Our Lord, J.C.

[Gilrandir]

I know you can type proper English, start using it instead of making yourself harder to understand with all these non-sequiters.

C'mon, this is a part of fun - reading riddles and getting scorned for not interpreting the message accurately.

[Gilrandir]

I do have a problem when we have families in the UK who are British who view the UK as "the enemy" (heard described on the Right Wing BBC Radio 4).

This is not a problem. The problem will start (as it did in Ukraine) when they will call for a foreign leader to bring in his army.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

It MUST always change. It is in the very nature of society to do so. Perhaps there have been times where a government had tried to hold society in stasis - Tokugawa shogunate maybe - but even that created a society vastly different to the one it started with. And societies held in stasis tend to have great pent up stresses that can produce catastrophic results - Iraq is a good example.

There's a difference between holding something in stasis and forcing change - one example of forcing a change would be Iraq. We not only removed Saddam we completely obliterated the State and tried to rebuild it.

There is no reason why there would be an Islamic ghetto in Torrington (yes I do know it). As with all ukip support, the greatest anxiety about the influx of foreigners are in areas with the least incidence of such influxes. Places where new immigrants frequently come are largely relaxed about such things. Why is that?

Funny, my sister's English teacher - from Portsmouth - once told her class it was easier to be racist in Torrington because everybody is white and English. I don't think there's really anyone who is anti-immigrant in Torrington, though the one Muslim family we had that moved in left after a year because they couldn't fit in. Torrington hasn't really change much in the last fifty years vs how much it has changed in the last five since they opened a Lidl.

The perspective that society "must" change is a modern one, something that has been true for the last two hundred years but prior to that change was so slow it usually could not be measured in one lifetime.

[Idaho]

As you know, in Exeter, lots of the taxi drivers are Afghans. I asked one why he liked living in Exeter. "Nice schools, near the seaside, a good place for families" was his answer. Exactly the same reason I moved here. He didn't do it to initiate global jihad any more than I moved here to convert the populous to humanist anarcho-syndicalism.

The issue I have with stating that people need to conform and fit in - is that *I* don't want to conform and fit in. I want to exist with my own culture and values. Not those of the Tory, curtain twitching majority in this country.

[rory_20_uk]

Bless! You do fit in. You really do.

I know you think your views are oh so extreme and edgy but I view you as completely fitting in.

You speak English, you follow the laws of the country, your dress is within the wide social norms - I'm sure I could go on for some time.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

As you know, in Exeter, lots of the taxi drivers are Afghans. I asked one why he liked living in Exeter. "Nice schools, near the seaside, a good place for families" was his answer. Exactly the same reason I moved here. He didn't do it to initiate global jihad any more than I moved here to convert the populous to humanist anarcho-syndicalism.

The issue I have with stating that people need to conform and fit in - is that *I* don't want to conform and fit in. I want to exist with my own culture and values. Not those of the Tory, curtain twitching majority in this country.

And yet, you moved here for the same reason as any anyone else would - and so did the Afghan taxi driver. So he's well integrated and so are you.

[Idaho]

I'm not edgy or extreme. Never have been. I just reject a standardised concept of Englishness.

[Beskar]

I think there is a valid point, I think the lack of Britishness is a concept that politicians should not aspire to. There are many reasons why Jeremy Corbyn falls short of these values*.

- Jeremy like all good statesmen, did not attend Eton.
- He prefers coffee to tea.
- He calls his meal times 'lunch' in the afternoon and 'dinner' in the evening, opposed to 'dinner' and 'tea'.
- He doesn't know the full lyrics of Auld Lang Syne.
- He doesn't support his local football team on a Saturday.
- He doesn't patiently wait in a queue or a line, and simply ignores them.
- He doesn't greet the ladies as "Alreet, love?" or call them "Darling" or "Sweet cheeks".
- He doesn't experience a love-hate relationship with America where he pretends to dislike them, but want to sits to Uncle Sam's lap. He just flat-out hates them.
- He doesn't take leisurely walks in the countryside.
- He shops at Lidl and not a true British brand like Waitrose.
- I think you get the point.


*I honestly have no clue whether or not he does these things nor do I care.

[InsaneApache]

I'm not edgy or extreme. Never have been. I just reject a standardised concept of Englishness.

Define a 'standardised concept of Englishness.'

I'm intrigued.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Define a 'standardised concept of Englishness.'

I'm intrigued.

I learned from you there's no such thing.

I'm a West Saxon and you're either a Northumbrian or a Dane.

All that unites us is our oppression under the Norman yoke.

[Idaho]

Define a 'standardised concept of Englishness.'

I'm intrigued.

I won't define one - as it's a nonsense. But the Tory party wage an ideological war every so often on who they determine to be culturally acceptable, and who are not.

[InsaneApache]

Dianne Abbot was on Today this morning, I thought I'd heard/seen some car crash interviews but this one takes the biscuit!

http://blogs.new.spectator.co.uk/201...rre-interview/

[Idaho]

She's a total dingbat.

The media have been jumping on everything and anything the new Labour leadership do or say - and for the first time they actually have something moderately important to pick on. Although, personally, I don't see what the big deal is with changing policy. Things changes, strategies adapt.

[Brenus]

"All that unites us is our oppression under the Norman yoke" That would be me.

[Greyblades]

I learned from you there's no such thing.

I'm a West Saxon and you're either a Northumbrian or a Dane.

All that unites us is our oppression under the Norman yoke.

Technically it is a Combo Norman/French/English/Scottish/Dutch/German Yoke, British for short.

[Gilrandir]

Technically it is a Combo Norman/French/English/Scottish/Dutch/German Yoke, British for short.

Let's not forget about the Saxon yoke oppressing the poor Celts.

[Idaho]

What about the Celtic displacement of the indigenous Beaker people?

[rory_20_uk]

I heard that the "Celts" never referred to themselves in such a way and probably never thought of themselves as a homogeneous culture.

[Pannonian]

I heard that the "Celts" never referred to themselves in such a way and probably never thought of themselves as a homogeneous culture.

Fearsome wars were fought between different Celtic tribes. Some Celts in Northumbria worshipped the blue sky, and they hated those of their neighbours who worshipped the red fires of hell. Some of the Celts in the midlands threw in their lot with the Romans, naming themselves after their luxurious Roman houses. They were constantly at war with those who preferred to live outside, who were identifiable by their frequently frostbitten faces. The fiercest inter-tribal wars though were fought between those who identified their lineage through the Celts and Germans. They called themselves the Celtics and the Gers, respectively.

[InsaneApache]

Some of the Celts in the midlands threw in their lot with the Romans, naming themselves after their luxurious Roman houses.

I suspect that our international friends will not get this!

[Idaho]

Concepts of nation, tribe and ethnicity are very different now to antiquity. Add to that, archaeologists are want to create broad themes and narratives from scant evidence. These often override the small subtleties and contradictions that are always the condition of real groups of humans.

[Gilrandir]

I heard that the "Celts" never referred to themselves in such a way.

Neither do Finns now. And?

[Idaho]

On a similar topic - Another left winger speaking in 1992. How much of this was considered loony left fringe nonsense? And how much of it is clearly obvious to us now?

https://www.facebook.com/cloakedtrut...26445/?fref=nf

[Greyblades]

A fair bit, though I do note that we have also learned that in pracice toppling dictators becomes even more detrimental to all involved than propping them up.

I also find him somewhat naiive, the notion that great minds working on weapons development would be better spent elsewhere is idealistic and impractical. Even without the illegal arms trade there is still a need for weapons development on the part of nation states.