Too much American 'culture' in the UK?

[ThatYank]

we get plenty of British culture here and we love alot of it

for instance them arctic monkeys are really big here now. those def leppard guys are still as popular as ever too!

[buck]

I know the British servicemen in Singapore hated the yanks. It was because whenever the US 7th fleet docked for a stay the prices in all the clubs, hotels, restaurants and dens of iniquity would suddenly double

 

I didn't like em much either long before I emigrated. Whenever you saw an Air Fore GI in London they always had one or two gorgeous looking girls on their arm and I couldn't even get a date with little Nellie Squires.

 

It was of course a severe case of the Green Eyed Monster

our relationship with the USN was at best tenuous. We did not regard their seamanship very highly. They seemed to have a lot of accidents way back. I was aboard the Carrier HMS Albion tied up in Gibraltar at the detached mole, when an American destroyer comng into the harbour too fast and unable to reverse engines quick enough ploughed into Albion's stern, putting a bloody big dent in her, and wrecking the Admiral's quarters. We thought that hilarious, but weren't allowed to show it. Navy Wives with husbands away at sea, would gather in the pubs of Pompey, and talk to young US sailors, who were mostly Southern kids from Virginia and such, using RN talk. The kids had no idea what they were talking about. We did not like what Eisenhower did when we tried to stop the Egyptians from damming the Suez canal in 1956. Britain, France, and Israel were told that the US and Russian navies would put a stop to our efforts in no uncertain terms if we did not desist. As a result the Suez was closed, causing oil from the gulf to have to be brought round Cape Horn. That meant oil shortages and more expense to us.

[Harleyman]

"Saturday Night and Sunday Morning " remains one of the great classics of post war British cinema. Taken from a novel by Alan Sillitoe about working class Nottingham, it could just as easily been Sheffield except for the Raleigh bike factory that Arthur Seaton worked at. Albert Finney was brilliant, and its said that Greta Garbo went to see it about fifty times in a row in NYC.

 

Finney was the very first "anti-hero" in that film. A role type that became ever increasingly popular among movie makers in the decades that followed.

 

"Room at the top" and "Look back in anger" also brilliant.

 

Very fortunately Turner Classic Movies still show them from time to time although long ago I recorded them onto DVDs

[Harleyman]

our relationship with the USN was at best tenuous. We did not regard their seamanship very highly. They seemed to have a lot of accidents way back. I was aboard the Carrier HMS Albion tied up in Gibraltar at the detached mole, when an American destroyer comng into the harbour too fast and unable to reverse engines quick enough ploughed into Albion's stern, putting a bloody big dent in her, and wrecking the Admiral's quarters. We thought that hilarious, but weren't allowed to show it. Navy Wives with husbands away at sea, would gather in the pubs of Pompey, and talk to young US sailors, who were mostly Southern kids from Virginia and such, using RN talk. The kids had no idea what they were talking about. We did not like what Eisenhower did when we tried to stop the Egyptians from damming the Suez canal in 1956. Britain, France, and Israel were told that the US and Russian navies would put a stop to our efforts in no uncertain terms if we did not desist. As a result the Suez was closed, causing oil from the gulf to have to be brought round Cape Horn. That meant oil shortages and more expense to us.

 

Did that mean that there would have been a joint effort by the US and Soviet navies? Considering that the Cold War was at it's height at that time that would have been a scenario almost impossible to imagine.

It may not have caused the end of NATO but it would have damaged it very seriously and for years to come plus created a wave of extreme anti US feeling in both France and Britain.

I seem to remember that the majority of British people supported Eden with the exception of the supporters of the far left faction of the Labour party

[SUPERTYKE]

You really do stoop so very low buck.

 

You're now saying that I'm putting my countrymen down for remarking that we came very close to losing the war many times - ????

 

Any intelligent American wouldn't have dreamt of disagreeing with me regarding most of my beefs with America. They live there and are highly aware of the threat to world peace/world health/world happiness that America presents. I've already told you about the things that I like about America.

 

I suppose you didn't notice Harls remark - that the Irish and Nazis were virtually co-combatants? (He knows that I'm from irish stock). The Irish were neutral, though obviously there were many Irish who (justifiably?) hated the English. And some of them helped the Germans - if you check it out you'll probably find that as many (or should I say 'as few'?) mainland brits were involved with treacherous and fascist organisations.

 

But it was a disgraceful slur on the seventy odd Irish regiments that served so valiantly and died so selflessly for Great Britain in WW2.

 

Can you compare Harls statement with mine??

 

I'm sure you'll find a way.

[Harleyman]

Further on the subject of British 1960s films "Billy Liar" is Ace.

[poppins]

Further on the subject of British 1960s films "Billy Liar" is Ace.

 

My very favorite is Hobsons Choice, it was on TCM last week , second, Goodby Mr chips, the one with Pet Clark.

[Harleyman]

You really do stoop so very low buck.

 

You're now saying that I'm putting my countrymen down for remarking that we came very close to losing the war many times - ????

 

Any intelligent American wouldn't have dreamt of disagreeing with me regarding most of my beefs with America. They live there and are highly aware of the threat to world peace/world health/world happiness that America presents. I've already told you about the things that I like about America.

 

I suppose you didn't notice Harls remark - that the Irish and Nazis were virtually co-combatants? (He knows that I'm from irish stock). The Irish were neutral, though obviously there were many Irish who (justifiably?) hated the English. And some of them helped the Germans - if you check it out you'll probably find that as many (or should I say 'as few'?) mainland brits were involved with treacherous and fascist organisations.

 

But it was a disgraceful slur on the seventy odd Irish regiments that served so valiantly and died so selflessly for Great Britain in WW2.

 

Can you compare Harls statement with mine??

 

I'm sure you'll find a way.

 

 

Maybe nutters like Jane Fonda might agree with you on that point. Otherwise ponder the fact than Americans are always there whenever disaster strikes anywhere in the world whether it's Haiti, Japan or New Zealand. Always the first in with whatever kind of help is needed. The American record of generosity goes far back. Who financed the rebuilding of postwar Germany and Japan.

 

As for threats to word peace I would say more accurately that radical Islamic extremism and the continuing very real tension between India and Pakistan over Kashmir is also grave cause for concern considering that both have nukes and Pakistan by itself with an unstable government and close ties to the Taleban could be a future nightmare to come.

 

As for the Irish. Yes. there were some who worked for the Nazis. The Irish government with it's decison to go neutral and deny the west coast to British naval facilities may well have delayed the turning point in the war against the U-boat menace and caused the death of some few thousand merchant marine crew in addition.

 

There were also as you say many more Irishmen who joined up and fought for Britain. My uncle was one. Flew Spits and Shackletions all thru the conflict and left the RAF in mid 1960s with the rank of Group Captain

 

As for the ever present complaint that the yanks should have come into the war a lot earlier may I recommend a very excellent work by an author named

James MacGregor Burns titled "Roosevelt the soldier of freedom 1940-1945"

 

It's a lengthy work and requires some reading but gives a deep insight and detailed account of what America was at that time and the immense problems Roosevelt was up against in 1940/41 when Britain, Russia and China were all crying out for military and other aid in addition to the many domestic and political problems he had to face at home.

[buck]

Did that mean that there would have been a joint effort by the US and Soviet navies? Considering that the Cold War was at it's height at that time that would have been a scenario almost impossible to imagine.

It may not have caused the end of NATO but it would have damaged it very seriously and for years to come plus created a wave of extreme anti US feeling in both France and Britain.

I seem to remember that the majority of British people supported Eden with the exception of the supporters of the far left faction of the Labour party

Not a joint effort by any means. The threats were issued independently. just imagine these two navies appearing at he spot at the same time.The British had five carriers deployed, the French one. A formidable force at any time. My squadron, No.800 RN attacked Cairo Airport by mistake taking out a few airliners. My ship launched a Skyraider after taking out its giant radar, and filling the radome with cans of beer, landed in the desert dropped the radome, and served it to the Airborne Regiment in action there. A couple of years later, the squadron was performing at Farnborough and billeted at Aldershot Barracks for the week. The Airborne Regiment treated us as honored guests, and we weren't allowed to buy a pint anywhere.

[buck]

You really do stoop so very low buck.

 

You're now saying that I'm putting my countrymen down for remarking that we came very close to losing the war many times - ????

 

Any intelligent American wouldn't have dreamt of disagreeing with me regarding most of my beefs with America. They live there and are highly aware of the threat to world peace/world health/world happiness that America presents. I've already told you about the things that I like about America.

 

I suppose you didn't notice Harls remark - that the Irish and Nazis were virtually co-combatants? (He knows that I'm from irish stock). The Irish were neutral, though obviously there were many Irish who (justifiably?) hated the English. And some of them helped the Germans - if you check it out you'll probably find that as many (or should I say 'as few'?) mainland brits were involved with treacherous and fascist organisations.

 

But it was a disgraceful slur on the seventy odd Irish regiments that served so valiantly and died so selflessly for Great Britain in WW2.

 

Can you compare Harls statement with mine??

 

I'm sure you'll find a way.

Why are you including me for something Harley wrote about Ireland? I am married happily to an Irishwoman from County Clare. Much of her family still lives in Ireland, mostly in the Shannon and Limerick area. I have been visiting for 29 years every year except for the years some of them have visited us. I am, as are many Britons, an advocate for a united Ireland. I have been called an adopted Irishman by my mother in law. I am proud of that. What I was saying was that you would have been lynched by people at the time of the war as a defeatist. We, and I was there remember, were resolved to win, and appreciated Americans who arrived among us. But you weren't there were you. In your arrogance you state that any intelligent American would agree with your comments about his country. I worry about you, mate!!! In the meantime, I have visited Britain in 1980 for convalescence following my wife's death in 1979, 1984 for my mother's death, 1988 for my brother's death, at which the woman at UK immigration, Heath Row inforrmed me without any sympathy that I could stay for six months and could not work, 1989 on a company visit to Scotland. Finally I visited two years ago two times in one week for an hour each to Heath Row on connecting flights from Shannon to Oslo and back. On the Scottish trip I visited Sheffield for a weekend at my cousins. He drove me from his home in Hackenthorpe around the old neighborhoods of Brightside and Attercliffe where we grew up. The City and much of the country has become overcrowded and as the Irish would say a bit desperate. I have no wish to return.