Are we seeing the end of Blair at last?

[russh]

After last week's UK local election results, and the preceeding weeks
scandals, are we finally going to see the end of the current British government?

I for one very much hope so. Enough is enough!

[nasza_maggie]

And what next?

[usenetposts]

nasza_maggie napisała:

> And what next?

More of the same, but from Cameron.

The only real choice is the BNP and that's not respectabubble.

[ianek70]

usenetposts napisał:

> nasza_maggie napisała:
>
> > And what next?
>
> More of the same, but from Cameron.

Much as I hate, despise and also on occasions loathe the Tories, a Conservative
win at Westminster would have as an interesting side-effect the breakup of the
British state.
Imagine - England suddenly becoming independent. Are they ready for it? The oil
will run out soon anyway, so that's not a problem, but what about the Welsh?

[ianek70]

Talking of which, look what I found in today's paper:

www.theherald.co.uk/politics/62003.html

Most English voters are against having a Scot (Brown, to quote a random
example) as UK PM. Racist swine. Send them all back to Saxony, as my aunt used
to say after a few sherries.
But what about the Welsh?

[usenetposts]

ianek70 napisał:

> Talking of which, look what I found in today's paper:
>
> www.theherald.co.uk/politics/62003.html
>
> Most English voters are against having a Scot (Brown, to quote a random
> example) as UK PM. Racist swine. Send them all back to Saxony, as my aunt
used
> to say after a few sherries.
> But what about the Welsh?

Good question. Is there any fellow feeling between the Scots and the Welsh?

They're both Celtic nations, but of very different pre-histories.

[ianek70]

usenetposts napisał:

> Good question. Is there any fellow feeling between the Scots and the Welsh?
>
> They're both Celtic nations, but of very different pre-histories.

The pre-pre-histories are quite similar, though. Cymru, Cumbria and most of
what's now Strathclyde were the same Celtic country until the 8th or 9th
century when it was split in two, partly by the Anglo-Saxon invaders, but
mostly by internal squabbling. The county names Renfrew (Rhyn frwd) and Lanark
(Llanerc) are of Old Welsh origin, i.e. from the Brythonic branch of Celtic
rather than Goidelic branch which the Scots brought over from Ireland. After
this things started to get complicated and the Welsh connection was forgotten
in the multi-ethnic Brythonic-Gaelic-Pictish state (with Saxons and Vikings
around the edges).
Robert Bruce is generally believed to be French, but he was a Breton, and his
native tongue was more or less identical to the speech of Strathclyde, unlike
the French kings of England at the time who didn't know the local language
(they spoke Norman French instead of English).

I think Scots in general feel a closer affinity now to Ireland than to Wales -
most of us have never been to Wales, and now the Irish cousins of Catholic
Scots and the Brito-Irish cousins of Protestant Scots have stopped shooting
each other. There's also a feeling that the situation of the Welsh is
completely different from ours - they've got Welsh-language TV, but their
society is deeply integrated with England, while in Scotland people are
increasingly seeing England in the same way that most Poles see Lithuania or
Germany - that there's a lot of complicated common history, but now we accept
them as neighbours.

[usenetposts]

Thanks for that, Ian.

I have to admit that as a person with 1/4 Welsh blood I do feel a bit Celtic,
but I note that here in POland whenever the term Celtic is used, such a Celtic
food, music, dance, etc, people invariably mean Scottish or Irish. I was in the
solarium recently and saw a chart with the "celtic type" being described as
ginger haired. I don't think that is actually the case at all. The ginger
aspect of some Scots people was a Viking influence, and a majority of Scots
words of the type of "kirk", and "frae, tae" etc, and "greeting" in the
Glaswegian sense are of Nordic provenance. In a way the Welsh have keot a
bigger purely Celtic aspect to their traditions.

What do you say to that?

[ianek70]

usenetposts napisał:

> I was in the
> solarium recently and saw a chart with the "celtic type" being described as
> ginger haired.

They've got a solarium that gives you freckles and ginger hair?

> a majority of Scots
> words of the type of "kirk", and "frae, tae" etc, and "greeting" in the
> Glaswegian sense are of Nordic provenance.

Old Scots developed from Northumbrian Old English, which was half-Scandinavian
anyway. So most sources give the etymology of "kirk" as simply being cognate
with OE "cirice" and ON "kirkja", which were the same word.
I discovered recently that a lot of Geordie words are still similar to Scots -
they use the word "clarty" with the eastern Scottish meaning of "muddy, dirty",
and "glaiky" meaning stupid (Scots "glaikit"). And Geordie grammar has 3-point
place deixis - this, that, yon.
"Frae" is "fra" in Danish, "fae" in Glaswegian. "Tae" in Danish is "til",
pronounced "tae", and Scots language purists still spell "tae" as "til",
pronounced "tae".
"Greet", "cry" and "call" are all closely connected in Northern and Western
Germanic dialects - "call out" and "cry out" mean more or less the same, and
this is what you do when you greet someone. "They cry me Bob" can be heard in
both Scots and archaic (?) English dialects, and Scots "greet" is
Danish "graede". Gaunae no greet lik at? Graed ikke, for satan!

> In a way the Welsh have keot a
> bigger purely Celtic aspect to their traditions.

I don't really know much about Wales.
Scotland has always been separated from England by 150 miles of uninhabited
hills, and from everyone else by cold seas, so the culture has evolved in its
own way, even if this has meant the gradual disappearance of Gaelic for
specifically Scottish historical reasons. It also has just the right size and
population to be both small and a bit weird, but also big enough for people to
argue among themselves rather than pick fights with the neighbours. And also
for geographical reasons we just don't have too many neighbours anyway.
Wales is smaller and none of the densely populated areas are very far from
England, maybe this has a big influence.

[usenetposts]

ianek70 napisał:

> usenetposts napisał:
>
> > I was in the
> > solarium recently and saw a chart with the "celtic type" being described
> as
> > ginger haired.
>
> They've got a solarium that gives you freckles and ginger hair?

Heh heh. Not exactly. They write that if you've got that skin type you need to
stop after 6 minutes.

Whereas if you're, like, a black-haired mediterranean type you can spend 40
minutes in there, if you like.

[ianek70]

usenetposts napisał:

> Heh heh. Not exactly. They write that if you've got that skin type you need
to
> stop after 6 minutes.
>
> Whereas if you're, like, a black-haired mediterranean type you can spend 40
> minutes in there, if you like.

That's just an excuse to make Latinas with blonde hair prove it's dyed.
I know their game, dirty perverts

[usenetposts]

ianek70 napisał:

> usenetposts napisał:
>
> > Heh heh. Not exactly. They write that if you've got that skin type you ne
> ed
> to
> > stop after 6 minutes.
> >
> > Whereas if you're, like, a black-haired mediterranean type you can spend
> 40
> > minutes in there, if you like.
>
> That's just an excuse to make Latinas with blonde hair prove it's dyed.
> I know their game, dirty perverts

Can anyone join in?

[kylie1]

welcome back russh! Good to see you back. Hope you had a good rest.

I don't know if Blair did anything good for your country but kissing up to Bush
did not help matters. You know what they say about the crows...

[marcus_anglikiem]

i DO hope so. Blair has let run a gaggle of such incompetence. i wonder how
many died/were attacked/were abused etc.etc. & who may under a decent gov't
have been better protected.
many of this lot in power deserve to live in misery... and worse

[ianek70]

russh napisał:

> After last week's UK local election results, and the preceeding weeks
> scandals, are we finally going to see the end of the current British
government?

Maybe, maybe not.
They're losing a lot of support, for obvious reasons, but in the general
elections they mainly lost it to the LibDems.
In the council elections in England, Labour held on to almost (?) all its
councils in the North, the Tories made gains in the South (as they do). There's
been a lot of talk lately of England moving toward a three-party system, but
without any form of proportional representation it's hard to say how much this
is a result of protest votes against the govt rather than for the opposition.

[varsovian]

There's not going to be a 3-party system. The Liberals elected a skeleton to
lead them.
"Dave" is a twat.
Labour are a set of donkeys.
The BNP are unmentionables.
The Zimbabwe option looms. Rev. Ian Paisley as President-for-Life

[ianek70]

varsovian napisał:

> There's not going to be a 3-party system. The Liberals elected a skeleton to
> lead them.
> "Dave" is a twat.
> Labour are a set of donkeys.
> The BNP are unmentionables.

There's always Plaid Cymru.

[varsovian]

And you know who's playing honest broker?
Kinnock!
Don't make me laugh ...

[varsovian]

that is - honest broker between Blair and Brown

[marimax]

Who gives a shit about english politicians ?
They will stab you in the back first chance they get

[ianek70]

marimax napisał:

> Who gives a shit about english politicians ?
> They will stab you in the back first chance they get

So the sooner you give them a chance the better, you sad, boring little man.

[marimax]

Read another post and you will know what I think about you, shithead

Yawn...

[ianek70]

marimax napisał:

> Read another post and you will know what I think about you, shithead

Let me guess, do you think I'm a shithead?
If you can explain the connection between your childish personal abuse and the
Blair government (which is what this thread is about), then I might stop
laughing at your pathetic attention-seeking.

[varsovian]

I digess unashamedly again (this is becoming a habit), but Microwotsit doesn't
know the difference between a Scot and a Sassenach.

[ianek70]

varsovian napisał:

> I digess unashamedly again (this is becoming a habit), but Microwotsit
doesn't
> know the difference between a Scot and a Sassenach.

If he even knew the difference between his arse and his elbow it would double
the amount of respect I have for him.
Which would still make zero.

[russh]

He's having to do it by phone though I hear, as he has a little problem driving
at the moment.

Or maybe he's been given a chauffeur at tax-payers expense.