And that means precisely bugger all in the grand scheme of things. I’m sure you reckon we have to doff our caps to the Upper Class Gentlemen and Ladies, with lots of ‘Fankyou Sirs’, ‘whatever you say Sir’, ‘please sir, got a tuppence for my drink, Sirs?’
In practical terms, we enjoy more or less similar rights to those in the US, given that much of the laws were based around the Magna Carta. Which is, to those of you who don’t do real history, as in Hollywood and the Great American Rip Off, quite important.
I watch some Brit comedies on PBS on Saturday nights (no, I don’t base my views of Britain-I should say England, where all the shows I’ve seen, are set-on these shows, LOL)—most of them are from the late Eighties/early Nineties. Even that far back, before the war in Iraq, war on terror, etc, when America or Americans are ever mentioned, it’s dripping with condescension, ie, purely to be tolerated as a source of money, and not politely even then.
The episode that always really amuses me is from a really drippy show called “As Time Goes By”—Lionel and Jean go to Los Angeles for some business deal-while there, a crazed man with a gun comes into the office and threatens to shoot everyone there because he was fired. The Americans are all quaking in their shoes, paralyzed with fear-but the fearless Lionel disarms the man with gun. I laughed and laughed at that one.
I couldn’t say why I watch these shows when they are either drippy, or patronising to Americans when we’re mentioned—but I do love “Keeping Up Appearances”, at any rate. Oh, and “’Allo ‘Allo”. That one is hilarious. At least that show is an equal-opportunity insulter, LOL, the writers take the p*ss out of every nationality :D
Actually, it does make one and only one important difference: There is no check on your government passing laws that restrict your rights. For example, Heller simply cannot happen in the UK. Yes, you do have many of the same “rights” as we in the states. However, you also don’t have a strong right to self defense, reasonable expectation of privacy (all those cameras), right to bear arms, etc. In other words, your government can and has simply voted out of existence many of your rights with simple laws. This is all the more ironic in light of the Magna Carta...