the English, the English, the English are best.

[davywavy]

We've left in the hands of three unfriendly powers
Examine the Irishman, Welshman or Scot
You'll find he's a stinker as likely as not

The English the English the English are best
I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest

The Scotsman is mean as we're all well aware
He's boney and blotchy and covered with hair
He eats salty porridge, he works all the day
And hasn't got bishops to show him the way

The English the English the English are best
I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest

The Irishman now our contempt is beneath
He sleeps in his boots and he lies through his teeth
He blows up policemen or so I have heard
And blames it on Cromwell and William the Third

The English are moral the English are good
And clever and modest and misunderstood

The Welshman's dishonest, he cheats when he can
He's little and dark more like monkey than man
He works underground with a lamp on his hat
And sings far too loud, far too often and flat

The English the English the English are best
I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest

And crossing the channel one cannot say much
For the French or the Spanish, the Danish or Dutch
The Germans are German, the Russians are red
And the Greeks and Italians eat garlic in bed

The English are noble, the English are nice
And worth any other at double the price

And all the world over each nation's the same
They've simply no notion of playing the game
They argue with umpires, they cheer when they've won
And they practice before hand which spoils all the fun

The English the English the English are best
I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest

It's not that they're wicked or naturally bad
It's just that they're foreign that makes them so mad
The English are all that a nation should be
And the pride of the English are ukmonty and me

The English the English the English are best
I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest



Following the debate over on ksirafai, I decided to whip up a quick poll on the greatest of all Human Inventions, the British Empire. Basically, I'm curious to know which year you think the Empire was at it's peak.

[Poll #556800]

Comments

[skinny-cartman.livejournal.com]

aye she gets it from disraeli, 1855 onwards is Palmerston iirc.
Disraeli only rockets up during the 1860's

1833 is also just after the great reform act (1832) which is a fairly decent year.. of course its also just before the 1834 poor law amendment act where we start locking people up in workhouses which could be seen as a low..

similar to robin whilst I don't think the empire is something that could or should exist in the modern age (well perhaps with a major modification for an imperial parliament and/or dominion status for india, ireland etc etc.) it was something that was the done thing, we excelled at in the later imperial period (after the spanish and portuguese early period) and one that in the main we ran a lot better than everyone else.. People say that the British invented concentration camps in the boer war.. Take a look at the Germans and the Hottentot massacres and the literal death camps they set up there they are models for the later nazi period ones down to racial theories and experimentations, or look at the brutallity in the Belgian congo or the Italian's chemical weapons runs in east africa...