We will totally admit that we do not know much about politics in Merry Olde Limeyland, mostly because the parliamentary system seems really fucking complicated. How do you British people keep track of them all? Do you just kind of lose track of some of the parties? Because we're thinking maybe that's a possible excuse for the existence of one Bill Etheridge, a UK Independence Party (UKip!!) member of the European Parliament (MEP!!) who gave a little public speaking seminar for aspiring politicians where one of his pro-tips was that speakers should
Not clear. Great Britain will remain the geographical name for the island on which we find England, Wales and Scotland.
The British Isles will remain the geographical name for the collection of islands including Great Britain, Ireland, Anglesey, the Isle of Man, the Isle of Wight, the Shetlands, the Orkneys, the Hebrides and depending on whether you include them for purely political reasons, the Channel Islands.
Of course, the inclusion of Ireland in this list does allude quite strongly to the fact that the concept of "Britishness" has managed already to survive the departure of a significant chunk of geography from the political union.
Just plain &quot;Britain&quot; is a shorthand for the political entity formally known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which would presumably become the United Kingdom of England, Wales and Northern Ireland or something. Assuming that Scotland doesn&#039;t choose to remain part of the <em>Kingdom</em> - that&#039;s not actually 100% clear from the referendum question, which asks only about independence, not form of government - in theory one could retain the Queen as head of state but reject the Parliament in London, although if they&#039;re going to separate they might as well do it completely.
&quot;if you define &ldquo;most successful&rdquo; as &ldquo;most likely to move an entire nation of people into a sick murderous war rage,&rdquo;&quot;
Well, if you can do that, sure you ARE a good public speaker. The lunatic obviously had something that set him apart from all the other lunatics that were knocking around Germany- he didn&#039;t have the State Terror Machine at the beginning. As stupid as he looks in newsreels, perhaps it works better in German.
Technically unlike Ireland or Scotland, Wales was fully annexed by England. Its status as a Principality rather than a Kingdom is why it&#039;s not represented in the flag - the Queen is Queen of England, Queen of Scotland and Queen of (Northern) Ireland, but she is not Queen of Wales - her son, of course, is Prince of Wales, but she&#039;s the head of state of Wales in her role as Queen of England.
British nationalism as it exists today did not exist until long after Irish independence - it was still colonial and expansionist in nature in 1920, hence the exercise in drawing random lines on maps to carve up the Ottoman Empire that was undertaken after WW1, that still haunts the world today. Sure, the English treated Ireland like a colony to be extracted from and where the natives were in need of subduing whenever they got restless - but the same is basically true of Scotland.
When it comes to race, first there is no English race or Scottish race or British race, but second, if you&#039;re going to split hairs to the level of trying to separate out the Irish from some kind of racial notion of Britishness, the Scots are not particularly closer to the English than the Irish are - none of the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings nor Normans conquered Scotland, but they all contributed significantly to the English gene pool.
Thank you for not getting into the whole Northern Ireland thing, saves me from having to explain why I wound up being christened Matthew Peter instead of Conor Dominic.
Most people I met before leaving England were aware that most non-English Britons hated us, but tended to waive it off as them being jealous of our awesomeness, rather than legitimately pissed at the centuries of us relentlessly shitting on their countries.
The English have, of course, had plenty of practice at the whole &quot;oh they&#039;ll regret the day they left us&quot; schtick - America, Ireland, India, Kenya, etc. etc.
I had a modern European History professor (fluent German speaker and he&#039;d spent a number of years there) who argued that the Germans were the only people, as a culture, capable of finding Hitler charismatic and captivating.
Yeah, I just finished revising my powerpoint on the cause of WWII for my history class the other day- I always include as one of the ways Hitler was able to get the support of (some of) the German people was that he was an almost hypnotic public speaker. I then always stop and explain to my students that although when we watch film clips of him he seems funny, not compelling, such was not the case at the time. I can imagine that today anyone who just walked around and stared at the audience for a few minutes would get laughed off the stage, that is if everyone wasn&#039;t busy texting and tweeting while waiting for the fucker to start his speech.
I looked up Bretwalda- this jerk is into the whole Anglo-Saxon &quot;purity&quot; thing, I guess, as that&#039;s an old A-S word that gets used for Britain. Which just confirms his assholery. Celts or GTFO!! (let us never forget that it was the Saxons that King Arthur was fighting against!)
Although there&#039;s no particular singling out of Scots there - just ask Cannuck Greg Rusedski or Aussie Joe Bugner.
Not clear. Great Britain will remain the geographical name for the island on which we find England, Wales and Scotland.
The British Isles will remain the geographical name for the collection of islands including Great Britain, Ireland, Anglesey, the Isle of Man, the Isle of Wight, the Shetlands, the Orkneys, the Hebrides and depending on whether you include them for purely political reasons, the Channel Islands.
Of course, the inclusion of Ireland in this list does allude quite strongly to the fact that the concept of &quot;Britishness&quot; has managed already to survive the departure of a significant chunk of geography from the political union.
Just plain &quot;Britain&quot; is a shorthand for the political entity formally known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which would presumably become the United Kingdom of England, Wales and Northern Ireland or something. Assuming that Scotland doesn&#039;t choose to remain part of the <em>Kingdom</em> - that&#039;s not actually 100% clear from the referendum question, which asks only about independence, not form of government - in theory one could retain the Queen as head of state but reject the Parliament in London, although if they&#039;re going to separate they might as well do it completely.
I fail to see what the actions of American citizens have to do with it... :P
&quot;if you define &ldquo;most successful&rdquo; as &ldquo;most likely to move an entire nation of people into a sick murderous war rage,&rdquo;&quot;
Well, if you can do that, sure you ARE a good public speaker. The lunatic obviously had something that set him apart from all the other lunatics that were knocking around Germany- he didn&#039;t have the State Terror Machine at the beginning. As stupid as he looks in newsreels, perhaps it works better in German.
Technically unlike Ireland or Scotland, Wales was fully annexed by England. Its status as a Principality rather than a Kingdom is why it&#039;s not represented in the flag - the Queen is Queen of England, Queen of Scotland and Queen of (Northern) Ireland, but she is not Queen of Wales - her son, of course, is Prince of Wales, but she&#039;s the head of state of Wales in her role as Queen of England.
British nationalism as it exists today did not exist until long after Irish independence - it was still colonial and expansionist in nature in 1920, hence the exercise in drawing random lines on maps to carve up the Ottoman Empire that was undertaken after WW1, that still haunts the world today. Sure, the English treated Ireland like a colony to be extracted from and where the natives were in need of subduing whenever they got restless - but the same is basically true of Scotland.
When it comes to race, first there is no English race or Scottish race or British race, but second, if you&#039;re going to split hairs to the level of trying to separate out the Irish from some kind of racial notion of Britishness, the Scots are not particularly closer to the English than the Irish are - none of the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings nor Normans conquered Scotland, but they all contributed significantly to the English gene pool.
Thank you for not getting into the whole Northern Ireland thing, saves me from having to explain why I wound up being christened Matthew Peter instead of Conor Dominic.
Most people I met before leaving England were aware that most non-English Britons hated us, but tended to waive it off as them being jealous of our awesomeness, rather than legitimately pissed at the centuries of us relentlessly shitting on their countries.
The English have, of course, had plenty of practice at the whole &quot;oh they&#039;ll regret the day they left us&quot; schtick - America, Ireland, India, Kenya, etc. etc.
I had a modern European History professor (fluent German speaker and he&#039;d spent a number of years there) who argued that the Germans were the only people, as a culture, capable of finding Hitler charismatic and captivating.
Not many people know it, but the Fuhrer was a terrific dancer. We should all take dancing tips from Hitler too.
...I modeled my speech and presentation skills after Dick Cheney
J.K. Rowling?
Yeah, I just finished revising my powerpoint on the cause of WWII for my history class the other day- I always include as one of the ways Hitler was able to get the support of (some of) the German people was that he was an almost hypnotic public speaker. I then always stop and explain to my students that although when we watch film clips of him he seems funny, not compelling, such was not the case at the time. I can imagine that today anyone who just walked around and stared at the audience for a few minutes would get laughed off the stage, that is if everyone wasn&#039;t busy texting and tweeting while waiting for the fucker to start his speech.
I looked up Bretwalda- this jerk is into the whole Anglo-Saxon &quot;purity&quot; thing, I guess, as that&#039;s an old A-S word that gets used for Britain. Which just confirms his assholery. Celts or GTFO!! (let us never forget that it was the Saxons that King Arthur was fighting against!)
...Dr. Seuss?!
Hitler... there was a painter! He could paint an entire apartment in ONE afternoon! TWO coats!
Welp, you just summed up my entire lesson on the causes of WWII.
I think we&#039;re in over our heads.
Hell, Cheney shot his friend HIMSELF! He didn&#039;t need no brownshirts to do it for him!