Royal Wedding

Olly said:
it's a false one-dimensional view of England. .
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absolutely true. but one that attracts the tourists who don't really care about life in peckham. i must admit that when i toured london 18 months ago - museums, palaces, castles, churches, galleries etc. the last thing on my mind were political activists like rob and ol. i never gave them a thought as i emptied my wallet in the olde english 'pubs'
 
stephen said:
absolutely true. but one that attracts the tourists who don't really care about life in peckham. i must admit that when i toured london 18 months ago - museums, palaces, castles, churches, galleries etc. the last thing on my mind were political activists like rob and ol. i never gave them a thought as i emptied my wallet in the olde english 'pubs'
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I drink in olde English pubs too...and visit the odd museum! 8O

Quick! Give me a cultural identity to match your world view. ;)

I didn't spot Olly wandering around Soho Sq with a megaphone dishing out copies of the Socialist Worker so you might want to expand the category ranges on your pigeon holing system.
 
I might be loud but am not especially political. However, I do object to the media falsehoods. I just think that too many tourists to the UK have /are given a narrow view of what its like, whereas when I go to Spain, the class divide isn't nearly so apparent, for instance if you go to the fiesta mayors on the outskirts of Barcelona (La Feria de Abril for instance) you get a real taster of real andalucian migrant community life and yet ordinary life in the UK is something that the bulk of foreign tourists would never really bother with. Whether there is anything about real England that would appeal to a tourist is another matter, but in London at least there is so much vibrancy in places like brixton, hackney, deptford, more food, music, art than you know existed and yet it is all airbrushed. 'too black, too strong' as that old tune went...
 
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sorry lads - political activist - was a throwaway remark that i regret making - it gave you something else to latch on to. like it or not, tourists don't visit foreign countries to see how ordinary people live or because of their past inequalities/misdeeds.

people go to london because the queen lives there, to egypt to see the pyramids, the usa because disneyland is there and ibiza because it has nice weather.

simple but true.
 
some tourists I agree

but the kinds of people who visit the holocaust museum or el valle de los caidos probably have a different notion of tourism - it's not all buckets & spades

anyway, it's not for me to judge what tourists do with their time - my main issue in this thread is people being sold a distorted view of a country and its culture - it's all well and good having iconic landmarks but if they're increasingly naff or obsolete - redphoneboxes? routemasters? smiling policemen? then tourism just becomes a really tacky exercise in rinsing the naive. and ultimately that reflects on your country as a whole really badly.

I simply think spanish tourism is far better marketed than the UK - I went to a fair a while back, promoting all the different foods, wines, dances etc stuff from the different comunidades and the diversity in cultures was clearly evident for any beginner looking round, you don't have tacky pictures of Juan Carlos everywhere. The identity of the country is in the people not the institutions and I think that we in the UK could learn a lot from that.
 
Classic case of agreeing with each other and arguing the point then.

I couldn't give a monkeys about the tourist trade in this country.

Rewind to Sil's point earlier - if this is the only remaining reason to embrace a wedding then why a friggin' Friday?
 
Olly said:
The identity of the country is in the people not the institutions and I think that we in the UK could learn a lot from that.
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I wholeheartedly agree.

This was my point, Prince Andrew and Kate Middleton are UK people first....they just happen to represent an institution as well.

On Friday they reflected a side of English people that was good. Both seem smart, relaxed cool and stylish but not in a stuck up way.

Gone are the days of the British Bulldog brits abroad image. In Ibiza I have met many English people and I found them as described above.

Just the two of them, with William Driving away in the vintage Aston Martin car was cool...8)

Both are well mannered, intelligent, accomplished, skilled persons and from reports I have heard, both are very interesting people to meet.

Not your typical Royal couple but seemingly down to earth people.

Not a bad image to project to young kids.
 
Robder said:
Classic case of agreeing with each other and arguing the point then.

I couldn't give a monkeys about the tourist trade in this country.

Rewind to Sil's point earlier - if this is the only remaining reason to embrace a wedding then why a friggin' Friday?
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i don't recall arguing with anyone? i merely stated a fact about why tourists like to visit britain and your feelings towards the tourist industry have absolutely no bearing on it.
 
stephen said:
people go to london because the queen lives there, to egypt to see the pyramids, the usa because disneyland is there and ibiza because it has nice weather.

simple but true.
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Stephen London is much more than Queenie's hometown!!
Maybe for national tourism is a plus but I don't think the decision between London and Paris would be the monarchy for any international toursit
Hola, btw :D
 
Tourist don't get a feel for national/class issues on a visit to a foreign country. When you live there or visit year after year with your eyes open, you can see the class difference and down trodden of that society. All countries have an elite class that run politics, business and finance. I have to be honest my first visit to London I did all the tourist stuff. The next time I went I met some people went to a rave came out munted to looking for a kebab in the middle of the night.
 
stephen said:
i don't recall arguing with anyone? i merely stated a fact about why tourists like to visit britain and your feelings towards the tourist industry have absolutely no bearing on it.
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:lol: I was talking about myself but if you want to argue that point too...
 
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