UK is 'second most popular country in the world'

[Jordi]

Does anyone have link to the full poll? I want to know how well my country (Netherlands) scored. I Googled "BBC World Service Country Rating Poll" but didn't find it. It was interesting to see the divide in news articles reporting on the poll though. Half are like "Yay! Second place!" and the other half are saying "Britain less popular than fucking Germany" (okay, maybe without the F-word, but I can feel that they meant it that way).

05_03_11_bbcws_country_poll.pdf [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/05_03_11_bbcws_country_poll.pdf]

I'm afraid we arent in it.

No wonder Germany was able to win then!

Thanks for finding it!

 

[Staskala]

So, besides a little ego stroking, do you think these polls actually mean anything? I like it to a degree, it shows that not nearly as many people hate us as I thought. Of course, Germany probably deserves to be top, they're a really nice people and Berlin is the dog's bullocks.

Well done old boy. Good to see that the world doesn't hate you for driving on the wrong side of the road ;D and that you've beat those dirty cheese eating french!

As an American, I'm quite pleased to see Germany being such a positive role model for their neighbors in the EU. But I would be curious to know if that's just because they're turning into the EU's powerhouse economy, and supporting peoples like Greece. On that topic I'd be interested to see peoples reasons for why they ranked nations in that order, if its all because of Jeremy Clarkson and Dr. Who or if they're just putting up for king and country... er... Queen and country.

So, yea. Well done with beating the french, no idea how much it really means but when the french lose its always worth noting.

"Turning into the EU's powerhouse economy"?
Actually we... Oh well, since this thread is about how much we like each other I'll just shut up.

It always surprises me that Germany does well in these polls, we usually assume that everyone hates us.
Guess it's the cars.

Also, once again it's sad to see that China still isn't all that popular.
Dubious government actions aside, the Chinese are actually very nice people.

 

[Cali0602]

thanks USA, didnt know u cared

It's the accent. It gets them every time.

See! Even when he's being condescending it sounds like win! Nah, but for reals, gz UK, gz.

 

[WolfLordAndy]

Why does Mexico hate us?

Could be something to do with how BP were portrayed as an evil british company that spilt oil all over their oceans?

Plus that Top Gear rant...

Or maybe the people they polled in mexico just met some particularly arsey UK tourists?

 

[Dean Graham]

even though the UK is 4 different countries

geographically speaking maybe.

But 3 of them share the same laws, and tax system (darn welsh spending our money).
Its entirely understandable why those outside of our shores would lump us together.

that is true, it is strange though that we all share the same laws in the UK but in the USA laws can change from state to state.

 

[Lord Doomhammer]

Snip

DOUBLE SNIP!

"Turning into the EU's powerhouse economy"?
TRIPLE SNIP!

Stop disagreeing with me you!

Really though, the Germans have still got the best GDP of the EU so as far as I can see from way over across the pond they look like the most powerful economy of the lot. Although... Aston Marten is from backwards driving land so...

On the Chinese matter, the Chinese people are nice enough but so long as their government is at war with google and WOW, well lets be nice and say there will be sparks 'a flyin.

 

[Jazoni89]

Woo...I guess.

It's surprising that the US likes the UK that much considering the stereotypical way British people are portrayed in US media.
Namely gay or evil or both.
Then again, Americans sure do go nuts over the Royal Family.

Also, they seem to love Margaret Thatcher.

Very...odd indeed.

Margaret, and love seems like a oxymoron to us brits.

We all hate the *****.

 

[Dean Graham]

even though the UK is 4 different countries

geographically speaking maybe.

But 3 of them share the same laws, and tax system (darn welsh spending our money).
Its entirely understandable why those outside of our shores would lump us together.

that is true, it is strange though that we all share the same laws in the UK but in the USA laws can change from state to state.

well the seperate countries have some power (like the whole scottish free university thing) and are all vying for more (see wales new legal powers it recently acquired ) so it could change in the near future.

true,im not trying to make out like i no them all but there are slight differences, but i guess thats just each government trying to have a little bit of their own say on how their country is run

 

[snave]

Why does Mexico hate us?

Remember the recent Top Gear 'insult'?

That probably had nothing to do with it, but damn, I wish it did.

Depends when the poll was held hey. The link in the article itself is broken for me, so I can't have a peek, but I wouldn't put it past a pop culture event (which was a bit of a nasty slur, let's be honest) to influence people's opinions for a month or two. I guess one should look at Japan's opinion of the UK then too as QI stirred up some pretty negative media there recently too (admiteddly, that one was actually not Fry's fault like they claim, but a simple linguistic misunderstanding taken out of proportion by those with agendas).

 

[EchetusXe]

People seem to be mistaking this for a popularity contest where it seems to me as if its more to do with if people believe certain countries are contributing to the world in a positive way.

Or am I missing something here?

It is as close as it gets. Your not going to get pollsters going round places asking them who they like best out of the Americans, the Russians and the Israelis. But you can assume that if people think you are contributing to the world in a positive way then they like you, and conversely if they believe you are the cause of all the world's problems then they are less likely to go around cheering your name.

Contribution to the world means culture, trade, products, foreign policy... so all the people eating sausages in their Volkswagons hoping for a bailout for their country will probably be fans of ze Germans.

 

[Gladion]

It always surprises me that Germany does well in these polls, we usually assume that everyone hates us.
Guess it's the cars.

It's the self-hate. If you hate yourself because of something, you think others hate you for it, too.
And I guess it's not the cars.

Even though the cars, if you look at it from a scientific point of view, are the best in the entire world and that fact will never change.

 

[Kuhkren]

thanks USA, didnt know u cared

Well the UK and US have a lot of shared history, familiar cultures, and the UK is the United States most longstanding and close ally. Ignoring Obama's baseless pandering that states otherwise.

 

[Jonabob87]

even though the UK is 4 different countries

geographically speaking maybe.

But 3 of them share the same laws, and tax system (darn welsh spending our money).
Its entirely understandable why those outside of our shores would lump us together.

that is true, it is strange though that we all share the same laws in the UK but in the USA laws can change from state to state.

well the seperate countries have some power (like the whole scottish free university thing) and are all vying for more (see wales new legal powers it recently acquired ) so it could change in the near future.

true,im not trying to make out like i no them all but there are slight differences, but i guess thats just each government trying to have a little bit of their own say on how their country is run

Actually the people currently in the place of power in Scotland are looking to seperate from the UK (not physically, of course, but that would be awesome). If we manage it I'm sure Wales will follow suit, but Northern Ireland for the most part really LOVES being "British".

 

[Rinji]

It always surprises me that Germany does well in these polls, we usually assume that everyone hates us.
Guess it's the cars.

It surprised me as well and I'm German, too! Especially because many of our fellow countrymen
complain about the smallest problems no one would normally even care about, especially when it comes to German politics and flus (like the swine flu, for instance).

But what doesn't surprise me is the UK being the second most popular country. If I had to pick one, it would be the UK or Sweden... but I wouldn't know what I'd be talking about anyway, because my judgement would be without any knowledge about the country's recent behaviour, it's just that most British and Swedish people I've met seemed to be nice.

 

[3AM]

thanks USA, didnt know u cared

It's the accent. It gets them every time.

I would pay good money to see someone speaking chav (or cortney rhyming slang) to a American.

"I'll Punch you in teh chin dicky I Boi"

Let's put one of your chavs in a room with one of our stereotypical Brooklyn or "Joisey" accented people and watch them try to communicate.

OT: We love England and the English people, and it's not just the accent.

 

[Woodsey]

thanks USA, didnt know u cared

despite what your media says, we are actually pretty decent people.
you probably wouldn't find a very negative attitude towards any European country here in America.. except for France maybe.. and Russia if we want to count them.

France? You have more in common with France than you do us!

 

[Pistachio101]

People seem to be mistaking this for a popularity contest where it seems to me as if its more to do with if people believe certain countries are contributing to the world in a positive way.

Or am I missing something here?

It is as close as it gets. Your not going to get pollsters going round places asking them who they like best out of the Americans, the Russians and the Israelis. But you can assume that if people think you are contributing to the world in a positive way then they like you, and conversely if they believe you are the cause of all the world's problems then they are less likely to go around cheering your name.

Contribution to the world means culture, trade, products, foreign policy... so all the people eating sausages in their Volkswagons hoping for a bailout for their country will probably be fans of ze Germans.

I see where you're coming from. I was kind of hoping that the people who took part would have looked at it from a more objective stand point. Oh well..... XD

Also, to the people not understanding why Mexico don't like us, it seems they don't like quite a few countries.