andyh wrote:
No, and this is the flaw in my cunning plan. I can ask directions in German, order food and tell people what my favourite school subject is. Unfortunately, GCSE German was fairly limited. Although we did learn how to say "tortoise".

Unfortunately, the Polish get a bad rap in the UK. What is it like in Ireland? People just take a while to get used to changes. I still think the UK is too small to allow so many people in. We have lots of empty houses, but we'll just end up building on countryside and we should be conserving that.

LesleyPumpshaft wrote:
The 'problem' is far worse in Ireland, especially around Dublin. They have whole shops dedicated to poles now and many polish produce etc.
The irish are a bit grumpy about it but nothing like the UK, that said I blame the media eg daily hate mail for a lot of it.
Theres also no special political parties in ireland who are anti immigrants specifically.

The irish themselves are used to being emigrants so they're also probably not as fussed for that reason amongst the older crowd, the younger ones though are beginning to get a bit miffy about it aye.

I've never had any hassle myself but that said there are many irish people with british accents so they tend not to bat an eyelid.
They're also a bit softer on northerners than southerners from the UK

The size of the UK as you put it is a big deal, but tbh its mostly about tiny crammed housing in massive estates, there are vast swathes of empty land in the UK just as there are in Ireland. Its all pwned by the uber rich though isn't it?

Here in Ireland its possible to get a nice large rural house for a decent rent, in the UK...forget it, you've no chance.

The bunching of people tends to give the impression of overpopulation, japan and the UK are probably 2 of the worst culprits.

I know what you're saying about the bunching of people making it look overpopulated, but we are very densely populated. I think it's important to preserve the remaining space for our native flora and fauna. We have a moral duty to do so imho, but I am a tree-hugger.

Anyway, our weather is grey and each summer is a disappointment. It must be a bit of a letdown when people realise just how depressing our weather really is.

LesleyPumpshaft wrote:
afuckingmen lesley.

diamondgeezer wrote:
Indeed
Where the EDL/BNP lot supposedly go wrong is targetting immigrants and not the fucked up non-collective representation of ONE half of the labour market (in this cas the supplier).

I say supposed because so many of them fuckwits actually strobgly support the establishment (hence the flags). They use the immigrant population problem just like the ruthless employers do: as a wedge.

If you take away peoples national identity & crush them economically, what happens? Extremism raises its ugly head.

History teaches us this lesson, and the EU has learnt it well....its happening (again) all over Europe now, directly because of EU policy.

Working class -v- working class = only ever one winner.

Hint* it ain't the working class!

diamondgeezer wrote:
I would agree with your second point but your first raises some questions (i.e. national idenity)

I identify with my origins only in the sense of my origins. By which I mean "here I came from and what made me what I am".

NOT as a destination or a be-all and end-all of what I will identify with later.

It is what I can bring to other paralellel identities, not in competition with them.

YOu're a very open minded lad, so I think you get this.

In fact IME my sense of my cultural identity has been made sharper and clearere with contact with other paralell identities

It is the bottle of wine that I take to the party.

I want everybody to try it and not forget it, but it does not define my presence at the party.

Likewise I want to try out theirs.

Perhaps it is my musical background that has formed my opinion his way.

A folk festival in Billingham ata young age: loved to see everybody's contribution but anted to make my/our own.

All the buy to let landlords are doing well out of it too. They can pack more people in and even get money for garden sheds and garages.

Yes I do get what you are saying there mikey, and I agree.

If I moved to Portugal, I too would be 'bringing my own bottle of wine to the party', and ofc sampling theirs. Otherwise, what would be the point?

BUT....I would always bear in mind who's party it is I'm at.

Europe is made up of national identities that each nation is justifiably proud of and understandably wishes to keep....not just one homogenised mass of people. But that's what the EU is attempting to turn us into.

diamondgeezer wrote:
Has your sense of national identity ever been infringed upon?

If so, how?

oioioi wrote:
It has been, and is being, deliberately, by means of uncontrolled Mass Immigration.

Levenshulme where I live, walk down the high street nowadays and you'd hardly recognise you were in England. Lesley mentioned ''Warsaw-on Rye'' where she is.

Dress it up how you like, but it causes resentment when things get to that level. In any country.

diamondgeezer wrote:
I don't really have a sense of national identity. Manc yes, Brit...apparently.

In what sense have you lost your national identity? Merely by seeing people you don't identify with nationally?

If that you mean it is intentionally and even provokingly divisive then yes.

But it is niot unjust, in itself DG.

And apart from that, we are probably on cpmmon ground.

oioioi wrote:
Hang on oi.
Provinialism and nationalim are the same thing on a different scale.

I suggest lloking at it tempotally and not geographicallly.

As much as the past is a foreign culture, so is the future.

I suggest looking to welcoming fellow allies be they polish, greek, Britisish or Asian.

And that is not to say than the foreign rich cunts are our "friends" cos they are just as bad as our own.

Tis the selfish powerful and rich. Not the foreign that fuck us up.

There is no escape

As far as I'm concerned, a nation is a construct which is a powerful tool that is used against those within, as well as externally.

oioioi wrote:
Me personally? I'm not bothered by the loss of national identity as such (possibly because I don't particularly miss the 'England' that I grew up in anyway)....however that fact doesn't mean its not being infringed upon does it?

And ofc, it does bother other people. Economic implications apart, they resent ''feeling like foreigners in their own country'' etc.

Are you telling me it doesn't bother the Greeks? It obviously does, otherwise Golden Dawn wouldn't be becoming so prominent over there would they.

www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/article...winner_feature.shtml

Had a beer or several with yon chap....

diamondgeezer wrote:
Me personally? I'm not bothered by the loss of national identity as such (possibly because I don't particularly miss the 'England' that I grew up in anyway)....however that fact doesn't mean its not being infringed upon does it?

And ofc, it does bother other people.

Are you telling me it doesn't bother the Greeks? It obviously does, otherwise Golden Dawn wouldn't be becoming so prominent over there would they.[/quote]

What is being infringed upon and how?
Yes, some Greeks are as susceptible as some other people who identify themselves by the bit of dirt they came from.
They are free to be as Greek as they want.
You are as free to be as Brit as you want.

Show me otherwise.

I think we mean well, in my honest opinion.

And I dont think that addressing population logistics, free from racial discrimination, is in itsefl racist.

Where I look is the bias and the motivation.

At the end of the day, we who pick up the crumbs from the feasting , arebonded much more than any pigment. If there were any such a thing.

THose that fight for their simarlly couloured matsers are the real blood traitors.

because their treachery is in starvation, death and blood.

Choice now

Time is short