It's the Guardian, that is their schtick. Orwell summed up this attitude well in England Your England[1]: > In intention, at any rate, the English intelligentsia are Europeanized. They take their cookery from Paris and their opinions from Moscow. In the general patriotism of the country they form a sort of island of dissident thought. England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during ‘God save the King’ than of stealing from a poor box. Plus ça change. [1] https://orwell.ru/library/essays/lion/english/e_eye https://orwell.ru/library/essays/lion/english/e_eye

brigandish 4y ago
As someone who's bought and read the Graun more times in the past quarter of a century than most people have had hot dinners, I feel vindicated by those downvotes, they feel a lot like the response most Graun readers would give. What kind of response do you think the people Orwell described would give?

Mashimo 4y ago

> Not saying that it can't happen but so can the German economy or any other nation for that matter. Yes, but now she got more options. > I think it's important not to forget history, especially one's family's. I don't think she did. Or what do you mean?

netsharc 4y ago

And 80 years on it's the UK where the corrupt rulers are getting worse day by day and racist rhetoric is on the increase, even from their own home secretary (and previous home secretaries were busy doing harm to the Windrush generation). There's history, and there's the present, and future trajectory..

ErikCorry 4y ago

Update: The NHS is actually imploding. It's a mixture of lack of money, lack of foreign (EU) workers, a wave of early retirement because of Covid and a huge increase in sick leave also mainly because of Covid. https://news.sky.com/story/nhs-crisis-how-did-we-get-here-and-is-there-a-potential-route-back-12785174 https://news.sky.com/story/nhs-crisis-how-did-we-get-here-an... Waiting an hour and a half for an ambulance when you have a stroke or heart attack is the sort of thing that has long term consequences for your recovery, even if you don't die of it immediately.

marton78 4y ago
The German health system is also imploding. It was systematically dismantled by the previous governments in the past 15 years and then came COVID, during which nothing was done to improve the situation. Scores of burnt out health workers have left since 2020.

pjc50 4y ago

> The UK gave her family shelter when the fatherland was busy murdering millions of Jews. Reluctantly, and it's not clear the same courtesy would be extended today given the anti-asylum rhetoric. The history of Allied countries accepting Jewish refugees early - before it was too late - is .. patchy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_St._Louis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_St._Louis

mmarq 4y ago

She said in 2017: > If the NHS implodes or the country sinks into a Brexit-induced quagmire – poorer, more fractured and less influential – we now have the option of moving sooner than that. This is a precise description of what happened in the UK since then. I shouldn’t have to say that, but she doesn’t owe anything to anybody and she is free to criticise the UK (and being quite spot on), whatever happened to her family 100 years ago.

ElfinTrousers 4y ago

> The UK gave her family shelter when the fatherland was busy murdering millions of Jews. Factually correct. But so what?