Reminds me of a Henry Weinhards commercial. Takes place in Oregon, but the same idea.
In the 2000’s the ran the same commercial but with no images of the guys… you just hear them talking about the “hotties” but you don’t see the girls in their parkas until the end of the commercial.
I have a Welsh friend who told me a joke which I couldn’t remember the details of but found it below:
An Englishman, a Welshman and a Pakistani man were sat in the waiting room of the maternity ward at the local hospital.
A nurse comes out and says to the men “I’m sorry, but there’s a been a mix-up and we don’t know which baby belongs to which mother. Any chance one of you could come in and see if you can help?”
The Englishman stands up and says that he’ll help. He walks into the ward and, a couple of minutes later walks out with what is obviously a Pakistani baby. The Pakistani man stands up and shouts “What do you think you’re doing?!”
And the Englishman said “Look, one of those babies in there is Welsh, and I’m not taking any chances.”
I think it’s told both ways (making fun of English or vice versa)
I thought the Welsh hated the English… didn’t know that the English also hated the Welsh.
The English see themselves as superior to the Welsh and the Scots. Its a belief in English exceptionalism thing.
The country may be crumbling and falling apart around the old English folks, but they are still very much wedded to the notion of Britain being an Empire.
Personally, I think its more of a defense mechanism now. Life is so shit for many of them that they hold even tighter to that belief, even if it is a bit delusional at this point in time.
I call it toxic nostalgia, and it tends to be one of the reasons progress is so hard to accomplish in England.
Exactly, come upgrade to American Exceptionalism!
ifyp
i like the “toxic nostalgia” term
Or canadian quiet superiority.
AKA Canadian smugness.
I am a big fan of Edinburgh so could see living there.
Moving from some US states or cities to other states or cities may be more unsettling than Scotland-England moves.
Heh, along the lines of cold Northwest summers, I was just looking at my Facebook profile picture. It was taken on the 4th of July and I’m wearing a leather jacket because July 4 in the Northwest is leather jacket weather.
Or at least, it used to be. The Northwest is getting hit with global warming so the summers are now a lot hotter than they used to be. I haven’t ever updated my profile pic… it’s old. I might no longer need a leather jacket on July 4… not sure.
Yes. I have noticed an increase in the summer heat, drought and amount of smoke in just the past few years in Vancouver (which is just a few miles north of Northwest US.) Some of it is just variability but I am in the camp that views it as driven by climate change.
The summers here are gorgeous except for the handful of smoky days.
Well that ain’t saying much.
I kid… when it’s not smoky, Seattle summers are lovely. Although I’ve been surprised by the number of days this summer that my city is cooler than Seattle… hence my global warming comment.
But I also honestly think I’m currently living in some weird vortex where the summers are actually getting colder while the rest of the world simultaneously gets hotter. Data over the last 30 years or so seems to back up this theory that I completely pulled out of my ass. 
I pulled my sunshine comment as I thought I should “substitute facts for impressions”. One source showed that Seattle actually had marginally more sunny days than Vancouver. However that is different from hours of sunshine: Vancouver has many days that are cloudless in the fine weather months so they may win the hours of sunshine comparison.
Moody’s released a list of the most indebted LAs in the UK as many are in serious danger of declaring insolvency.
Here are the top 20…debt/revenue levels are off the charts bad. No way they can recover.
I agree that your taxes in Quebec would be higher than what you are currently paying. However someone earlier in their career with children would see a lot of direct benefits from those higher Quebec taxes.
For example, subsidized daycare in Quebec costs about the same per day as a cappuccino, the tuition fee at a world class university such as McGill is negligible for Quebec residents, healthcare is free, there are generous paternity and maternity benefits, and the list goes on.
Taxes in Canada are higher than the US at higher income levels but the money is spent on programs that I agree with even though I don’t directly benefit from many of them (but indirectly I do benefit).
Americans would find that the taxes they would pay in most Western countries are higher than in the US so I think it largely comes down to how one feels about how those higher tax dollars are being spent?
…and the quality of the services received in return for those taxes.
The subsidized daycare in Québec is nice…if you can get it. I understand that the waiting list to get into daycare in the Montréal area is quite long, to the extent that there is an incentive to join the queue when you find out that you/your partner is pregnant.
The less expensive healthcare is also great…but the quality of service not better than what you can receive in the US if you can afford it. The real deal-breaker in considering to move north in my case is that some of the treatment my wife is receiving for her health conditions weren’t approved by Health Canada until fairly recently.
I agree that there’s a trade-off between taxes and benefits. However, when you’re talking about the taxes a “seasoned” actuary on a US pay scale might be subject to…it’s a little harder to see how you might be getting your tax dollars’ worth.
A well-paid actuary in ANY country is probably going to pay much more in taxes over his/her lifetime than what he/she will receive in direct benefits. That income redistribution varies by country from small, in the US, to much larger in more socialist countries like Canada and Denmark. It is the price that is paid for a more equitable society. The indirect benefit to a highly paid actuary is to live in a safer, fairer society which is hard to put a price tag on.
Just adding in the backing link for the sewage problems in UK waters.
This was my favorite article about their sewage issues.
