The U.K. is not like Italy

The Italian state pension is one of the highest in Europe.

There are a couple of American gentlemen who live in Britain now who vlog on what they love about this country. Their views of us are very encouraging.

I was just thinking about the creative industry and the high level of income the U.K. gets from it.

It can’t be very sensible to my mind to diss the degrees relating to this industry as is so often the case.

Our creative industry is second to none.

vegansrock interesting as your post is and one with which I agree I am not sure you have grasped the point of this thread

Italy has had some crap governments over the years, but mostly they are so useless they don’t do anything major. Brexit has shown that it was an economic disaster to leave the EU ,which provides stability in many ways for the country. Hence why even the right wing parties now see they are much better off inside the EU and don’t campaign against it.

My butcher sells welsh lamb and English lamb - both organic grass fed free range. You can get the Welsh lamb who feed on seaweed I think, but that is really expensive and for special occasions.

I still miss the British cheeses. They do have a version of them here but that’s it, just a version . We have some lovely Tasmanian cheeses and they are the nearest thing. We do have quite a few Italian and French ones and they are good but somehow they don’t get the ‘ British ‘ ones quite right even though they are supposed to be actually British. Lovely Caephilly and Wensleydale. Dreamy.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Allira

One place I do like to see the Union flag, and look for it, is on British produce 🇬🇧

Our fruit and vegetables, our excellent foods which haven't gained thousands of air miles, even our wine now too which can compete with the best.

Who gets to buy Welsh lamb these days? Where does it go? I’d love some but the supermarket I use never stocks it.

Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Lidl too.

You can but it in restaurants

Try Morrisons, all their fresh meat is from the UK, and they stock Welsh lamb.

Allira

One place I do like to see the Union flag, and look for it, is on British produce 🇬🇧

Our fruit and vegetables, our excellent foods which haven't gained thousands of air miles, even our wine now too which can compete with the best.

Who gets to buy Welsh lamb these days? Where does it go? I’d love some but the supermarket I use never stocks it.

You forgot to include the photo that accompanied the Observer editorial Whitewavemark2.
That is a Vespa, which is a famous ITALIAN brand of scooters! 😂 🇮🇹
You'd think they have chosen a picture of a Triumph!
observer.co.uk/news/politics/article/the-observer-view-welcome-to-italy

Excuse me! I don't get the point you're making.

twaddle

Galaxy

Er for the last few years we have been told that this country is responsible for every ill in the world, we have been told that institutions were institutionally racist, etc etc. It wasn't the 'far right' who started this.

Oh ssssshhhhh! I was thoroughly enjoying the positivity of this thread. I was wondering if we could start a GN initiative to repatriate British nationalism from flag-waving "patriots". Don't start a blame game.

It was keeping quiet who mentioned’the far right’ first.

come on now Whitewavemark2 - you are clearly not reading the papers!

I agree with all you say .....

'Inclusive' is better perhaps?

I have currently been haunting Aldi because they seem to be the only supermarket that regularly stocks Italian grown tomatoes, while making a weekly trip to Waitrose for the earliest British grown asparagus. I then use the asparagus in a risotto, which means sourcing one specific brand of risotto rice because I've been to their factory in Italy. This pretty much sums up my attitude to Italy versus the UK. Schizophrenic is probably the word.

I’m lucky that I live by plenty of proper Italian restaurants outside of Italy and the city

We have plenty of beautiful historic buildings and gardens

Given the chaos in the UK it was a pleasant reminder that not all is doom and gloom

No, that comes later, and will be nothing to do with the current political shenanigans.

The first time I went to Italy I was struck by how many of their grand old buildings looked like British great country houses. Then I twigged it. Of course, our 17th and 18th C architects had copied Italian architecture

What I love about Britain is the wide variation in stunning landscapes in a comparatively small area. Few miles and miles of flatlands (except in poor old Lincolnshire)

vegansrock The OP isnot denying areas where Italy excells over the UK, but it is pointing out the areas on which we excell, and being reminded does no harm whatsoever.
Posters have quite naturally added their contribution.

Given the chaos in the UK it was a pleasant reminder that not all is doom and gloom

vegansrock

Italy has better food, weather, historical sites, ice cream so why make a comparison? Uk is a good place to live if you have enough money to live on and don't live in a depressing backwater, which is probably the same as anywhere else. Unfortunately we've lost our manufacturing industry which Italy still has including household goods, cars and textiles. Italy has more high end fashion houses.

There are some depressing backwaters ie slums in every country, including Italy, worse than in the UK.

Italy has better food, weather, historical sites, ice cream so why make a comparison? Uk is a good place to live if you have enough money to live on and don't live in a depressing backwater, which is probably the same as anywhere else. Unfortunately we've lost our manufacturing industry which Italy still has including household goods, cars and textiles. Italy has more high end fashion houses.

I am part of a local litter picking team, good exercise and people from all generations to chat too while we pick.

MT62

The only thing I would compare is the state of our roads.
The roads are lovely to drive on in Spain, I didn’t see one pot hole.
Here I feel my eyes are downwards looking for pot holes 😩

🤦‍♀️ oh Italy- never been.

The only thing I would compare is the state of our roads.
The roads are lovely to drive on in Spain, I didn’t see one pot hole.
Here I feel my eyes are downwards looking for pot holes 😩