With thanks to all who participated, here are the results of this past weekend’s poll. The focus?
What do you admire about your country?
The results (with a number of items mentioned more than once)
(The) arts … A Yorkshire cup of tea! … All the Olympic champions who have done the country proud! … Clean / It’s clean! … Climate … Democracy … Discipline … Diversity … Down to earth people … Food … Football … Freedom of speech … Generous … Health care … Helpful … Its history … Human rights … Liberal society … Music … National parks … Natural environment / our beautiful countryside and scenery … Our willingness to help others … People … Punctuality … Rich … Road trip options … Sarcastic humour … Stunning landscape … Tea and biscuits … The amazing number of dialects, and people of all backgrounds and beliefs … The fact that fish and chips on a Friday is standard!
I intentionally didn’t ask people to name the countries with these qualities … how many of them could you attribute to yours?
Readers also offered thoughts on what they admire about countries other than their own.
- Cuba: the architecture and music
- Israel: desert food, history, landscape, religion
- Italy: food, style
- Japan: education-oriented, family values, history, Okinawa, work ethic
- Portugal: architecture, friendly people, scenery