That has ALWAYS been the Prime concern of Politicians.
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i take it that you have the insight that politicians will do/say/promise whatever comes to their mind could make people cheer for them?
Absolutely.
The objective of political parties is power. Get it, keep it.
The good of the country comes through in a negative sense - if they do something which is bad for the country they will be blamed and will lose a % of power.
Hmm interesting view.
If that is true then why did churchill fight hitler?
I mean, hitler woukd have offered him in the blink of an eye to put him as dictator for a life time if he just surrenders and gives over control of the UK to hitler.
That would have pretty much secured his podition untill death, without the annoying threat that people delect him.
Edit: isnt that the exact thing that the UK did to colonies? Make the selfish country leaders to leaders for a life time in exchange UK taking over the workforce, resources and military of exact that nation?
Has it come into common acceptance in the UK that their leader are corrup and should be corrup for power? Just like the leaders of colonies used to be corrupt for power and the UK used this weakness for their own benefit?
Cognitive dissonance, basically life’s not easy, everyone is stress with current social settings and just want change for the sake for change, hoping that with change brings with it a better future. Furthermore, if the leaders and experts are split in their decision due to individual agenda and can’t see what truly matters, the general public would be worse off in making the right vote decision.
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The exception that proves the rule. The situation was the worst in history so maybe not surprising that the politician at the top took an outlier position.
Aye there was - I know of several people who voted leave because of free people movement rules.
People who had difficulty getting a doctor’s appointment or a school place would often blame the influx of migrants from the EU as the cause.
Reality is that the vast majority of these EU migrants are ‘economic migrants’ i.e. they came to the UK to work, therefore paying taxes and Nat Insurance - this extra tax input has not been put into Schools or Health care.
On the thread topic - here in NI the population is divided by ‘Nationalists’ and ‘Unionists’
Over the years the Unionists formed a majority - that is now in some doubt but the Union remained safe because a sizable chunk of Nationalists who view themselves as Irish were happy with the status quo so long as there is no border.
We have our Irish passport, fly from Dublin, identify as Irish but live in the UK (NI) and would vote to remain so.
But take us out of the EU against our wishes, put a hard border up and everything changes.
In my own community there are many who take this view.
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We learned it from the ancient Romans: Divide and conquer, empowering the weakest local faction. They were true masters at it. What we do today is just a pale parody in comparison but it certainly still works.
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Worth remembering that most all British politicians and diplomats for two centuries have been educated in the classics. Including Boris Johnson…
The British Empire was seen as the natural successor to the Roman Empire. Therefore similar methods were followed: it is generally not appreciated that the Romans did NOT conquer the world - they encouraged other people to do it for them with political bribes, rewards or threats.
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They “leveraged” their power in that way. Another testimony of the enormous potential of leverage, when properly used 
Of course, the downfall will also be brutal
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Dont say that please.
Every nation clamed to be the sucesor of the roman empire. Its used by every nation which had some sort of signifance in history.
You are leaning a bit too far out of the window with that sentence.
Russia, Nazi germany, old germany (even called itself Holy Roman Empire from the 11th till the 17th century) and now its USA claiming to be the sucessor of the roman empire.
You are claiming a bit to much here. The roman empire was holding 60% of known world in its borders. 80% of the known worlds population. The roman empire enforced cultiral prosperity, economic prosperity and peace inside its borders. Pretty much everything the UK did not enforce in their colonies. The roman empire also did not know the concept of colonies, but every part of the empire was the empire. The UK only saw its main islands as empire and the rest as 2nd grade citizen without any rights.
The UK never came even close (even in its absolute peak) to the significance the roman empire played for the entire world the last 2500 years.
Edit: the roman empire made other countries join by offering technology, culture, justice and in the last possible way with soldiers.
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I don’t say its something I believe. But knowing what people believe helps in understanding what they’re doing, even if their beliefs are self-serving mythologising.
Plus, I wasn’t educated in the classics…
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The Chinese ancient empire is probably the closest example we have to the Roman Empire regarding land extension, prosperity, technological innovation, administrative management and army might…
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Very good and valid and constructive point.
I was very surprised to find out, that around 2 kilometers of the place i was born they disvovered the first ever made private house with central floor heating like we know it today.
It was in istria and it was a ruine 2100 years old.
The level of technology, science, medicine and many other things which were common in the roman empire from 200 bc till 400 ac have only been reached again after its collapse and the dark ages- in the 18th century.
It was a “once in its kind” mistake to let the roman empire collapse which costed europe around 1400 years to recover from.
A real tragedy.
The EUs hope is to create a new one. Its far away from it, but you cant denny that in a century from now on things can change a lot. Who knows, we will see.
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It also interesting to note that usually Romans would never invent anything themselves, they would rather appropriate the useful inventions of their latest conquests and adapt them to the further growth and development of the Roman Empire, incorporating all that novelty into the Empire regularly.
Which is actually a very practical and useful approach, if you ask me.
Brings to mind the saying:
" A lesser artist copies. a great artist steals!"
It will be Angela Merkel’s empire
Yes chinese and roman can really be compared very well.
With the limes wall, the hadrians wall in england - the great wall in china.
Barbaric hordes attacking the north from germanic tribes to saxons in the UK - mongols barbarians in china at their times
Just the chinese survived much longer.
Edit: nah, angela is retiring in 2 years. She already made that clear.
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They are more patient.
A friend of mine once told me he had a Chinese mother (not his biological mother) that would teach him patience, as a child, by making him count all of the rice grains inside a large bucket filled with rice.
Can you imagine that? I would go nuts in 5 mins…
We are talking hours of counting rice here…In retrospect I actually think it is a great exercise for patience…
Imagine doing that every week as a kid, you will probably become the most patient being on the face of this earth…
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Yeah. European old practices were just as effective. We just were dumb enough to unlearn them.
A hundred years ago education and character cultivation was enforced much more than today. And its visible in the fact that todays society is way less creative and less productive than it should be, taking all the technological advances into account.
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