Predict what Britain will look like in 2066

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by Immy

As a Yank I'm a tad humbled that the US has been around roughly a quarter of the time Britain has existed. And while we probably won't be around to see it (perhaps your kids and certainly your grandchildren will witness the Millennial celebration) give your best guess as to what your nation will look like when you celebrate 1,000 years.

We will be a lot like we are now, with the same good points and bad points. We will be even more crowded than we already are. We will have phased our most of our fossil fuel power stations and our air will be cleaner, I hope. The water supply will still be an issue. We will have the same apartheid "relationship" with key minority communities, especially the Muslim communit(ies) in Britain, though I would like to hope that some degree of assimilation will have been achieved. Obtaining separation from the EU will have made a difference to our survival as a unique and distinctive nation with its own culture and identity. Our experience has been that we are way too popular a destination for economic migration, often by people who hate us but still want to claim our benefits; and that the EU is not going to protect us from people who enter via other EU countries and then seek to exercise freedom of movement and come here. In fact the EU is going to sue us for resisting such movement. Bah.

All cultures change and evolve and immigration is a part of that and always has been. I am very partial to my traditional British chicken tikka masala on pilau rice with naan bread and onion bharjees. But I draw the line at being made to feel like a foreigner in my own land of birth: I won't accept that. In the absence of our national right to determine immigration policy this threat was very real. As long as it is the British people who determine what the rules are, I am fine with controlled immigration and I have no fears in my mind that the Muslim community will mount a Borg-like takeover. I have for a long time noted the emergence of a distinctive British-Muslim identity and find it rather interesting and certainly not a bad thing. You will see similar in the British Jewish community, which has been here longer and which is unquestionably a valuable asset to our national culture. We have various strands of identity and the uniting bond is our loyalty to Great Britain. As long as anyone shares this loyalty with me he/she is my brother/sister: we are of one blood. I don't think for a second that we will ever be a "stan"; I do think that there will always be a place here for Muslims of good character.

All others, no matter what race or creed, know how to get to the airport if they decide they have no bond of loyalty to this country.

[calamity_jane]

The English accent and language will disappear, it will start with white indigenous kids talking in a mix of Afro, Caribbean, rap and hip-hop twang. Oh hang on it's happening now, Innit.

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by calamity_jane

The English accent and language will disappear, it will start with white indigenous kids talking in a mix of Afro, Caribbean, rap and hip-hop twang. Oh hang on it's happening now, Innit.

It may be gibberish, but it is very distinctively British gibberish.

[Roubignol]

Originally Posted by calamity_jane

The English accent and language will disappear, it will start with white indigenous kids talking in a mix of Afro, Caribbean, rap and hip-hop twang. Oh hang on it's happening now, Innit.

Is there really an English accent? I don't think so.

I always believed that the English accent was the accent of Margaret Thatcher or Queen Elisabeth. But when I listen to Cheryl Cole, that's not the typical English accent that I heard at school.

There are also like several accents between the "classes" in your society.

I was several times in England. And as non speaking english tourist, it wasn't so easy to understand some real British people in the street when I asked question (I don't speak about Pakistaneses or black people, who were sometimes very understandable, but typical English people). They eat their words... that was not a clear language like your TV presenters.

It seems to me that the charm of your accent is also a question of education.

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by xyzde69

Is there really an English accent? I don't think so.

I always believed that the English accent was the accent of Margaret Thatcher or Queen Elisabeth. But when I listen to Cheryl Cole, that's not the typical English accent that I heard at school.

There are also like several accents between the "classes" in your society.

I was several times in England. And as non speaking english tourist, it wasn't so easy to understand some real British people in the street when I asked question (I don't speak about Pakistaneses or black people, who were sometimes very understandable, but typical English people). They eat their words... that was not a clear language like your TV presenters.

It seems to me that the charm of your accent is also a question of education.

We have quite a few regional accents for a relatively small island.

[Nobody1]

Originally Posted by xyzde69

It reminds me a little of a series of paintings by Thomas Cole. Especially the fourth painting, called 'Destruction'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Co...s)#Destruction

The last one is titled 'Desolation'. I think this will be Britain's destiny in the next few million years.

[MaxJoker]

Crisply pleated , with tassels

[bloke57]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

We have quite a few regional accents for a relatively small island.

That's true - and apparently it was even more so in the past before canals and railways came.

There are accounts of groups of engineers and navvies meeting, Englishmen one and all, and yet having no idea what each other were saying because the country was so regionalised. Men of Cornwall and Northumberland straining to be understood.

[@llatse@]

+ = Britain 2066

[CARLTON BROWN]

There are a few very interesting proposals for London Underground by the middle of this century to be found on the Internet. In some cases with made-up train maps. From what I can see, the system will have almost doubled in size and by then and you'll probably be able to take an underground train from St Albans to Brighton.