Brexit, for once some facts.

As we inch towards 30 thousand posts time to look back and I maintain that brexit is and always was about xenophobia. The UK, Hungary, Poland, northern Italy, Austria, etc all in the same boat - fear of others.
Agreed.
I was discussing with an old school friend on facebook, who shared that nonsense meme about refugees / illegal immigrants getting more than pensioners (its a proven well know lie, but people like my school friend keep sharing it).

He acknowledged that it might not be true, but it being a lie doesn't effect how he feels... and I quote:

"and go on living your life thinking that this **** ain't happening in England or any other part of the world it is! Its here and people from another country and religion are trying to take over the world in one way or another! So stop being a ******* jobs worth do gooder and grow a pair of balls and wake up to the fastly becoming battlefield that is earth."

He appears to be terrified... and he grew up in Cheltenham. God knows where his fear /ignorance comes from.
 

anotherkiwi

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Agreed.
I was discussing with an old school friend on facebook, who shared that nonsense meme about refugees / illegal immigrants getting more than pensioners (its a proven well know lie, but people like my school friend keep sharing it).

He acknowledged that it might not be true, but it being a lie doesn't effect how he feels... and I quote:

"and go on living your life thinking that this **** ain't happening in England or any other part of the world it is! Its here and people from another country and religion are trying to take over the world in one way or another! So stop being a ******* jobs worth do gooder and grow a pair of balls and wake up to the fastly becoming battlefield that is earth."

He appears to be terrified... and he grew up in Cheltenham. God knows where his fear /ignorance comes from.
I have a good friend in Vermont and he tells me hair raising stories about his neighbours and their guns "just in case the blacks come to take all our stuff, rape our children, we will be ready...". I don't know if you have ever been to Vermont but I have and I don't remember seeing a single person of colour the whole 3 days... My mother is racist. My grandmother when presented with my young French wife said: "She's very nice, for a catholic". I have always wondered where all the nasty catholics she had met before were hiding... o_O

Fear of the unknown and education play a great part I think.
 

Woosh

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And most of that 2 out of 5 also speak at least some English.

I wonder how many of the 3 out of 5 English speakers also speak Russian or an Eastern European language?
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We/I switch to speaking French when we are in France. Everyone can do the same because it's not a question of ability (unless you are a tourist), it's a matter of respect for the land and the people.
 
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Woosh

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Whereas we rely on it for our very survival?
Good point! :cool:
let's face it, our main interest is the single market.
it still is, brexit or not.
 

oldgroaner

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We/I switch to speaking French when we are in France. Everyone can do the same because it's not a question of ability (unless you are a tourist), it's a matter of respect for the land and the people.
I recall that a German Friend of mine explained to a Hotel Receptionist that was having difficulty with explaining my booking to me.

"He's not English
He's from Yorkshire."

She gave me the sort of look a man from Mars might expect... then burst out laughing.
 
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flecc

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He appears to be terrified... and he grew up in Cheltenham. God knows where his fear /ignorance comes from.
We live in an increasingly neurotic age and our politicians and public servants are mainly to blame for this, ably assisted by the media.

Anything that might be in any way a threat is hyped and exaggerated, For example Theresa May saying publically that over 130 people in Salisbury might be contaminated with a nerve gas agent and announcing a year long cleanup of public areas. Since the alleged attack occurred at the beginning of March some 47 days ago and there's been some 4 inches of rain since then, there's hardly likely to be anything left to clean. It's had the effect though, today on radio I heard a number of Salisbury residents clearly panicky about the hypothetical threat and demanding answers.

We saw the same hysteria over Grenfell Tower. People who'd lived in similarly clad blocks for many years being hastily forced out into homelessness in some cases, despite the risk of a repeat fire being infinitesimally small and fire wardens a simple temporary solution.

Almost every day the media carry stories about impending threat possibilities, making the world seem a far more dangerous place than it really is. Obesity, diabetes, sugar, knife crime, caffeine, traffic accidents, salt, bird flu, mentally ill attackers, food poisoning et al, nothing and nowhere is safe any more if we are daft enough to believe any of this torrent.
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flecc

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We/I switch to speaking French when we are in France. Everyone can do the same because it's not a question of ability (unless you are a tourist), it's a matter of respect for the land and the people.
Whilst I agree, whether it happens is dependent on densities of ethnic peoples. As you know in London we tend to have areas where each nationality group and the use of native languages makes more sense then. That can soon lead to it becoming a habit everywhere, and the same happens in countries all round the world.

Personally I don't mind. Why should I, other peoples conversations are none of my business?

In London we are all minorities now, including the 46% of white British born, so we can't even say the English language is the norm for the majority!
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oldgroaner

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From the Daily Mirror
"
'Hundreds' of Nissan jobs on the line at Sunderland factory as car giant warns of fall in workload
The automotive giant has revealed that it is looking to cut the number of salaried positions at its Sunderland plant as part of plans to introduce a new range of automotive parts
The news on job losses has come the day after it was revealed car sales had fallen in Europe for the first time in four years, with Nissan among those worst affected.
The European Automobile Manufacturers Association said the EU passenger car market had declined by 5.3%, with particular problems in the UK, Germany and Italy.

Among manufacturers, Nissan suffered one of the largest declines, losing 17.8% of sales from this time last year, and seeing its share of the European market fall from 4.8% to 4.2%.

But Nissan have stressed that the current job losses are not related to Brexit.
 
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anotherkiwi

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<snip>Obesity, diabetes, sugar, food poisoning, nothing and nowhere is safe any more if we are daft enough to believe any of this torrent.</snip>
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Ummm... those ones might be real for a large percentage of the population :rolleyes:
 
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flecc

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'Hundreds' of Nissan jobs on the line at Sunderland factory as car giant warns of fall in workload
Among manufacturers, Nissan suffered one of the largest declines, losing 17.8% of sales from this time last year, and seeing its share of the European market fall from 4.8% to 4.2%.
Then they need to pull their fingers out. I'm on a quoted three month waiting list for a Nissan model and still as yet no indication of when it might be delivered.

A few years back I had a wait of nearly the same for another Nissan model, so it seems old habits die hard.
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flecc

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Ummm... those ones might be real for a large percentage of the population :rolleyes:
When already affected they don't need telling.

Those who won't be told make it pointless telling them.

Those who already know don't need telling

The rest of us not at risk don't need telling.

So there's no point in the warnings, they're just scare stories.
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oldgroaner

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When already affected they don't need telling.

Those who won't be told make it pointless telling them.

Those who already know don't need telling

The rest of us not at risk don't need telling.

So there's no point in the warnings, they're just scare stories.
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That sounds astonishingly like the mindset of the average Brexit pro leave voter!:eek:
 
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flecc

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That sounds astonishingly like the mindset of the average Brexit pro leave voter!:eek:
Exactly, it's the way people are.

Take the constant obesity warnings that started more than a decade ago. Then we could see there were a lot of fat people. Now we still see a lot of fat people, probably more than before. Ergo, warnings are a waste of time, just as true for every other possible threat.

Bad things happen to other people.
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oldgroaner

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Bad things happen to other people.
That sounds like this man's personal motto

Kalashnikov USA says it’s not violating sanctions because it’s cut ties to Russia and now sells guns of its own creation, assembled from parts made in the U.S. A closer look reveals an intricate web of interlocking shell companies, some set up since sanctions began, that connects Kalashnikov USA executives to top allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin. One effective result of this could be that Kalashnikov Concern keeps access to the lucrative U.S. gun market while staying on the right side of sanctions. Before sanctions, the U.S. accounted for 90 percent of the company’s civilian firearms exports.
 
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