What import could you not live without?

[Ethel]

If mankind never left the shores of his or her birth, Britain would be a very different place with many traditionally British things absent, including:

Coffee, tea, cane sugar, chocolate, rubber, turkey, tobacco, potatoes, tomatoes, bananas, citrus fruit, cotton, silk, peanuts.

I know many everyday things were invented elsewhere, such as paper, but we do have the raw ingredients to make it and I presume would have eventually.

What would you miss most? Mine would have to be coffee, I think.

[teddybon]

fruit -but to be really honest- chocolate.

[China Doll]

I think red wine.

I know that we can make wine over here but it's not the same time, I'd miss the french, auzzie and chillean (sp) wines.

[WaldoMcFroog]

If we never left our shores, how would we know what we were missing?

[Ethel]

I know we wouldn't know we were missing anything, Waldo, and would be happy with our small beer and apples.

But I am trying to find other things that we take for granted, especially those goods that are 'traditionally British', that we could never produce without importing at some time.

Would we have cats? Did they come from some distant shore many moons ago?

[Goodsoulette]

I'm with you on the coffee.

[Goodsoulette]

No we wouldnt have cats they arent natural to our environment. Bird lovers get very uppety about this.

[radiogaga]

cotton, as its the coolest material to wear. i cannot stand synthetic material clothes. my partner has a pair of shell suit bottoms (dont ask) and i can hear him before i see him, and its all just too sweaty. eeeugh.
then it would have to be coffee, cant seem to function without it. a replacement would have to be found, quick.
tobacco, well id try my best to live without, in fact id probably be relived it was no more in britain.
then the humble tomato, so adaptable when cooking, one of my fave ingerdients.
im not too botherd about the rest really.

[Dassie]

Cars.........you name an affordable to most British owned and built car nowadays. I'm not talking about a Reliant either. Come to think of it .... a TV? They're all foreign..... Is anything truly British nowadays???? We might have the technology, expertise etc but despite being the 4th or 5th most wealthiest Country we don't seem to have any money to do anything.

[WaldoMcFroog]

I think rock music would probably be the single thing I'd miss most, though I appreciate that's not 'typically British'.

[China Doll]

Oh, I thought we were just doing consumable things. Can we do non-consumable too?

In that case I'd miss books. We have and had some amazing authors in this country but to limit your reading to just this country is sinful.

[jno]

I believe apples are from Kazakhstan (Alma-Ata means 'mother of all apples' or something like that), so that just leaves small beer. From my own point of view, of course, the most missed import would be myself.

[Ethel]

I've just realised we would have no spices. What a dull world it would be.

[Craig007]

Our Vietnamese maid, Mai-Ling!

[rugeleyboy]

potatoes for me!................you have always got a meal when you have got a spud!!

but 2 things have got me thinking......

1. spuds obviously come from the ground so where the seeds imported??

2.Cats? not english?? crikey!

[jake-the-peg]

Oil

[CheekyChops]

<rugeleyboy, Cats are definately not english:

All cats belong to a family called the felids and were thought to have evolved 12 million years ago. Domestic cats originated from African wild cats, which they are still closely related to. The first domestic cats were thought to have lived 8,000 years ago in Cyprus. Early settlers must have introduced the cats to the island, as there were no wild cats present.

I would definately miss coffee and tobacco most. Then potatoes probably.

[reachesme]

immagrants and the Muslim faith oh but wait, what about Somalians, seeing as neither of the first two want anything to do with them as well as the rest of humanity.

[kujawski]

hardcore dutch porn

[Compostella]

Fags

[pinkkitty]

Lol @ Kujawski! I'm inclined to agree. but also agree with Ethel, i'd struggle to live without coffee. Chinese food also.