Unthreaded
Mike Jackson: My brother is an ex-patriate - but most certainly, is not an ex-partriot. By the sound of it, you're the same.
Harry Passfield
Radical Rodent
I guess climate didn't help. I for one had enough of Scottish winters in a house without electricity by the time I was a teenager. Although looking at some of the places my countrymen ended up I can't believe it was the only driver. Although it's true that coming to live in Scotland's oldest Ally seems a better choice than Nova Scotia climatically.
SandyS
RR
I seriously resent your implication that I am no longer a patriot! The fact that I have chosen to live in France should not be taken to mean that when the bugle sounds I will not be there to answer the call – or would be if I were a few decades younger.
'Expatriate' I will admit to.
But I confess that one reason for leaving was that I was getting heartily sick of picking up my morning paper and finding at least another couple of reasons to go and live somewhere else — anywhere else! From overly intrusive CCTV (in my own best interests, of course) to local councils using every legal trick to squeeze more money out of me in order to pay their councillors and officials more money than both of us were earning. From speed cameras patently intended as money-raising scams to a health system and transport networks creaking at the seams with no serious effort being made to correct either.
You want I should go on?
Mike Jackson
It is curious. Has no-one ever wondered quite why there are so many British ex-patriots abroad, or why history is full of so many fleeing these shores? Hint: it is probably not because we have such a benign climate.
Radical Rodent
When anyone mentions the Green Blob, I think of these quotes from Blackadder.
Lord Percy Percy: Oh, Edmund... can it be true? That I hold here, in my mortal hand, a nugget of purest Green?
Blackadder: Yes indeed, Percy, except that it's not really a nugget but more of a splat.
Lord Percy Percy: Yes, my Lord. A splat today, but tomorrow, who knows, or dares to dream...
TinyCO2
Mike Jackson, UK Civil Servants have been gold plating EU Diktats for years, for the last 10+years, they have been Green Blobbing them aswell.
Cameron could do much to curb the impact of the EU, by reviewing the disastrous consequences of the Civil Service Self Preservation and Justification Society. Any 'Deal' to entice the UK to vote to stay in, would be a blessing on top.
I don't think the French would allow their politicians and bureaucrats to get away with a Gallic-shrugged disclaimer of responsibility for flooding, that was due to a conspiracy of inactivity.
The French know that their politicians are their representatives, and their elected representatives know that too. The UK needs more politicians in jail, to set an example to the rest. It is hardly as though there are not enough who deserve it.
golf charlie
While we struggle to conform to the 2008 CCA, and Cameron is struggling to stay in the EU and our government discuss whether D.Trump should be allowed into Britain, Germany and the rest of the Schengen area have more important points to discuss:
Only Ten Percent of Migrant Influx Has Reached Us So Far, Says German Minister
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/01/10/only-ten-percent-of-migrant-influx-has-reached-us-so-far-says-german-minister
‘Taharrush’: Authorities Fear Repeat of Cologne as Middle East Rape Culture Imported to Europe
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/01/10/german-authorities-fear-repeat-of-cologne-as-taharrush-comes-to-europe/
"Following the mass sexual assault in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, German authorities are talking about the phenomenon of ‘Taharrush‘ — where large gangs of men attack and even rape women during major events."
(Taharrush is the Arabic word for sexual harassment, but I expect you could have guessed that.)
If the Germans hand out EU passports to their new visitors, who are mostly young men of fighting age, they will currently be able to travel to Britain, unhindered.
With all these extra 'economic migrants', it is going to trash our carbon footprint to smithereens! :)
Robert Christopher
Andrew Bridgen, Conservative MP; It is almost beyond parody, like paying an insurance premium when we can never make a claim
Flood money fury: TWO-THIRDS of flood payouts under £30m EU insurance would go to Brussels
TWO-thirds of any flood payouts that could be made to Britain under a £30million-a-year EU insurance policy would go straight back to Brussels, it has emerged.
"[As] 66 per cent of any UK claim is taken off under a rebate system, meaning we get only a third.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/633170/flood-payouts-two-thirds-under-insurance-back-to-Brussels
Robert Christopher
Stewgreen: with regard to the new “Anthropocene” epoch – surely, the decision on stratification should be made when a definitive stratum can be identified, NOT some arbitrary point which you think might, eventually, after a few thousand years or so, perhaps, show an identifiably different stratum. In other words, you cannot attribute the present (which, geologically speaking, is what we are talking here – even if they go back a full thousand years!) to a new stratum; you can only wait a few tens of thousands of years for that.
Could it be that they fear their own, personal hubris might be affronted that, for all the efforts that humans have been putting into making their mark on this planet, there might actually be little evidence to be found in a couple of million years?
Radical Rodent
Mike Jackson: no, that was not the point of my thread – and what an Australian poet wrote about 100 years ago proves your point that the “call of the bugle” stirs something in the heart of those of British descent that has rallied many back in time of need – witness the ANZACS and the immense sacrifices that they really had no need to make (though this dreadfully ungratefully island should never forget). Whether it will do so again or not… well, I hope that we will never have to find out, as I suspect that, while the likes of Cameroid et al might be wishing that it is still so, they may well be… well, shall we say surprised – but, sadly, I won’t be.
SandyS: “Scotland’s oldest ally”? Hmmm… let me guess – France? Not too wild a guess, I suppose, as both those north of the border and those across the Channel will, for whatever reason, become allies with whoever is against the English. It does seem rather ironic, but, having travelled to many places in the world, to announce that I am English seems to make me an instant friend of everyone there.
Anyhoo… once the largesse of the state runs out of money, as soon it is going to do, how many will want to stay and enjoy the rather harsh climate of this septic isle?