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101 Reasons Why the British are the Best - By an American

Posted: 23/06/2012 01:00

1. Queen Victoria
2. The Queen
3. Kate Middleton
4. Camilla Parker Bowles
5. Princess Diana
6. Prince Philip
7. Prince William
8. Prince Harry
9. Samantha Cameron
10. David Cameron
11. Prince Charles
12. Oxford
13. Cambridge
14. The London School of Economics
15. Freedom
16. Democracy
17. Open-mindedness
18. Eccentricity
19. J-walking is legal
20. The guys who work in the tube and on the trains
21. Pubs
22. The Olympics
23. The Jubilee
24. Street parties
25. Radio 4
26. Radio 2
27. The BBC in general
28. Parliament
29. The Empire
30. The Commonwealth
31. Never joining the Euro
32. Winston Churchill
33. Margaret Thatcher
34. The weather that makes everyone slightly mad
35. Irony
36. Stephen Fry
37. Michael Parkinson
38. The Hospice in the Weald
39. Michael Gove
40. The shipping forecast
41. Ascot
42. Glyndebourne
43. Henley
44. Wimbledon
45. The Chelsea Flower Show
46. Lloyd's of London
47. Niall Ferguson
48. Marks and Spencer
49. Tesco
50. Sainsburys
51. Floris
52. Penhaligon's
53. Superiority complex disguised by self-deprecation
54. The Hare in Langton Green
55. The Spa Hotel
56. Collins & Sons, even though they wouldn't loan me that sapphire pendant for my divorce party...and it was only next door!
57. The guy who let me have the Daily Mail from his cafe this morning
58. Marmite
59. Hovis Original Granary
60. Kent College Pembury
61. Sir Paul
62. Ozzy
63. Aristocrats that drive shit cars
64. A class system that means that no one thinks they're entitled to anything
65. Work/life balance
66. Every cab driver
67. Horses that don't always obey
68. Car boot sales
69. Bond Street
70. Mayfair
71. The City
72. Gentlemen's Clubs (that admit women...or don't)
73. The Mother's Union
74. The Women's Institute
75. Doctors
76. Harley Street
77. Teachers
78. Nurses
79. Bus drivers
80. Post boxes
81. Red telephone boxes
82. Kate Middleton's wedding dress
83. Bonham's
84. Lloyd's brokers
85. Lloyd's underwriters
86. The Lloyd's Yacht Club
87. Alright, I'll give you the Beckhams
88. Dame Judy
89. Oscar Wilde
90. Vita Sackville-West
91. The Vine in Sevenaoks
92. Zafferano
93. Cigarette packs with stupid pictures trying to talk you out of smoking
94. Kingsley Napley
95. Michael Rowlands
96. Greg Clark MP
97. That weird suburban obsession with having chickens...
98. Tunbridge Wells
99. The Huffington Post UK
100. John Humphreys, who still thinks he's going to die an athiest
101. The Conservative Party - the most successful political party in history.

I know I'll think of more later, but please feel free to add to my list.

 
FOLLOW UK LIFESTYLE
1. Queen Victoria 2. The Queen 3. Kate Middleton 4. Camilla Parker Bowles 5. Princess Diana 6. Prince Philip 7. Prince William 8. Prince Harry 9. Samantha Cameron 10. David Cameron 11. Prince Charles...
1. Queen Victoria 2. The Queen 3. Kate Middleton 4. Camilla Parker Bowles 5. Princess Diana 6. Prince Philip 7. Prince William 8. Prince Harry 9. Samantha Cameron 10. David Cameron 11. Prince Charles...
 
 
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10:39 AM on 06/30/2012
dumbest article ever. author is clearly nuts
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Paul Wagland
Resistance is fertile
05:43 PM on 06/23/2012
I'd wipe much of the top of the list, but it's nice to celebrate what we get right once in a while. I would add a few...

Music - can any other country have contributed more?
Proper beer - just because you don't get it doesn't make it wrong (and it's room temp, not warm).
Innovation - computers, the internet, TV, phones, trains, jets, photography, radar, lightbulbs etc etc.
The legal system - best in the world, for all its faults.
The NHS - Single greatest healthcare organisation on Earth.
Diversity - of ethnicity, countryside, politics, and just about everything else.
Literature - where to start? Shakespeare, obviously.
Language - beautiful, epic, practical, widespread, so full of potential (if rarely used).
03:26 PM on 06/23/2012
The Giant's Causeway, the Lake District, Bath, foxes and that the posh clods can't get their jollies tearing them apart anymore, badgers, Cornwall, blue eyed Irishmen (yum), most of Scotland's landscape, onion marmalade, Yorkshire landscape, Devon, cider, the North Laine in Brighton, boating holidays, Welsh coastline, trees, Lundy island, public footpaths and those who fight to maintain their freedom to roam, elderflower cordial, Somerset, Welsh blankets, Scottish wool, blacksmiths, craftsmen and craftswomen working away in studios and sheds across the land to produce beautiful pottery & wood carvings & ironwork, English oak trees, the jury system, animal rights campaigners.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
David Daisy May Boldock
Yorkshire..Gods Own Country
04:15 PM on 06/23/2012
Glad you got Yorkshire amongst that lol lol :-)
06:35 PM on 06/23/2012
Our Kathy Burke thread has been wiped!...I tried replying to you three times Davie but not a single one got through the censorship!
03:03 PM on 06/23/2012
I nearly choked on my veggie sausage reading this list. Your list is a flipping insult (although you have the right to your opinion). Scratch 1-11 for a start. The Empire? The Conservative Party? Tesco? Sainsburys? Lloyds of London? You might want to consider evolving beyond plugging your favourite perfume stores in the hope of getting freebies and getting out of London and then you may understand that there is a whole beautiful United Kingdom out there and your list has done it an enormous disservice.
02:14 PM on 06/23/2012
Oh god oh god oh god.

I never want to read anything you write ever again.
02:14 PM on 06/23/2012
That's a pretty lightweight and frivolous list, much of it entirely random, and the author seems to have devoted next to no thought or labor.

On behalf of all the other Americans, I apologize her waste of everyone's time.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Rectify
08:57 PM on 06/23/2012
Dont bother apologising I wished there was more Americans like her. After all we were once a super power just like the USA is today.
01:46 PM on 06/23/2012
Democracy? We are the poorest and smallest province of the American Imperium, as good a bet as Cuba under Batista or 'Nam under Thieu. US gave us Constitutions, Martin Luther King and Family Guy. It also gave is Maccy Dees, the KKK and Hadley Freeman. France invented the nipple in 1902.
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My Mate Pat
Nobody's Nationalist
12:29 PM on 06/23/2012
Michael Gove?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
jessjesskk
Benevolent Zombie Power
12:23 PM on 06/23/2012
woaouw... this is the stupidest list I have ever seen.
And I have seen a lot.
11:17 AM on 06/23/2012
102. Stupid Americans compiling lists of Tory interests
09:37 AM on 06/23/2012
it seems what your alluding to is a love of london. Like most people around the world you look at the façade. We as a nation are so much more than what you describe, just as Americans are so much more than moms apple pie, gun wielding lunatics or religious bigots of the worst kind. To illustrate the point Im making I met a young American student some years ago who would not believe i was English ( he thought i was Hungarian, I am actually from Lancashire). When I told him where I came from he asked " where's that" to which I replied " near Manchester, he asked " where's that" to which I replied " you know, near Liverpool, "Where's that he asked.....after some consideration I replied " about 300 miles north of London", " Ahhhh right, got you"
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ginadeoliveira2008
Seen a shooting star tonight and I thought of you
03:38 AM on 06/23/2012
Is anyone reading 101 reasons for anything?!
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
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PRONESE
Somewhat Opinionated Curmudgeon
12:25 AM on 06/23/2012
Not so good stuff. :J
Subjects, not Citizens.
Draconian Firearm laws.
Draconian Knife laws
No castle doctrine. Submit to your attackers in your own home.
Jack the ripper.
Football hooligans.
Julian Assange.
Munich Agreement.
Warm Beer.
High Taxes.
High petrol prices.
Crappy cars.
Etc. Etc. Etc.
*
U.S.A. any day.
R/ PRONESE
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
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03:22 AM on 06/23/2012
"Draconian Firearm laws.
Draconian Knife laws
No castle doctrine. Submit to your attackers in your own home."

Because these things have made us VASTLY safer than they are. No doubt crime statistics will bear this out, right?
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Cleverboots
03:42 AM on 06/23/2012
And much smarter on immigration than we are.
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My Mate Pat
Nobody's Nationalist
12:30 PM on 06/23/2012
Very right.
09:19 AM on 06/23/2012
HAHAHAHA.....Im so sorry....I had to laugh.....crappy cars coming from an american
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PRONESE
Somewhat Opinionated Curmudgeon
11:26 AM on 06/23/2012
Oh! No, No, NO!
We manufacture our share of crappy cars also, don't you know!
More Coffee...
R/ PRONESE
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
imokit
no longer has missing words!
10:33 PM on 06/22/2012
The NHS.
And you can be a bit less political. David Cameron and Samantha Cameron are not British institutions to be proud of. Our political system perhaps but individuals within it, no!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Dex Mandark
10:06 PM on 06/22/2012
Boris Johnson. Mayor of London
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Paul Houston
British and a London resident
06:11 PM on 06/23/2012
Ah, but Boris was born in New York.