The Great British Public | David Mitchell's Soapbox

David Mitchell dissects the phrase 'The Great British Public'.
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ABOUT DAVID MITCHELL'S SOAPBOX:
David Mitchell, star of UK TV favourites Peep Show and That Mitchell and Webb Look, brings us his unique perspective on the issues facing men of the world today.

• Category

  Comedy

[Alrightbearlad]

You're an idiot mate I was taking the piss when I wrote this, I mean WTF does we're more cynical than you mean? Seriously lighten up and get a grip, what the hell is so offensive that I wrote? All I've done is generalise 300 million people it doesn't mean anything it's bollocks, yet you and loads of other Yank cyber warriors are going mental. Shit like this is the reason why I'm getting so many likes, stop taking yourself so seriously, Jesus Christ.

[tSp289]

The converse of this is moaning and bitching about things for the sake of it, which is just as toxic as painting a flag on your cock and waving it in everyone's face like so many other countries do. There is no such thing as 'the greatest country in the world' - Britain isn't it and the US definitely isn't, but Britain is also nowhere near the shittest country in the world either. There are good and bad things about everywhere it's possible to live, and on balance, the UK is quite a good one.

[Talbot6832]

I'm down with this. However, I do not tolerate wishy washy lefty liberals putting our historical past into the sort of framework 'someone' like Satan would be proud of.

[Ghostrhino12]

britain may be all those things, but at least we're doing better than america.

[shodanxx]

What you mean is that what's great about residents of the UK is that they don't assume that what they believe is necessarily true, that is they are more cautious than overconfident

[Aviel Menter]

Income equality is _substantially_ better in Britain, though that may not be true of class mobility. $14,000 for tuition is still substantially less than the US, though that's surprisingly much. Last I heard a few years ago it was £3,000.

[Shen Tao]

Actually Britain came out worse in the OECD report on social mobility, closely followed by Italy and the US. I believe actual inequality is slightly better than the US, but still definitely one of the worst for the developed western world, and the fastest growing. Also tuition fees went up significantly to £9,000 last year ($14,000). Just doing my Britishly duty of humility. We do have a great taxi system in London, and buses as well. Thanks.

[GreenHouseGamers]

Great britain actually means the geographic shape of england,wales and scotland excluding any islands or areas not connected to the main land so when you do say the great british public your excluding people in, for example nothern ireland or the Hebrides.

Luv the show btw

[Aviel Menter]

David, there are plenty of great things about Britain other than humility. For example, London's taxi system, or the fact that you have greater class mobility and less inequality than the US, and also that your college tuition is cheap.

[Aviel Menter]

America is annoying because we _only_ have people who constantly complain about how awful America is (like Noam Chomsky) and people who constantly go on about how perfect America is (like all Politicians, basically).

[shannonjapan]

There are things I love about this country, and things that piss me off. Whatever you think of the place, there's plenty to laugh at.

[jcbookman]

I'm American, I adore my country with all my heart and mind, and *because* of that I love hearing it being torn to pieces. Once you stop criticizing yourself, you stop improving.