Brexit, for once some facts.

oyster

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That learning English through karaoke and Hollywood films I regard as a thoroughly good thing, a step towards a future of only one language. Serious war between nations who speak the same language is very rare, probably due to greater understanding being easier to reach.
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Can't help thinking of Korean War, Chinese Civil War, Vietnam, American war of independence, American Civil War, Russian revolution, Rwandan Civil War, ...
 
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Woosh

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Serious war between nations who speak the same language is very rare, probably due to greater understanding being easier to reach.
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social media changed that. They spread negativity.
Many speak English with a forked tongue.
 
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flecc

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Oct 25, 2006
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Can't help thinking of Korean War, Chinese Civil War, Vietnam, American war of independence, American Civil War, Russian revolution, Rwandan Civil War, ...
I was speaking of serious international wars, not civil wars since they usually have a very different basis, as do revolutions.

And the serious aspects of the Korean and Vietnamese wars were primarily due to sponsorship by the two world ideologies, not having a common language. Korea was the English speaking west versus Korean, Chinese and Russian speakers, Vietnam the French and English speaking west versus Vietnamese and Chinese speakers.

In each there were four languages involved; in both, the countries populations were exploited for ideological reasons.
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oldgroaner

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The USA is agressively anti-Empire as a result of being part of one originally and they don't have one. That's why they atacked the Spanish Empire early in the 20th cebtury and liberated its countries, then planning to do the same to us.

Our bankrupt outcome of WW2 meant they were in a position to insist we gave our empire countries their freedom without having to attack us.

America's version of empire is an empire of the mind, trying to get the rest of the world to adopt their culture in its entirety. Where Coca Cola, McDonalds and jeans are concerned, they've won.
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Sorry but the American empire is a reality imposed with greater rigour than we did ours, and we are part of it, they simply call it something else, it is in fact a corporate empire, very much along the lines of our own East India company, and with the same objectives, presenting many heads like a hydra, but with a single agenda.

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Kudoscycles

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The Greek people starve. German banks get richer...
Have you ever been to Thessaloniki,I wish U.K. cities were as buoyant. Lots of students,they don’t appear to be suffering under high student fees.
The new motorway from Athens to Thessaloniki is one of the best built roads,maybe the Greeks have learnt how to milk the EU,
KudosDave
 
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tommie

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Have you ever been to Thessaloniki,I wish U.K. cities were as buoyant. Lots of students,they don’t appear to be suffering under high student fees.
The new motorway from Athens to Thessaloniki is one of the best built roads,maybe the Greeks have learnt how to milk the EU,
KudosDave
Have you ever been to Thessaloniki,I wish U.K. cities were as buoyant. Lots of students,they don’t appear to be suffering under high student fees.
The new motorway from Athens to Thessaloniki is one of the best built roads,obviously the EU have learnt how to milk the U.K.,
KudosDave

*Fixed*
 
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flecc

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Sorry but the American empire is a reality imposed with greater rigour than we did ours, and we are part of it, they simply call it something else, it is in fact a corporate empire, very much along the lines of our own East India company, and with the same objectives, presenting many heads like a hydra, but with a single agenda.
That's what I posted, the likes of Coca Cola, McDonalds, Levi Strauss etc., an empire of the mind, rather than an old style physical one.

It's not imposed, the mass of the populations of other countries exposed to the US culture very willingly adopt it and need no forcing.

I don't like it either, but with democracy the masses get their way, just as with Brexit.
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Woosh

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obviously the EU have learnt how to milk the U.K.,
there is really no need to justify the UK's decision to leave.
Especially if we have to make large concession a little later for a trade deal with both the USA and EU as a matter of urgency.
 
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oldgroaner

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That's what I posted, the likes of Coca Cola, McDonalds, Levi Strauss etc., an empire of the mind, rather than an old style physical one.

It's not imposed, the mass of the populations of other countries exposed to the US culture very willingly adopt it and need no forcing.

I don't like it either, but with democracy the masses get their way, just as with Brexit.
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Except of course where a little regime change was considered a good idea, Iran for instance
 
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flecc

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Except of course where a little regime change was considered a good idea, Iran for instance
But that's not true empire building, there's no desire to take over the country. Had Persia's new democratic government in 1948 not acted in such a hostile way over the oil supplies, the west wouldn't have used dirty tricks to restore the Shah.

I didn't approve of what we did but understood why it happened and the self inflicted element.
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oldgroaner

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But that's not true empire building, there's no desire to take over the country. Had Persia's new democratic government in 1948 not acted in such a hostile way over the oil supplies, the west wouldn't have used dirty tricks to restore the Shah.

I didn't approve of what we did but understood why it happened and the self inflicted element.
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It's interesting that the American based English right winger Niall Ferguson wrote this
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jun/02/highereducation.books
"The United States is a "danger to the world" because of its denial that it is a military and economic empire, according to Niall Ferguson, historian and new-found darling of the American right.

"America's critical weakness, however, was its fatal lack of self-knowledge, he said. "When you talk to Americans about empire they say, 'but we came into existence to fight imperialism.' "US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld famously told al-Jazeera 'we don't do empire'. But how can you not be an empire and maintain 750 military bases in three-quarters of the countries on earth?"
 
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oldgroaner

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the days of the old model British Empire are truly over. Capitalistic empires are multinational companies, the likes of Apple, Oracle, FB, RBS. Political empires are more likely built by socialists, Russia and China today, India and South Africa tomorrow.
Russia is Socialist? well I never!
 
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flecc

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But how can you not be an empire and maintain 750 military bases in three-quarters of the countries on earth?"
Self appointed policeman rather than empire, operating to some sort of partial consensus on what is right and wrong and using the international court,

Very imperfect, as witness only enforcing UN resolutions against those they don't like and not their allies like Israel, so much like all police forces.
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oyster

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Nov 7, 2017
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It would be good to know the answer, wouldn't it?

Tom Watson demands answers about alleged Russian Brexit plot
Labour’s deputy leader asks if National Crime Agency is investigating whether referendum was ‘stolen’

Carole Cadwalladr

Mon 27 Aug 2018 18.05 BST Last modified on Mon 27 Aug 2018 18.36 BST

Tom Watson, the deputy leader of the Labour party, has called on the government to confirm if the National Crime Agency is looking into whether there was Russian interference in the EU referendum.

Watson suggested the vote may have been “stolen” and said that if the NCA was not investigating then a full public inquiry with powers similar to those of the US special counsel Robert Mueller must be held. Mueller is investigating Russian interference into the 2016 US presidential election.

It is the first time that a member of Labour’s frontbench has called into question the legality of the referendum and has been seen by backbench MPs as a significant intervention.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/27/tom-watson-demands-answers-about-alleged-russian-brexit-plot
 

oyster

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 7, 2017
10,422
14,609
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I didn't think pantomime season was yet upon us?

Theresa May says a no-deal Brexit 'wouldn't be the end of the world'

Prime minister attempts to distance herself from pessimistic Treasury forecasts that incensed the Tory right

Theresa May claimed that a no-deal Brexit “wouldn’t be the end of the world” as she sought to downplay a controversial warning made by Philip Hammond last week that it would cost £80bn in extra borrowing and inhibit long-term economic growth.

The prime minister conceded that crashing out of the European Union without a deal “wouldn’t be a walk in the park” but went on to argue that the UK could make an economic success of the unprecedented situation if it proved impossible to negotiate a satisfactory divorce.


Her comments were designed to distance herself from pessimistic Treasury forecasts highlighted by the chancellor at the end of last week, predictions that incensed the Tory right and led to renewed calls from hard Brexiters for Hammond’s dismissal.


https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/28/theresa-may-says-a-no-deal-brexit-wouldnt-be-the-end-of-the-world

But we were told that brexit was unadulterated joy and wonderfulness - aka a walk in the park.

O yes it would be the end of the world - as we know it.
 

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