Sorry but I feel the need to have a moan ....
Being the type of person who likes to develop myself, I am always studying something. I had been studying through the OU for a few years but had to put things on hold as I just had too much going on with life in general and I have been concentrating on professional development via my employers.
I decided today that I needed to get back to my own personal development as it had been on the back burners for too long and so went onto the OU website to see what I would go and study next.
I noticed that the fees for the OU are now dependant on where you live. A part-time study module for 1 year now costs £2500 if you live in England (last time I looked the average module was around £650). However, if you love in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, you only have to pay around £900!
How unfair is that!! Apparently, they have changed their fees in line with 'normal' universities. The English can't afford to go to 'normal' university and now can't afford the alternative of distance learning either!
Are we English destined to be an underdeveloped/skint nation??
We get ripped off for everything: Uni fees, prescriptions ...... what next?
So are you proud to be English? So much for 'a United Kingdom' and equality!!
Yeah, I see the OU have proper fucked up. Sign of the times, sadly.
No I am no longer proud to be British, not just because our alcohol culture has embarrassed us abroad and our binge drinking accepted by many as being perfectly natural.
Or because obesity in Country is amongst the worst around or child pregnancies or
Not just because we get kicked around and have to take it up the arse for europe.
Not even because we have to support the USA in anything it does in order to retain thier support with a global voice or military assistance.
I am ashamed to be British because a stream of governments and thier immigration policies and "doing it the cricket way" has made us a laughing stock and a dumping ground for anyone and anything other countries want to get rid of not to mention being the financial prop for the EU and other Countries such as Pakistan and Africa.
That said I am British and English and I would still give my life for this Country, I just wish I could do it for somewhere that makes me prouder of my heritage.
Well if you are born in Britain you are British with Indian heritage you should be proud of your heritage and you should never forget it but allegiance should always be to the Country of your birth, with certain exceptions.
For examply my eldest daughter was born in Germany, I was a serving soldier at the time and she was born in a British Military Hospital and registered with the British Consulate as a German born British Citizen, there are hundreds of thousands of such cases.
When it comes to Indian immigrants I have a special thought towards them, when in the past we offered to rule thier Country for them one of the bargaining chips was that they would become part of the British Empire and have the right of abode in England, you cannot just take that away at a later date, Indian troops have died in thier hundreds of thousands for this Country over the years, they still serve in the British Army today, mostly Sikhs but there are no less than 500 muslims currently serving in the British Army, some deployed in Afganistan and Iraq right now.
I believe that the Indians, the Nepalese (Ghurkas), Fijians, Burmese that have served this country in our armed forces have a special right to live in a place they fought for. I don't mean allies like the Belgians or Australians who fought alongside us under thier own Countries flag, I mean those that were commanded by British Officers in British Uniforms and under British High Command.
One I came accross in the past annoyed me though, a friend who had served in the British army for a long time and served on active service in Northern Ireland and Cyprus (74) applied for a passport, something he was required to do under army regulations as he was soon to be departing for the Falkland Islands campaign.
His passport application was refused on the grounds that his Father had been born in Hong Kong (because his Grandfather had been serving there in the army) and his Grandfather had been born in India (because his Great Grandfather had been serving there in the Army)
So because his family had served thier Country he was not allowed a British Passport, a special application had to be made to the Home Office and he was eventually granted a British Passport, surely though not common, this has happened before and will happen again and legistlation should be in place to cover those circumstances without putting such people through the embarrassent of having to be a "special case".
I'm a scouser and proud of it
I'm a very proud Englishman but I despair at what it is becoming / has become. The way the once proud Englishman/woman now just bends over and allows anyone passing to screw them over without a whimper of protest is just plain pathetic. A nation now more interested in soap operas, moronic talent shows and nauseating reality TV than in anything worthwhile.
As for the OU if it is going to cost £15,000 for a degree then for that money you can study at some very good universities in far more pleasant places than the UK.
What a silly little joke the UK is fast becoming
I am not either British OR English - I am both. I am also Yorkshire, Northern, European (when compared with the American, Autralasian or Asian continents) and a Yorkie (from York). It's all to do with what the comparison under discussion is.
Am I proud to be any of them? Not really - they are facts of birth, and to be 'proud' of being born somewhere is as irrelevant as being 'proud' of being female. I just AM.
I don't think you can sensibly be proud of something you have not had a hand in bringing about. I AM proud (damned proud in fact) of being an Engineer and an engineering trainer.
You can be proud of something your kids achieve too, of course. But that is a different kind of pride.
Do I like this country? Yes. I love it - but that is absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with my feelings about the *********** that are in government. But then I feel the same about all governments so at least I am unbiased.
I used to be Proud to be English.
But not no more :sad:
Tony.
