Great Britain: what a wonderful name for a country!
nobabydaddy
Posts: 2,701 Forum Member
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The word GREAT just makes us think "big", "large", "wide", "super", "wonderful"....
Our relatively small nation in terms of population has punched away above it's weight on the global stage in science, invention, sports and the arts for many centuries and has been the destination of choice for business, leisure and a new home for people from all around the world.
Let's keep our GREAT nation together. Let's not isolate ourselves from our European partners. Let's continue to contribute to this planet through the endeavours and innovation of our citizens.
GREAT BRITAIN!
Our relatively small nation in terms of population has punched away above it's weight on the global stage in science, invention, sports and the arts for many centuries and has been the destination of choice for business, leisure and a new home for people from all around the world.
Let's keep our GREAT nation together. Let's not isolate ourselves from our European partners. Let's continue to contribute to this planet through the endeavours and innovation of our citizens.
GREAT BRITAIN!
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Comments
"Great" Britain has been used as a name for about 600 years,
Archipelago actually.
Um, no. Island. The archipelago is the British Isles.
Interesting fact: Portsmouth is not in Great Britain....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdVnEbHZjzo
Actually, it is to differentiate the larger island that the Britons inhabited to differentiate it from the "minor Britain" in Gaul (modern north west France), or, if you believe Ptolemy, the current island of Eire.
Our political system is a shambles with record levels of voter apathy, 4th most unequal country in the developed world, steepest fall in living standards since WWII, the poor being systematically targeted by a government consisting mostly of millionaire public schoolboys with friends in big business, a never ending stream of perks and loopholes designed to keep the super-rich super rich, a public service broadcaster whose propaganda would give North Korea a run for its money, etc, etc, etc....
Great? No. F*cked? Yup.
Roll on September 19th!!!
And don't forget....a loud mouthed bullying ex prostitute won Big Brother and the 'celeb' version features a self confessed benefit scrounger. I hope the dawn of Sept 19th brings new hope but I am not holding my breath unfortunately.
Part of it is the Isle of Portsea ( the third largest in population of the British Isles after GB and Ireland - but not many people like to refer to Ireland as part of the British isles any more even though geographically and historically it is - as land as opposed to politically ) the other part is mainland.
Al Britan?
Britistan?
Gharib Bathan?
And as night follows day, this is surely going to happen
You've confused me now!
Anyway, to hopefully clarify the Portsmouth bit, all of it is in Great Britain politically, but only part of it geographically. Portsea Island is, of course, only part of modern Portsmouth.
...really?
Christians and non-religious people make over 80% of Britain's population (as of 2011). Muslims make just 4.8%. They've got a lot of catching up to do. Can you perhaps post a source of where you heard Muslims will become the biggest demographic, or is it just unfounded nonsense?
Also, interesting fact whilst I was searching the figures: the 2001 Census for religion recorded 390,000 Jedi Knights, making Jedi the fourth-largest "religion" in the UK- although, on the census, these Jedi Knights are classified as "No Religion". Should we be worried about Jedi Knights becoming the biggest demographic?
A 2001 report by the ONS revealed the following birth rates by ethnicity (i.e. the average of children each mother would have):
White 1.8
Afro-Caribbean 1.8
Indian 2.3
Pakistani 4.0
Bangladeshi 4.7
However, this is the article you should read if you are genuinely uninformed on how muslim birthrates are unprecedented in the UK.
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/douglas-murray/2014/01/is-the-startling-rise-in-muslim-infants-as-positive-as-the-times-suggests/
I'd vote for that in a referendum.
The average Bangladeshi woman in Bangladesh now has 2.15 children compared to 5.1 children in 1981. Indian families in the UK had 4.3 children in 1971, now it is 2.3. Thus one cannot project current rates into the future.
Average number of children for British Muslims is now 3.0 as against 1.8 for British whites. This disparity is likely to continue to fall. Thus a more realistic 'worse case scenario' is a 10% Muslim population by 2050.
Also Islam is the fasted growing religion in the UK outside of birth rates. Your estimate is typically conservative.
You should read this article. You seem pretty uninformed yourself.
http://www.islamophobiawatch.co.uk/times-discovers-non-existent-rise-in-muslim-birthrate/
This article addresses the idea presented in various newspapers (including The Times, The Daily Mail etc.) concerning this "startling" rise in Muslim birth rates, which could lead to Muslims becoming the biggest majority in Britain. How terrifying (!). However, this "startling rise" is an example of cherry-picking data to create an alarmist headline intended to scaremonger. You say you believe in education, but you have made no effort to analyse the data and both sides of the argument properly. It's easy to post one bit of data (like the one you posted) and say "Look! This obviously means Muslims are taking over!". But does it? Demographics is a lot more complex than that, and requires you to take into consideration lots of different data to get a full picture.
So here's some posts from the above article that address this idea of a "startling" increase in Muslim birth rates, that was pretty much created by The Times to scaremonger...
On Muslim birth rates...
"Even Coleman, however, is unable to deny the fact that birthrate among the UK’s Muslim community is falling...It is a well-established demographic principle that the fertility rates of communities of recent migrant origin, particularly from developing countries, may be initially higher than those of longer-established communities but decline over time. A 2011 study by the Pew Research Center found that Muslims in the UK had on average 3 children in 2005-10, and predicted that by 2025-30 the figure would be down to 2.5."
On Muslims becoming the biggest demographic majority in Britain...
"Professor Voas adds that he can see no possibility that Muslims might become a majority in Britain, which obviously undercuts the central message of the article"
On how The Times has twisted data and used extremely biased sources in their articles...
"David Coleman...describes the figures as “startling”. Kennedy doesn’t bother to tell his readers that Coleman is also co-founder of the right-wing campaign group Migration Watch and has a record of feeding the anti-immigrant hysteria of the right-wing press."
"Lockwood is introduced as publisher of the Yorkshire newspaper The Press. No mention is made of Lockwood’s far-right links or of the fact that he is author of a vanity-publishing exercise in anti-Muslim scaremongering entitled The Islamic Republic of Dewsbury."
Conclusion
Muslim birth rates are falling. There is no possibility that Muslims will become the majority in Britain. The idea that Muslims will soon become the majority due to their birth rates was a twisted representation of data by The Times through biased sources and cherry-picked statistics in order to create an alarmist headline to scaremonger so-called educated people like yourself. The article is backed up with several sources- you can decide yourself whether you think it's incorrect, biased etc. I personally don't.
I will agree that Britain is becoming quite Islam friendly and Islam's presence in Britain will rise (though, not due to high Muslim birth rates as you suggested. Nor will it take over Britain by 2050). As an article from Prospect (found below) said on the issue: "Islam will make a significant imprint on European life—so saner Eurabian ideas should be publicly discussed." aka demographic changes are happening, but not to the extent that Islam should be considered to be taking over. It's becoming a bigger presence in Britain and Europe though and that's what should be discussed- not insane ideas of Britain becoming a Muslim majority by 2050 or similar!
P.S I don't agree with The Spectator's assumption that The Times' article had a positive spin, for the above reasons. It was quite clearly designed to cause alarm, outrage and fear.
Here's some other links debunking the idea of Britain be (and Europe in general) becoming Muslim Majority any time soon:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8189231.stm
http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/factcheck-will-britain-have-a-muslim-majority-by-2050/13690
http://www.loonwatch.com/2012/09/10-myths-about-muslims-in-the-west/
http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/features/europes-muslim-future
The last article is definitely the most insightful and researched on the issue, so if you do decide to read one of them, read that one.
P.S.S After I spent an hour typing this, I suddenly remember why I don't go into General Discussion anymore.