kuro68k wrote: » The British government is going to take it right to the cliff edge and hope that someone else compromises. Of course they have their excuses already lined up if no-one does, only real question is who they will blame.
hill16bhoy wrote: » Nowhere demonstrates that better than Germany.
Kermit.de.frog wrote: » https://twitter.com/carldinnen/status/1071893465104027651 Withdrawal agreement not going to change but they might be able to do something about the political declaration?
Leroy42 wrote: » Didn't get the chance to watch the C4 debate. What are peoples opinions of an outcome, if any? From what I can gather from opinion polls and vox pops is that few people are changing their minds and if they haven't to date nothing anyone if saying, on either side, is really going to make a difference. On a different point, I see the starting pistol on the race to replace TM has already started with each of Johnson, Raab and McVey clearly signaling their intent on the Sunday morning interviews. It seems a long time ago now but at the early stages of this the tories were claiming that telling anyone about their plans, the effect on the economy, transport etc would be handing the initiative to the EU. Now it seems it is perfectly OK to let the EU know that whatever they agree with TM is worthless as she won't be around long enough.
J Mysterio wrote: » What does this mean?
hill16bhoy wrote: » From 1870 to 1945, German leaders encouraged the belief that Germany was "uber alles", that it had an exalted status among the peoples of the world, culminating in the belief in the "master race", the belief that others were sub-human, the Holocaust, and all the other horrors of World War II. Post-World War II, West Germany and then Germany abandoned its notions of greatness and became a force for peace, stability and co-operation in Europe. It concentrated on being a good country, not a "Great" country, in other words. A large section of British society has never fully come to terms with not being "Great". British governments, particularly Tory governments, never fully came to terms with it either. Good is infinitely better than "Great".
ThePanjandrum wrote: » Even the idea of "the white man's burden" is no problem when it bears the meaning of sacrificing your own interests for the benefit of others.
road_high wrote: » Great was only ever a geographical term as in Greater/big to describe the island of Britain. It seems to have taken on a literal sense particularly with brexit going on. Ie Great Britain in a superior sense
Folkstonian wrote: » Great means big. Big Britain. As in, the biggest of the British isles.
Anthracite wrote: » This racist concept of racial superiority is fine? I'm sure all the beneficiaries of this great concept are not at all bothered by the destruction of their cultures.
Beanntraigheach wrote: » The modern English name "Great Britain" is derived from the French "Grande-Bretagne". The adjective (superfluous in English) is necessary in that language to distinguish it from "Bretagne", Brittany (sometimes referred to as "Less/Little Britain").
ThePanjandrum wrote: » "Great" is fine as an aspiration, "Deutschland über alles" was fine too as it referred to the incorporation of the small states of Germany into a single entity. Even the idea of "the white man's burden" is no problem when it bears the meaning of sacrificing your own interests for the benefit of others. But ignoring the welfare of your own citizens or subjugating others purely for your own country's benefit can be problematic, though not inevitably so.
ThePanjandrum wrote: » Kipling's poem is not racist although it was colonialist. The most advanced nations of his time were ones where the majority of the population was white. He, speaking to these nations, wanted them to act in the interests of underdeveloped countries even though they were reviled for it - as has often happened. Yeah, there was a destruction of some parts of cultures but when these parts included those of raiding Ireland and other countries for slaves, invading neighbouring countries to enslave and sell their people, burning widows alive on funeral pyres, taking away the power of life and death of despotic kings, preventing human sacrifice, bringing education etc. to other countries then I think he has a point. Today people are working to prevent FGM. That will destroy parts of the native cultures. Are you saying that this is a bad thing to do?
Strazdas wrote: » To confuse things further, the Irish name for Wales is an Bhreatain Bheag (also 'Little Britain').
Anthracite wrote: » Did you see that tere are some uncontacted people on the Sentinel Islands? We'd better take up our burden and give them McDonalds and Big Brother asap - to hell with whatever their culture has created over the last 60,000 years. Sigh.
dr.fuzzenstein wrote: » Unfortunate attitude from the UK. It is a bit of a joke in Germany that the Brits can't see past WW2. Only a Brit would say "two world wars and one world cup" to a German. This goes right down to politics and their "we'll never bow down to Gerry!" attitude. As another poster put it, "we'd rather die standing up than live on our knees". What absolute drivel and exactly the kind of unconstructive verbal diarrhea engaged in by the leave side. Inventing a conflict that just doesn't exist. I want to make a few points. First, I am really, really glad that Germany lost the war. Secondly, according to the Brits, they singlehandedly defeated Germany, but it has to be said that, well, no. But aside from that, look at Europe. Germany, Austria, Hungary, France, Sweden, Poland, well, pretty much every country has fought with every country in countless bloody and bitter wars over thousands of years. Europe is soaked in the blood of millions and millions of people. I'm sure you could cover all of it in several inches of bone dust. You don't find Europeans talking to each other about whatever battles were fought several hundred years ago. If every European country hung onto old grievances or former glories like the UK did, there would still be perpetual war here. A Brit would mention the war (pun intended), but Poles, French, Dutch, Norwegians, Belgians, well any surrounding country never would. That's not because they feel intimidated by the evil German standing in front of them, but because it would never enter our heads to do so. We don't forget the past, but we don't dig it up every single time we meet someone we've had a beef with. We'd get nothing done. And it's not just evil Germany, many other countries had designs on becoming world leaders. Spain, France, Italy, Sweden, to name but a few. Brexit came about because the Brexiteers live in a glorious past that doesn't exist outside history books and old movies shown at Christmas time where they bloody well showed the Hun what for and make no mistake! They should try inhabiting the 20th century first and then gradually work their way up to the 21st. I love and admire the UK. I've been there, knew a lot of Brits in Ireland and who wouldn't love their culture and definitely their music. And no one does comedy better. They have helped shaped the world we know today. What surprises me is that this regressive attitude hasn't always been there, but right now it seems to be very en vogue internationally to be right leaning and isolationist.
josip wrote: » Maybe because you live in Germany now Dr. you don't hear WWII being brought up at any time. But in the part of the Balkans that I'm familiar with, WWII is still very recent, not forgotten and quite often mentioned. Not stories of heroism and derring do, but the brutality of it. I don't know how Poles currently feel about WWII or if they've gotten on with things now as you say. But some Polish lads I worked with on the rebuilding of the Killiney Court Hotel 13 years ago hadn't forgotten about it. There were a couple of German lads working on the site too, hard workers, but a bit dour. The German lads worked on a pour of concrete and then headed off to lunch. When they came back from lunch, they found that someone had written "Arbeit Macht Frei' in the part they'd just worked on. So although I agree with you that the British are quite insular, I don't think that they have a completely unique outlook towards WWII among European countries.
DOCARCH wrote: » (as long as 'in good faith').
seamus wrote: » Just when it seemed like this whole thing couldn't get any crazier. If I were British, I think I would be pushing for Parliament to vote down the deal and immediately begin moving to cancel the withdrawal. It's right there for the taking, there is literally no good reason to keep moving forward with the Brexit process. Put an end to 2.5 years of insanity, fix the massive deficit of indenpedent information and internal cohesion that caused this whole thing in the first place. Currency markets aren't finding it good news though. Looks like the expectation is that there is no major party who is willing to cancel it, so they're still expecting the worst.
