39 grams of hate !

[stnle]

Exactly explain why the Dutch embassy is giving my tax money away on that paper? :confused:

Er is iemand die goede reputatie in het art gebied heeft. Hij probeert heel veel mensen te overtuigen aan zijn krant te werken. Hij krijgt hulp van de art enthousiasts en geld van jullie ambassade. Dan maakt hij een kostelose website, vindt een drukkerij, geeft de krant uit en de art enthousiasts krijgen een middenvinger. :thumbup: So they turn their back on him.:fu:

[Refalm]

Onze overheid ziet zich wel vaker bereid tot het subsidi

[Calum]

ha! refalm! you can't hide behind that esoteric northern european mumbo jumbo now! he's onto you!

[Orethrius]

ha! refalm! you can't hide behind that esoteric northern european mumbo jumbo now! he's onto you!

 Aren't you in Northern Europe?

[pofnlice]

For some reason, the British don't seem to appreciative of the association with Europe...

[piratePenguin]

For some reason, the British don't seem to appreciative of the association with Europe...

Often when people talk about Europe they mean just the mainland.. It could also mean the continent (that's what I always took it to mean and it pissed me off when people spoke of the European Union as just "Europe"), or the member states of the EU.

Britian isn't all that north no matter how you look at it (unless you say western northern).. But neither is the Netherlands. I'd save that spot for Scandinavia. Oh fuck, wikipedia happens to have the answer to it all. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Europe

But I don't think the British are that appreciative of their association with the EU anyhow. There were some disputes about them contributing more money than anyone else to the budget not so long ago, they didn't think it was fair. And they don't use the euro currency, obviously, for some reason...

[Calum]

you know how it pisses you off that people don't know the difference between the EU and europe? it pisses me off similarly when people talk about "british" people's attitude towards something. I think you will find that not only are most (if not all) self admitted "british" people actually english, but that in a large majority of matters, the general consensus in scotland will differ considerably from the general consensus in england.

For example, i have heard that there is a general anti-EU feeling in england, however i have problems believing that this backward empirical and jingoistic attitude is in any way prevalent within scotland.

edit: now i see, the "british" comment comes from pofnlice, everybody's favourite canadian immigrant!

Pofnlice, perhaps your inability to distinguish the difference between scotland and england is a symptom of the fact that news and media in the "united" kingdom tend to get disseminated in a northerly direction only. This is why the whole UK knows what's going on in london, and yet only scotland is aware of what is happening within edinburgh and glasgow. Considering the location of Orkney, where i am from, anybody south of caithness could probably be convinced that dragons live there and the people wear whale skins and burn catholics for warmth, even in the summer.

[yahurd]

here we go again, *roots for calum*

[Laukev7]

Why do so many people consider it 'wrong' to be against the EU? Isn't it like Canadians and Americans being against the North American Union? Personally I don't think there's anything inherently jingoistic about wanting to retain national sovereignty.

[pofnlice]

Calum incorrect...and the Canadien dig was almosat humorous.

See you're jumping again. I have all ready demonstrated I know the difference...end of. Maybe you were adressing that to others.

Birmingham is a very diverse city. Besides English, there are many Asians...probably predominantly so amongst foriegners. I only know one other American. I do However, know and work with many Scottish and Irish. Both of which still seem to not appreciate the association with Europe. They both identify themselves by nation, and do not like being called European. I never asked why, I just found it odd. Now, being in Birmingham also exposes one to the Welsh, who oddly enough, not only seem to loathe the English, also seem to equally detest being called European. Again, they would sooner identify themselves as British rather than European.

I made no comments to the Eu, and I do know the difference between a continent and an attempt at a confederated partnership. And yes, you are correct, England particularly  is complaining about the EU right now mostly, as I understand it, because they did not recieve thier rebate, largly due to France refusing to allow it back as some form of punishment for refusing to adopt the euro...more complicated than that I know, as many EU member nations feel it is unfair England recieve the rebate, but that's about it.

Now if you could explain it to me in Icelandic, I would be appreciative.

[Refalm]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Europe

Hah, so I live in Western Europe afterall

Those Danish people are nice, but talk way to weird to belong to my part of Europe

Why do so many people consider it 'wrong' to be against the EU? Isn't it like Canadians and Americans being against the North American Union? Personally I don't think there's anything inherently jingoistic about wanting to retain national sovereignty.

Here in the Netherlands, 60% of all people voted against a European constitution in a referendum.
RTL Nieuws and NIPO indicated that most of those 60% had voted against it, because they are tired of EU's bullshit and inflation (mainly because of the inflation though).

[Jack2000]

My country's general responce and way of thinking:

Bulgaria did not join the EU,
The EU joined /B/'Algaria!

[Calum]

ok, pofnlice, my comments above weren't all responses to you, so that's fine. still, i would have to question basing the opinion of scotland on the opinion of scots who choose to live in england. Those are two different types of groups. I won't argue on that basis though because it would be splitting hairs and missing the point.

Basically what you have said is perfectly valid, i would say, many scots are apathetic about things like the EU, which are designed to make all our lives better at some point in the future by legislating on the correct shape of bananas and ruling on things in countries that few of the representatives have even visited. But you would be entirely wrong if you honestly thought that the general opinion within scotland was the same as the general opinion within england, about many issues. These issues are diverse. Scotland and england have distinctly separate general opinions on things like how to charge for water services, how to charge income tax, what the national anthem should be, how to deal with the immigration "problem", when the public holidays should be throughout the year. How to legislate for racism, terrorism, privacy and human rights, how subsidies should be divided between certain industries, whether VAT should be charged on fuels, and so on and so on.

Ironically, scotland may finally have a whisker of a chance of getting its independence after 300 years of subjugation, but only because the english are now finally taking an interest in their own national identity.

i personally believe it would be beneficial for scotland *and* england to separate from each other and properly find their own national identities as independent european states, within the EU if they so choose (which would be my preference).