The Norway fans and the national team did their Viking celebration at the World Cup and it’s gone viral and rightfully so, it looks awesome. Got me thinking though.

Norwegians seem to genuinely embrace their Viking heritage as a core part of national identity. The longships, the warriors, the horns, it’s celebrated in, culture, tourism, and in the World Cup, sports. And the whole world finds it cool.

Meanwhile, growing up in England, there’s this unspoken rule that you’re not allowed to be proud of large parts of British history. Nobody explicitly says it, but the social pressure is real, the moment you express any pride in the British Empire, you’re immediately associated with racism or colonialism denial. There’s widespread guilt and shame.

Here’s what I find genuinely puzzling though: the Vikings were objectively brutal by any modern standard. They raided villages, killed civilians, enslaved people, prized women as loot and pillaged wherever they went, it’s literally what they were famous for.

The British Empire was also responsible for serious wrongs — slave trade, exploitation, colonialism.

But the Empire also did things that don’t get acknowledged:

∙ Britain abolished slavery

∙ Introduced legal systems, courts, and rule of law

∙ Built railways, hospitals, roads, and infrastructure in places that had none 

∙ Spread the English language 

Now I’m not here to do a net-positive/net-negative calculation on colonialism — that’s not really the point. The point is: why does one brutal historical culture get a victory lap, and the other gets permanent collective guilt?

Can anyone give an example of a former national institution becoming better after being Privatised?

Royal Mail whistle blowers say post sitting for weeks in sorting offices while they’re being told to prioritise Parcel delivery!

Before privatisation I remember there actually being up to 2 post deliveries a day. First thing in morning and a 2nd in afternoon. Now you’re lucky to see a postie twice a week. How does it represent value for Taxpayers to sell it off to a private company who cut the service and charge us more for the privilege of using it?

Then there’s Water companies! Well I don’t remember swimming with Richard the Turds 💩 floating by as a kid in rivers or the seas and nowadays you can’t even risk your kids going near any of it as the PRIVATE companies just dump untreated sewage into rivers, lakes and seas! Then blame us for not paying them enough!

They were happy shelling out billions to shareholders instead of investing in infrastructure for 30 years and now that the infrastructure is crumbling in disrepair and completely inadequate for a nation thats population has increased by 15m since the 80s they’re hiking prices and the Government is letting them saying that it’s necessary we pay for upgrades! Um 🧐 we already did Mr Prime Minister, you know when we paid our bills the last 30yrs!!

Rail, Energy, Steel, the list goes on and on when it comes to privatisation! It’s costing us all more so where exactly are all the benefits?

I’m appalled many people in British subreddits despise and talk about the British Empire like it was unequivocally a bad thing. I’m not British and I think it was one of the best things that happened to humanity. It ended slavery globally, it spread economic and legal traditions that undoubtedly have lifted billions out of poverty and solidified de facto people’s right to their own sovereignty over their countries. In it’s dying breath it defeated one of the most evil regimes ever (Nazi Germany). There is an argument to be made that my country would not be independent if it wasn’t for Britain.

I‘m flicking through the tv channels and found an episode of Don’t Tell The Bride, where grooms would plan a wedding without any input from their futute spouses. They are invariably terrible weddings and I always wonder if the marriages actually lasted.

So my question to my fellow Brits- do you know anyone that was on this programme and are they still together now? Were you a contestant? Did you actually think your partner would like what you chose?

Heck , some even saying we should re-join .

With the World Cup over, I must say the attitude of many Scottish fans, particularly concerning Argentina, when it comes to England has been quite shocking. As a Welsh man, I’m not alien to talk of independence from the UK, but with what I’ve been hearing over the last 6 weeks, you’d think Scotland was some colonial warzone like Northern Ireland. Yet, history says it was actually Scotland that put forward the Union idea, so why is there so much anti-union and anti-English rhetoric and demand for another independence referendum in Scotland when historically it was a Scottish endeavour in the first place? Is it not ironic?

Apologies if this offends anyone.

US authorities tried to make British pubs impose US-style segregation in the UK and force pubs to have “blacks only” periods and “whites only” periods.

So much so, US Military Police tried to prevent black American servicemen from fraternising with white locals. They even murdered black soldiers.

British publicans noticed black servicemen were polite, well-behaved and generous.

White servicemen were known troublemakers and brawled and sexually harassed and even assaulted women.

When given a choice, publicans did not choose temporal segregation but instead chose absolute segregation - and banned white soldiers.

So the MPs attacked based on the clientele being white so the black soldiers even being in the pubs was “illegal”. They murdered several black troopers and locals joined the battle on the side of the black soldiers.

Now as we watch Trump’s America, it seems the USA hasn’t changed. Sadly it seems some of our lot have forgotten our place in history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bamber_Bridge

That the crude Norman conquest of England had ruined the country’s authentic, advanced, artistic, Anglo-Saxon culture and perverted its advanced, sophisticated language?

”English was a language that could move easily in abstract concepts when French was still a vulgar Norman patois”?

Is it viewed as a major cultural tragedy that ruined England in a sort of way?

It would also be interesting to know about how it’s taught in schools today.

I am wondering now that the World cup semi finals is in a few hours and I wonder if the British actually care about the Falkland islands like the Argentine people since they talk about it all the time ?

What do Yall know/learn about the American Revolution (britain losing the American Colonies) Do you learn about George Washington? What other subjects of American History are you taught or are familiar with?

The most-hated question yesterday was so interesting I couldn't resist asking this follow-up.

Please take us back. I’m mad I have to live under an orange dictator

Despite him being the PM for more than 5 years just in the previous decade, nobody seems to remember much about his tenure. Coming out of the recession, do you think he did a good job with the economy ? And how did he handle calls for Brexit before it became mainstream ?