If you just want to rail against the string-em-up brigade, happy to partner with you. But what you've actually done is malign my countrymen quite unfairly. Only we get to do that.
I agree that there's such a thing as "national character" and that, although limited, it can offer insight.
It's problematic when you take it as gospel, and exclude visible facts. That's cheap and lazy.
Let's take a tangent: Britain's colonial past included racist mores. It's certain that racism is still part of life here today. However, in this dishonourable leadership board, we are nowhere near the top today. You can use "bananas thrown at black players per minute of professional football" as a proxy metric.
My point being, yes, history informs the present, but no, you cannot look at a time period and assume it tells you everything about a nation. Nations, like people, change.
Let us examine the elephant that you're studiously ignoring:
- capital punishment is now, in practical terms, outlawed (technically, hanging is still a possible sentence for treason, but that's obviously because it's never been worth parliament's time to debate).
- the prison service does a number of things that indicate some level of commitment to rehabilitation
- judges and magistrates have sentencing guidelines that are in line with other western european nations
- custodial sentences are rare for non-violent crimes
- "first offence" is a mitigating factor in sentencing
- debtor's prison is a distant memory
The judicial and policing regime today looks nothing like the regime in which you could be transported for stealing food, and in which punishment involved forced labour and in which abuse by the guards was a desired feature.
The reason for the change is the will of the people. We did not have change imposed on us. We, over time, decided that we weren't going to hang and transport into penal servitude any more. We elected Robert Peel, repeatedly, who reformed the police most excellently. I'm fucking proud of Peel. Look him up.
You don't have a leg to stand on. I doubt you have a leg anywhere in your home. You eat off a board on the floor because your table doesn't have a leg. You travel in circles because you don't have an outbound or a return leg. Your children play with just "o" and when you pass they will receive your acy. You are totally unequipped to discuss islation.
I agree that there's such a thing as "national character" and that, although limited, it can offer insight.
It's problematic when you take it as gospel, and exclude visible facts. That's cheap and lazy.
Let's take a tangent: Britain's colonial past included racist mores. It's certain that racism is still part of life here today. However, in this dishonourable leadership board, we are nowhere near the top today. You can use "bananas thrown at black players per minute of professional football" as a proxy metric.
My point being, yes, history informs the present, but no, you cannot look at a time period and assume it tells you everything about a nation. Nations, like people, change.
Let us examine the elephant that you're studiously ignoring:
- capital punishment is now, in practical terms, outlawed (technically, hanging is still a possible sentence for treason, but that's obviously because it's never been worth parliament's time to debate). - the prison service does a number of things that indicate some level of commitment to rehabilitation - judges and magistrates have sentencing guidelines that are in line with other western european nations - custodial sentences are rare for non-violent crimes - "first offence" is a mitigating factor in sentencing - debtor's prison is a distant memory
The judicial and policing regime today looks nothing like the regime in which you could be transported for stealing food, and in which punishment involved forced labour and in which abuse by the guards was a desired feature.
The reason for the change is the will of the people. We did not have change imposed on us. We, over time, decided that we weren't going to hang and transport into penal servitude any more. We elected Robert Peel, repeatedly, who reformed the police most excellently. I'm fucking proud of Peel. Look him up.
You don't have a leg to stand on. I doubt you have a leg anywhere in your home. You eat off a board on the floor because your table doesn't have a leg. You travel in circles because you don't have an outbound or a return leg. Your children play with just "o" and when you pass they will receive your acy. You are totally unequipped to discuss islation.
Apologies to the usual address, please.