Attention: British friends and neighbors. :-)

OrangePaul · Post by **OrangePaul** » Sun May 06, 2012 12:49 pm

Errr... WHAT?

Well I was only going to point out that Joe was wrong about Scotland being naturally Conservative. The Conservatives have long had a very uphill struggle in Scotland, even having no MPs at all returned in the 1997 Westminster elections, and only getting any (one!) at each of the subsequent elections in '01, '05 and '10.

In the last General Election Andy the SNP still only got 6 seats compared to Labours 41 in Scotland...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election ... gion/7.stm

If and when as I said Scotland does get full independance then the Labour Party will be the big losers which will change the political landscape for the rest of us as much as it will Scotland...

Scotland has its own parliment yes but they are only devolved certain powers for public services etc. At present Westminster still has ultimate control

irish_admiral · Post by **irish_admiral** » Sun May 06, 2012 2:55 pm

Yeah, I think you're probably right on the Scots... I perhaps should have said conservative small C in their nominal outlook in a lot of places. In the cities like Glasgow, perhaps more labour for obvious reasons.

Anyway, the point was that population centres often have an inbuilt political bias which hangs around for a number of decades.

Randy Bass · Post by **Randy Bass** » Sun May 06, 2012 3:29 pm

I think that a Voter Competency Test is a great idea to ensure that voters have a basic understanding of how their particular system of government works and the consequences of their votes. However, implementation would be problematic (in the U.S. at least) since the "R"-word gets tossed about so readily any time unfettered and unregulated access to the voting booth is challenged.

Regardless of whether voters understand it, the Framers of the U.S. Constitution carefully designed an Electoral system that would prevent States with larger populations from essentially mitigating the votes of entire states and drowning-out the voices of their respective residents. This is why tiny Rhode Island has two U.S. Senators (just like California) and also has a proportionate number of Electoral Votes in Presidential Elections. Our Founders realized through the exhaustive process of designing a government from scratch that a simple Popular Vote would not be able to provide residents of every state with the ability to have their voices heard, despite its' superficial appearance of fairness.

Tango · Post by **Tango** » Mon May 07, 2012 7:29 pm

Mrjones2004x wrote:Being proud is your choice. I know a lot of people who say they are proud to be English too.
Most of the time there moaning about immigrants over running the country and using up all the resources.
How can they be proud?
People say it but wear blinkers to all the problems.

Hmmm, did I say proud?

I am most certainly not blinkered and am more than aware of the issues that the country deals with, more than just immigration may I add. I'm also fortunate enough not to have people around me with such a bleak outlook on life.

I suspect other countries also have more than the odd problem to deal with, according to the news, but as long as the UK has the support of the people that live here...oh wait...

kmlabs · Post by **kmlabs** » Wed May 09, 2012 3:04 pm

BrianFantana wrote:My family (last name Gentry) came from Great Dunmow, Essex before ending up in Virginia USA in the early 1700s.

Captain Bb wrote:I live in a North Essex village just 15 miles from Great Dunmow.

Ha, us Essex boys get everywhere! I'm from Braintree, just up the road from Dunmow

Brian, I'm not getting into the politics (my political views can be summed up thus: "they're all ****s") - I think the Dunmow coat of arms would make an excellent tattoo

Blainy · Post by **Blainy** » Sat May 12, 2012 9:08 am

bfitz wrote:It has quite different connotations on this island, though hatchets have been buried in the last decade or so I'm happy to say.

The Act of Union of 1801 brought Ireland under the direct rule of Britain. During this time Ireland was subject to famine, revolution, more revolution, civil war and independance for part of Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement saw the end to a lot of violence in the north and as recent as last year we had a state visit from the queen of england who spoke our native language at the start of her speech. So we have moved a long way since 1801.

If you were to visit Northern Ireland you would see this image portraying the Unionist identity in pubs and areas where that identity is vibrant, much like you would see tri-colours and shamrocks where the nationalist identity is strong.

..which sadly is mostly about religion.

P.S. It wasn't our fault your potatoes wouldn't grow!

irish_admiral · Post by **irish_admiral** » Sat May 12, 2012 10:53 am

P.S. It wasn't our fault your potatoes wouldn't grow!

I remember watching something on this once (check me out!) and it's pretty much bang on...

Apparently the taters mostly planted were the 'lumper' variety and farmers used to harvest them, chop a number in half and toss those back in the ground for the next crop. Because the spuds were all effectively inbred, the one blight wiped out most of them as they didn't have any resistance to it. If more different varieties had been planted it wouldn't have been so bad.

nlimbaugh · Post by **nlimbaugh** » Sat May 12, 2012 12:34 pm

Monsanto is the tool of world domination... the seeds and the diseases are all in the same pot of cash.

BrianFantana · Post by **BrianFantana** » Sat May 12, 2012 2:34 pm

I've (unintentionally) started a poo storm!

Randy Bass · Post by **Randy Bass** » Sun May 13, 2012 3:46 am

BrianFantana wrote:I've (unintentionally) started a poo storm!

I would suggest getting a tattoo of a Spitfire if you want a universally-loved symbol of kick-ass British pride

. A life-sized portrait of Liam Gallagher on your back would be my second choice.

irish_admiral · Post by **irish_admiral** » Sun May 13, 2012 12:57 pm

A life-sized portrait of Liam Gallagher on your back would be my second choice.

Did you say liked or loathed?

Randy Bass · Post by **Randy Bass** » Sun May 13, 2012 2:47 pm

irish_admiral wrote:
A life-sized portrait of Liam Gallagher on your back would be my second choice.
Did you say liked or loathed?

The poor fella is just misunderstood

.

sidvicious · Post by **sidvicious** » Sun May 13, 2012 9:17 pm

my vote is bourbon.

mr_william · Post by **mr_william** » Sun May 13, 2012 11:56 pm

Randy Bass wrote:
irish_admiral wrote:
A life-sized portrait of Liam Gallagher on your back would be my second choice.
Did you say liked or loathed?

The poor fella is just misunderstood .

when some people say 'getting rich and famous wont change me'... they mean it...

he was a scumbag then and he's a scumbag now...

on topic, essex in recent months suggests certain things to me... perhaps you could get a vagazzle and call it a day?

kmlabs · Post by **kmlabs** » Wed May 16, 2012 7:07 pm

sidvicious wrote:my vote is bourbon.

Great idea! A bourbon biscuit is another British tradition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourbon_biscuit" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Attention: British friends and neighbors. :-)

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