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Originally Posted by SMHarman
We've been brought up to dislike our country and have let the National Front take over flag waving until it became socially unacceptable. Onlyin the last 4 years or so since the Football and Rugby world cups has flag flying / waving been deemed more acceptable.
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Not so sure about being brought up to dislike it, IMHO its more a case that we've allowed ourselves to fall foul of a few things and to get side tracked about it.
For a couple of generations after WW2 and the Nazis, many Germans felt they had to be ashamed to be German because of what some of their countrymen did. Too many liberals have shouted and been heeded that we also should be ashamed of being British because we once had an empire and did some pretty horrible things.
People didn't want to offend the waves of Asian and Jamaican immigrants entering the country despite the fact that many of them were already more patriotic than some of the natives.
A lot of the issues with unionism in the 70's were wrongly put across as nationalism, in that the unions where fighting for a better Britain when really what they were fighting for was power and high profiles for their leadership. That their membership almost benefited as well was IMO a bit of a bonus on the side.
The History syllabus in schools changed a lot during the last 30 years, kids were no longer taught about
Great Britain and its peoples achievements.
Brits generally are more reserved than our cousin's across the pond and I think that also has had its impact with parents declining to sing the countries praises and the only influence's about being negative, many have forgotten what being British is all about.
All great civilisations have peaks and troughs ours has been at a low for some time now perhaps thanks to it being politically correct again to fly the flag we can start to climb again.
To answer the thread title, yes!!! bloody good idea it should be compulsory for all as they come of age. No one should automatically become a citizen just because they were born and raised in ignorance in any country, why should people be allowed to vote on the future governance of a country when they don't know about both the good and bad of its history, its traditions, its values and its diverse peoples.