Re: RE: European Union & Unit
cortez said:
Daz_Hockey said:
nah only swarvy Euro-types will use that one.....u'll never catch an englishman with THAT flag...we fought a world war to stop germany controlling europe etc.......
the continentals are refined, educated, superior virtually in every respect
whenever ive travelled on the continent i have come back home inspired by these wonderfull people
yes germans included
ww2 was 50 years ago---get over it
Official: Britons are most cultured Europeans
John Hooper in Rome
Saturday February 19, 2005
The Guardian
The Italians have Michelangelo, the French Molière and the Germans Beethoven.
But, according to an Italian survey, the British - the beer-swilling, tabloid-reading, supposedly sports-crazy British - are more cultured than any of them.
They go to more concerts, films, plays, galleries and libraries than almost anyone in Europe. They even manage to visit more ruins and monuments than the Italians.
But the one area where they lag behind the other major nations of Europe is sport. More French, Italians and Spanish than British go to a course or stadium.
But the British are sportier than the Germans and, proportionately, attendances are above the average for the former European Union of 15 states.
These and other findings are contained in a survey of European cultural consumption commissioned in Italy and due to be published next week. Interviewees in the countries that made up the EU until its enlargement last year were asked if they had been to any one of a series of cultural events in the previous 12 months.
The British scored higher than the French, Germans and Italians in every category except sport. More than 60% of Britons said they were film-goers, compared with only 52% in the land of Renoir, Godard and Truffaut, and 49% of Britons claimed to have been to a library, compared with 27% in the homeland of Goethe.
And almost a third of Britons claimed to have been to a gallery or museum, compared with barely 20% of Italians.
Italy's relatively low "cultural consumption" is a source of growing concern in a country that is renowned for its artistic riches.
Guido Venturini, director general of the Touring Club Italiano, which carried out the survey, told the magazine Il Venerdi: "We are sitting in the most beautiful country in the world, but the Italians appear to be wholly unaware of it."
Part of the problem is that Italy's stagnant economy has prompted the government to cut the budget of its culture ministry as well as to slash allocations to local authorities, which are responsible for many of festivals, libraries, museums and galleries. But it is also true that contemporary Italy's artistic output is modest.
Antonio Paolucci, Florence's top arts official, said: "The next Michelangelo, if there ever is one, will certainly not be born in Italy, but rather China, or the US, or Brazil." Or perhaps even Basingstoke.
guardian.co.uk