How the yanks should deal with us

[Biohazard]

The americans that come over here to work at some of the airforce bases still get given a little booklet on the way of life in Britain. One of the thinigs they get warned about is drinking with the locals

I can see why..

 

[Angerer]

Loved the read, thanks for sharing Rob. up the Addicks

 

[seanyc5]

Great read. Would like to read a modern version. It would go along the lines of....


"You may see lots of women walking around in trousers. This is because they do wear the trousers in many relationships"

"You will see lots of children crowded around women walking the streets. These are not her childrens friends, but they are her offspring"

"stay away from neighbourhoods with bicycle tyres hanging from the lamp posts, or old shoes hanging from phone lines"

"All the automobiles are german. The british think the germans are the best engineers in the world, What they fail to realise is their very own country have invented the best things than germany and even us americans could ever dream of"

There is a modern version, ill get a copy of a mate..

If i remember its says things like.

Dont arm wrestle a british person, they will beat you.

Its pretty funny and a pretty stark contrast to that one lol

 

[dowie]

Stephen Fry said on Qi that there were incidents of fights in pubs when American GI would come for a drink and insisted black patrons were expelled from the premises. Apparently, both the white and any black Britons would fight them.

Make you proud to be British

They apparently did cause some problems in London where we had our own black population - Black Britons got really annoyed at being made to get off the pavement or being asked to leave restaruants...

Some restaraunts, pubs apparently did impose a colour bar at the request of the Americans. I think in some towns black and white GIs were only allowed in on alternate nights so that they wouldn't fight....

Slightly un-PC quote by Churchill in a cabinet meeting discussing the issue:

the only contribution Churchill made during the whole meeting was to look up, after Viscount Cranborne, Secretary of State for the Colonies, had pointed out that one of his black Colonial Office staff had been excluded from a certain restaurant at the request of white American troops, and say:

"That’s all right: if he takes his banjo with him they’ll think he’s one of the band."

 

[RoboCod]

I enjoyed that, thanks. Would be interested to read a modern day equivalent.

"DO NOT drink with the British troops
DO NOT gamble with the British troops
DO NOT fight with the British troops

YOU WILL lose."

 

[seanyc5]

"DO NOT drink with the British troops
DO NOT gamble with the British troops
DO NOT fight with the British troops

YOU WILL lose."

Thats the one! I said arm wrestle lol been a while since I seen it.

 

[Angilion]

Stephen Fry said on Qi that there were incidents of fights in pubs when American GI would come for a drink and insisted black patrons were expelled from the premises. Apparently, both the white and any black Britons would fight them.

Make you proud to be British

That might be an urban myth, but it's certainly plausible. It wouldn't necessarily be only about taking a stance firmly against racism. Some strangers walking into a pub and issuing orders to the landlord/landlady are not going to be well received anyway, probably all the more so if they're foreigners.

There were also reports of some degree of nationalism involved sometimes - this sort of thing could be used to portray Britain as being a more civilised place than the USA. Which it was in the 1940s when it came to racism, very much so.

There was quite a lot of compromise with USA racism in Britain, mainly from the authorities. The "don't upset your allies" thing went both ways. While a publican could say "get out and take your stupid racism with you", the government and senior military officers couldn't even if they wanted to. There was even talk of not posting any "black" American soldiers to Britain at all, to evade the issue entirely.

I've been reading some interesting comments from Americans of the time regarding the lack of racism in Britain, ranging from polite (but still wildly racist) official acknowledgement that it would be an issue:

England is devoid of racial consciousness... [the English] know nothing at all about the conventions and habits of polite society that have developed in the US in order to preserve a segregation in social activity without making the matter one of official or public notice.

Captain Harry Butcher, an aide to General Eisenhower

to raving racism:

the ******* – believe it or not – the English seem to actually prefer them to the white boys. Especially the girls – not that I give a hang for them anyhow, but it is disgusting, to say the least. Maybe the south is right – keep 'em in line, one way or another. That is enough to make me inclined to look down on the English in general to start with.

Unnamed American officer

EDIT: OcUK has auto-censored the quote. The original didn't have asterisks in it. Context is very important, but simple string-based auto-censorship can't take context into account.

 

[pitchfork]

£1 = $4

How things have changed.

I remember when £1 = $2 but a $200 console somehow cost £200

 

[momentimori]

Some people were made incredibly rich during the first and second world wars, obscenely so at the expense of the people fighting and the tax payer.

Taxes were far higher in WW2; the basic rate was 48.5% and excess war profits tax started at 70% and eventually reached 100%.

 

[HaloUK]

Thanks for posting, great find! I found it very interesting and it put a smile on my face in a few places.

 

[Glaucus]

I remember when £1 = $2 but a $200 console somehow cost £200

You can't just do direct comparisons, it just doesn't work.
For a start you have a difference in tax.
Difference in shipping costs both international and domestic, our fuels a lot more.
Land/building costs.
Wages for shop/warehouse/lorry drivers etc.

And of course some profiteering. But that seems to be reducing due to how easy internet has made it for us to import our own goods.