If we're not all watching Strictly then, frankly, the terrorists have won

There is something comforting in the leisure time restrictions imposed by weekend opening hours, licensing laws and Strictly Come Dancing.When faced with the opportunity to allow us more freedom to drink/shop/watch TV whenever and wherever we damn well choose we come up with a myriad of reasons why we shouldn't change. 

1. We are a Christian country and Sundays should be kept a bit sacred (nice try - but the US is waaaaaaay more religious than us and they open on Sunday/sell booze). 
2. Shop workers shouldn't be forced to work on Sundays - it should be reserved for family time (correct - workers shouldn't be forced to work on Sundays, but seeing as they are forced to work from 10-4, why not extend the times from 9-5 like the rest of the week - I've got to get p anyway, so I may as well make it worth my while with a full day's pay. Also, there are plenty of people who either don't have families or don't have families they want to spend any time with, and they would be more than happy to work on Sunday. Especially if it means a day off mid-week. I've worked in plenty of shops in my time and there was always a group of people who were happy to work on Sundays and were often frustrated that they couldn't work a full day and therefore get a full day back in lieu). 
3. If we keep pubs open later then people will drink themselves to death, not before destroying all our city centre in a drunken rampage. (Lets not pretend that this isn't a Daily Mail perspective, and the 'people' that are referenced here aren't 'the poor and the young'. The assumption is that young people and impoverished people are all fucking animals that can't control themselves. Some of them will overdo it, of course, but can we not tar everyone who goes to the pub with the same retarded brush? Cheers.)
4. We already have too many BBC channels, why would we add a myriad of additional commercial channels full of old friends episodes and Top Gear? Why? 

Well, its party an issue with change. We don't like change in the UK - if we've been doing it this way for centuries then why would we change it now? We also don't like relinquishing the structure that has made us so successful. Work occurs Monday to Friday 9-5. Then we all go to the pub to socialize. Then we do chores on Saturday and a roast dinner on Sunday, then back to work again. If we are allowed to drink from 12 noon on a Friday until 9am on a Saturday, sleep through til 1 am Sunday morning, nip to Tesco to stock up on groceries and then binge watch the latest series of Downton Abbey and top it off by catching up with Saturday night's Strictly on Sunday night then the terrorists have won.

Now, I'm not saying that I, as a Brit, enjoy all the personal freedoms that the US has to offer (its actually quite overwhelming), but its not because I don't like change. The main reason to embrace the UK's self-inflicted leisure-time curfews is to retain something in common. Seriously. At the most basic level we all know that at some point on Monday someone will be talking about Strictly, even if its to complain that their kids MADE them watch it (yeah, yeah, pull the other one, sunshine), or they will have stuck to the basic twenty-something leisure-time schedule (pub/club/kebab/hangover/repeat). There is something comforting in sharing the same experience with ones nearest and dearest, and it also helps shape our group mentality and unify us as a group. And that applies to our work group, friend group, family group and national group. As a nation we know that the news will be full of Celebrity Big Brother outrage and we can all have an opinion on it (whether we love it or hate it).

Conversely, in the US, the complete freedom of choice makes inane small talk more difficult:

Me: Did you watch South Park last night?
New friend: Nope, we watched a repeat of Seinfeld.
Random McRandom: Oh, I watched the mid-season finale of House of Cards.
New friend: Oh, I didn't know that was back on?
Random McRandom: Yeah.

Meh. 

www.funnyjunk.com

It also contributes to the disparate nature of the American psyche. The US is made up of 316.1 million different opinions. People have very distinct views on all the major issues that face the country, and as a result its very difficult to manage. Gun control, capital punishment, the legal system - there are so many disparate ideas on these subjects that it is impossible to engage in a coherent debate. In the UK we have Tories and Labour. We have BBC, ITV and Channel 4. With limited choice you can choose the option that most represents your individual opinion, have a discussion and actual come up with a conclusion, albeit a compromise. 

That said, I am not prepared to give up my Netflix - I have nearly memorized all the scripts from series 3 of Red Dwarf. Next week's challenge? Series 4!