Rod Collins

If you are thinking of visiting the UK and wonder what the United Kingdom has to offer you as a visitor or indeed you already live here and wonder what exactly are our national assets then read on as yet another poll reveals all

Here are the results of a poll to find out what are the best things in Britain, things that quintessentially sum up this county,

The Top Ten

1 Fish and chips.
2 The Queen.
3 Olde worlde pubs.
4 Sunday roast dinner.
5 Red telephone boxes.
6 Big Ben.
7 Cream teas.
8 The Beatles.
9 The pound.
10 Royal Family

It’s kind of depressing in a way when you read it, very old-fashioned but then I guess we are traditionally a historic country. I would venture to suggest that the list reads more like
what do people most identify us with rather than
what are the best things about us

Given the leaning towards Devon splits and tea in Miss Marple villages and pints of warm ale in 14th century coaching inns perhaps it’s time for an updated list that not only reflects our society in modern terms but also the new generation who are eating Macdonalds not Cream Teas, using cellphones not phone boxes, are not (quite rightly) remotely bothered about The Beatles and are more interested if 50c then the Great British £ !

Here is an updated list, solely of my devising, which, in my arrogant opinion , better reflects modern society in the UK and the so called Youth of Today:

The Updated Top Ten in Random Order
1: Underage teenage pregnancy, the worst in Europe
2: Our children are the 24th in the world literacy table, beaten by Poland and Bosnia
3: Chlamydia - we have the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases in Europe
4: Adult Obesity - we’re the fattest people in Europe with 30% clinically obese soon
5: Child Obesity - 10% of kids are clinically obese on their 1st day at school
6: Most number of CCTV camera per person in the world ! The government is watching you
7: Rolls Royce motor cars - oops sorry that’s German now isn’t it
8: Benefit dependency - 1 in 3 homes now get more than 50% of their income from benefits
9: Football - soccer we are beaten by countries with smaller populations than London
10: War mongers - we’ve started or fought in more wars than any other country in history

So there we go, have I missed anything out !
Regards
Rod