L'Angleterre est une nation de boutiquiers.

[anotheoldgit]

Napoleon once called us a"A nation of Shopkeepers".

What happened?

http://www.dailymail....ins-high-streets.html

Is it really the recession, or is it the fact that the "High Street" as we knew it is fast becoming a thing of the past?

We no longer walk up and down the high street in the wind and rain, but we now shop in the warm, comfortable, and pleasantly illuminated shopping malls, or we drive out to the out of town outlets where we can park free.

[daffy654]

I shop mainly online these days. I can't stand trawling round shops when I can buy whatever I want from the comfort of my own home....its usually cheaper too!

[anotheoldgit]

I missed this other alternative, yes I agree, it is certainly the way to shop in some cases.

[jake-the-peg]

The world changed

why does this surprise you?

Do you expect everything to stay the same? forever stagnant?

60 years ago not many people had cars. They used to have to walk to the shops whaever the weather. Then they had to carry al the things they'd bought back. Then because they couldn't carry all that much and decent refridgeration was rare they'd have to do it all again!

This is progress

[Quinlad]

It's sad that people can sit around discussing shopping while our brave boys are dying in Afghanistan.

Where are your priorities?

[Seadragon]

I prefer walking around indoor shopping centres that are 'comfortable, and pleasantly illuminated', and so warm. We are still 'a nation of shopkeepers' fast becoming indoor ones.

[fredpuli47]

Was Napoleon right ? A nation of industrial workers or of farmworkers perhaps but 'shopkeepers' was intended as a dismissive insult, comparing us to the brave, bold French.Unfortunately. the industrialists made us far richer and vastly more productive than the French,with far greater resources than they had.We could support a cowardly navy with very poor equipment (Trafalgar etc) and a feeble army abroad (taking India, fighting in Spain, Waterloo etc ) !

The High Street of many small shops selling things we now get in supermarkets is certainly a thing of the past. Our way of life has seen to that. (Anyone know where I can get a packet of Force flakes and 2 ozs of bullseyes ? Products have changed, too ! )

[jno]

we can no longer cope with bad weather, and we are now scared of people in hoodies - both factors that our grandparents would have faced with equanimity. So we go to malls that keep out the snow and the riff-raff. They also keep out small neighbourhood shopkeepers, because they tend to crush neighbourhoods, and the profits are transmitted to head offices in London or abroad. The best that locals can hope for is that they will pay their rates to the council and employ local people.

[anotheoldgit]

/// .We could support a cowardly navy with very poor equipment (Trafalgar etc) and a feeble army abroad (taking India, fighting in Spain, Waterloo etc ) ///

Cowardly Navy, Feeble Army,????? spoken by the "Enemy Within"

The Mighty British Navy that defeated the French and Spanish at Trafalgar.

The Brave and Courageous Army that took on and beat Napoleon at Waterloo.

When Napoleon had taken over almost all of Europe, it was the Superior British Army that stopped his little game during the Peninsular War of 1808 - 1814.

Regarding the taking of India, this just didn't happen, we were there on invite, for trading purposes, (East India Company) later to rescue India from the French.

[LoftyLottie]

I loathe indoor shopping malls and won't go in unless I have to. Horrible noisy places with music and lots of sweaty people. Claustrophic!!! In fact, I don't like shopping at all. A trip to the supermarket for food and online for everything else - oh except DIY where I am forced to walk around B&Q.

[LoftyLottie]

And what I can't understand is that people actually treat shopping as a pleasant weekend social event!!

[jno]

The British army at Waterloo was "an infamous army, very weak and ill-equipped, and a very inexperienced Staff". Wellington said so, and he was probably closer to the action than AOG (who was sitting on the sidelines penning fiery blogs).

It was roughly equal in manpower to Napoleon's amy (67,000 to 69,000); fortunately, there were also 37,000 allied troops, and another 48,000 Prussians on Wellington's side. So being outnumbered two to one may have had as much to do with Napoleon's defeat as the British army's 'superiority'. Then, as in their 20th-century wars, the British needed foreigners to bail them out.

[jake-the-peg]

The brave and courageous army that took on Napoleon at Waterloo?

You must know something Wellington didn't - he called them the "scum of the Earth"

And I seem to remember some called Blucher being involved - what part of the British army was he from I forget

[youngmafbog]

Est le Francois c'est un nation de fromage mangeant singe de reddition !

[youngmafbog]

For those who cannot speak french

Theh french are a natiion of cheese eating surernder monkeys

[jno]

dunno which is worse, your French or your English, ymb

[anotheoldgit]

jno

/// the British needed foreigners to bail them out. ///

Have you got that right? Surely it is "the foreigners need the British to bail them out"

Why else are you here?

[jno]

aog, the British would have lost at Waterloo without German and other European help. They would have lost the first and second world wars without the Americans (and, you could argue, the Russians).

Me, I'm here for the social security handouts.

[fredpuli47]

AOG you either can't see satire and irony or you must think that everything written on here is by fifth columnists . In my post cowardly navy' and 'feeble army' is read with 'nation of shopkeepers ' as Napoleon would have it,his view, and yet they won the battles against his French . See ? I thought you'd appreciate that ,especially the reference to Waterloo, which you may think entirely a British triumph ( it wasn't .And the French blame Blucher for the defeat, the liitle devils)

I like the idea that we were mere traders in India that happened to 'rescue' India from the French though. The East India Company had surprising military force to call on