What does Britain do better than anywhere else in the world? – 17 little things to feel patriotic about

It’s all too easy to despair about the state of the nation. Trains always seem to be delayed, and now people are picking on the RNLI of all things. But there are lots of ways where this country actually excels.

To learn more, Odd-Paramedic-3826 tasked r/AskUK with sharing the British things that are the best in the world in that particular category (besides the popular choice of plugs). And they even kicked things off with their own suggestion:

‘Pedestrian crossings. Every other country I’ve been to has way worse crossings.

‘Italy for example, I noticed there weren’t any tactile pavings, the button felt far cheaper, there was no spinner underneath for the visually impaired, and the green/red men were difficult to see, especially for a country with a lot of sun’

These top replies prove that Britain isn’t all bad after all…

1.

‘Government websites. I moved to the UK a couple of years back, nothing beats the GOV website’
-NatureBoyRDX

2.

‘The speed at which a British kettle boils water.’
-SensibleHedgehog

3.

‘Food safety standards’
-theatre_ghost

4.

‘Humour. Sarcastic dry self deprecating kind of humour’
-iMatthew1990

5.

‘We have exceptionally straightforward and equitable name-change laws. Bear with me on this! In the UK, if you want to change your name, you can… just start using a different name. No, fair enough, banks are unlikely to accept this, and neither is the passport office, so you make a deed poll (marvellously straightforward) or type up your own statutory declaration in Microsoft Word (I did this).

‘In America, you have to go before a judge to change your name – in Germany, you have to have an exceptionally good reason, and to prove this reason (“I don’t like it” isn’t good enough). In Britain, I changed my name on the first of July, and had my new passport and new (provisional) driving licence six weeks later (neither of which I had to leave the house to apply for – well, I suppose I walked 30 metres to the post-box). It is so straightforward as to be brilliant, in my book.’
-AonUairDeug

6.

‘Actors. We literally have the best well trained actors in the world, the gravitas, the eloquence, the shift in characters. We are the best trained and extremely talented in this regard.’
-CuriousGeorgeToday

7.

‘Can I just plus one for the British plug? Other plug sockets are absolutely dog shit in comparison. What is it with the weird angles? Give me a simple three prong.’
-GrahamGreed

8.

‘This isn’t necessarily popular to say, but our state sponsored media (the BBC) produces the best quality shows and has the best online presence as any in the world and can usually be relied on to be impartial.

‘It’s not perfect, the impartiality is sometimes questionable, and you can argue about whether we should have state sponsored media at all, but I’d like to hear if any other country has a better one.’
-innerbrat

9.

‘As an American- There are a lot but one that comes to mind is guitar amplifiers. Marshall, Vox and Orange are basically the three kings of amps. The only other company that compares is Fender in terms of large scale production. Also Celestion makes the best amp speakers in the world and they’re from Hampton Wick.’
-crazyv93