highlandsflyer":yoiwg09z said:Pointless?
That certainly marks it out from the rest of the posts on here!
Denmark has one tenth of the population of the UK?
I thought there was no point in comparing the two?
Systems of government, education, welfare, industry are all scalable.
Population size is irrelevant for the comparison not to work HF so I agree with you calling on that point.
However, there are so many other factors involved which do make it a flawed comparison, many of which are cultural and geographic.
Denmark's biggest market is Germany, which is also its nearest neighbour.
We have strong links with non-EU countries within Scandinavia.
We have good access to natural resources shared between fewer people.
Culturally the Danes are less confrontational.
The Danes have been more "free" than the British for centuries.
Denmark has never had an empire or industrial manufacture/natural reserves extraction on a massive scale which entire communities have revolved around.
The history of the two countries makes them what they are - and those histories are very different and Denmark has never had the massive wealth the UK has. But neither has the wealth it has had been concentrated so intensely into the hands of so few, which is what big industry does.
This means a thriving middle class, a better-educated population with higher expectations but it can also limit creativity, which is often the result of having to break rules to get things done.
There are pros and cons with both. I find Denmark quite stifling at times. But that really is a luxury problem compared to what's going on in the UK, which I'm relieved I got out of, which brings me to the real issue - that part of Thatcher's legacy is that plenty of people like me had to leave the UK to get jobs. My university education was paid for by the British taxpayer. But I'm paying my taxes in Denmark. Now that's just stupid.