So, the Conservatives are in power, just as I warned. People have not heeded my advice and the Conservatives find themselves in Downing Street, in a pathetically insecure power-sharing agreement with Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats. The major result of the General Election was that there really were no winners, hence the hung parliament. People want Labour out- always the way after a three term Government- but when this happened to John Major’s Tories, New Labour stormed to a majority victory. Considering that, on May 6th, Cameron couldn’t even muster up an overall majority; this shows that the public did not see them as a viable alternative. And Nick Clegg, once touted as the Lib Dem leader who would achieve the biggest gains in the party’s recent history, ended up hated by party members, remembered as the leader who sold out and did a deal, not with Labour, whose interests match theirs closely, but of the Tories. He will always be remembered as the Liberal Democrat leader who acted as Cameron’s stooge, propping up a Conservative government that the people really do not want.
However, this is not the worst occurrence since that fateful Friday night, when it was announced that Gordon Brown would be resigning from the post of Prime Minister. They have already shown themselves to be horrifically undemocratic, changing the law from the approval of 50% of MPs being required to trigger a general election, to 55%. Considering that 47% of MPs in the House of Commons are Conservatives, this means that, even if every single MP, from every other party, requested a General Election, this would only amount to 53%, not enough to result in an election. Forget the media’s hysteria about Brown’s supposed clinging on to power, within days of taking office, Cameron has already severely trumped it. William Hague might argue that this achieves ‘stability’, he might point to the 5% pay cut MPs have taken since Cameron took office, but the reality of the situation is that these actions are undemocratic and dictatorial. Add this to the fact that the new Equalities Minister, Theresa May, has an atrocious record on homosexual and transgender rights, and it is fair to suggest that, as in the Johnson Mayoralty of London, this Conservative administration has already made quite a controversial and unwanted splash, less than a week after taking office.
The aforementioned ‘selling out’ of the Liberal Democrats is illustrated perfectly by one particularly agreement they have made with the Conservatives. Traditionally a party against nuclear power and Britain’s nuclear ‘deterrent’ (a contradiction in terms in my opinion), the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, has agreed that nuclear power plants will still be built, so long as public money is not spent in doing it. Not only does this lessen the role of the state in controlling what goes on in this country, allowing private investors (i.e. the rich) a free rein to do what they like, but it also doesn’t address the primary issue. Whether or not it is public money that is used to build the nuclear plants, the fact remains that they will still be being built, something the Lib Dems are supposedly against. Why exactly have they got themselves into this alliance with the Tories, when the Tories are one of the parties it is hardest to equate Lib Dem policies and values with? The protests outside Lib Dem Headquarters illustrated just to what extent the party’s core support (in which I do not count myself) is against the current state of affairs. I would suggest that this is positive, because, the sooner this coalition falls apart, the sooner there will be another general election. Personally, I think that, when that day comes, Labour will win the most seats, but probably not an overall majority; they will then form a much more comfortable coalition with the Liberals, hopefully leading the Tories to another extended spell in the wilderness.
Wednesday 19 May 2010
Responses to some stupid Facebook comments
Just a quick article on some of the more amusingly unintelligent comments that surface on all the ‘proud to be English’ Facebook groups.
Firstly, it’s hysterical that, in the ‘If you’re in England, speak English’ groups, the entire population appears to have a ridiculously poor grasp of the language.
“Cumon Dont You Just Hate It Wen foreigners Come To England And Speak Their Own Language!”
Ignoring the awful grammar and the random tendency to Capitalise The First Letter Of Every Word, which meant that it probably took whatever degenerate wrote this about three hours to manage it, this is a recurring theme in groups like this. Personally, I feel such ‘logic’ is deeply flawed. I agree that anyone who goes to live in a particular country should, in an effort to blend in with the locals, learn to speak the language, but I wouldn’t extend that to attempting to stop these people from speaking another language, even in public. The supposed reasons for this leave me in hysterical laughter; usually the reason given is because they might be plotting something. Well, so might someone speaking in code, but we don’t harass everyone on public transport who we don’t fully understand the words of!
THIS is an actual quote: “I'm sick of foreigners talking then laughing, like they're laughing at you and you have know idea what they said”
Astounding.
“remember that we are english by the grace of god,”
No, officially, we are not English at all, there isn’t even a country called England. We are not British by the grace of God either; we are British because we happened, by nothing more than blind chance, to be born here. Or, of course, because we moved here and got a passport. But don’t tell that to the population of those groups, they won’t like it!
“Our current government is more willing to put every other country before that of the English.”
Is this person seriously suggesting that the government elected to look after the interests of this country in particular (a concept that I, incidentally, I am against at any rate) actually looks SPECIFICALLY AFTER THE INTERESTS OF EVERY OTHER COUNTRY INSTEAD? The entire concept is laughable. The reality of the situation is that, instead of just saying ‘f*** everyone else-only the British matter’, this government is, to a small extent, recognising that everyone matters and, in a situation relating to immigration, both sides must make compromises and respect the other.
“Our own skilled unemployed struggle for employment whilst company’s employ foreign labour to replace them.”
Really? Most of the people in these groups cannot even manage to tie their own shoelaces, let alone do something that could cause them to be branded ‘skilled’. Likewise, throwing around the word ‘great’ all the time actually shows their insecurity. I do not feel worthless when I recognise that the place I have been born is no more or less great than any other; the population of this country has, in the past, done positive and negative things for the wider world.
“As Britons, we have our own culture”
Actually, we don’t have one culture; we have many here in Britain. I do not have the same culture as the next person who was born here, and so on and so on… So, the notion that immigrants bring a culture that is foreign and dangerous to ‘our own’ is completely incorrect, because there are many currently present in the first place, so what is the problem with adding a few more?
“If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.”
This quote probably requires one of the shortest responses. It is simply untrue. Aside from the fact that, as I have already illustrated, there is no ‘our culture’, 45% of people in this country officially do not believe in God. We are one of the most atheist (but not yet secular) countries in the world. Any other completely rubbish statements these people see fit to make?
“We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change,”
Ditto
I was laughing pretty hard when I looked at all these and I hope they gave you a chuckle too. The overriding message to take from this is, before you start bitching about how people do not speak English, learn to speak English yourself. Before you complain that immigrants are ‘taking our jobs’, acquire some skills that make you more qualified to do those jobs than the immigrants. Because, if these people who are more qualified than you are as dreadful as you say they are, what does that make you?
Firstly, it’s hysterical that, in the ‘If you’re in England, speak English’ groups, the entire population appears to have a ridiculously poor grasp of the language.
“Cumon Dont You Just Hate It Wen foreigners Come To England And Speak Their Own Language!”
Ignoring the awful grammar and the random tendency to Capitalise The First Letter Of Every Word, which meant that it probably took whatever degenerate wrote this about three hours to manage it, this is a recurring theme in groups like this. Personally, I feel such ‘logic’ is deeply flawed. I agree that anyone who goes to live in a particular country should, in an effort to blend in with the locals, learn to speak the language, but I wouldn’t extend that to attempting to stop these people from speaking another language, even in public. The supposed reasons for this leave me in hysterical laughter; usually the reason given is because they might be plotting something. Well, so might someone speaking in code, but we don’t harass everyone on public transport who we don’t fully understand the words of!
THIS is an actual quote: “I'm sick of foreigners talking then laughing, like they're laughing at you and you have know idea what they said”
Astounding.
“remember that we are english by the grace of god,”
No, officially, we are not English at all, there isn’t even a country called England. We are not British by the grace of God either; we are British because we happened, by nothing more than blind chance, to be born here. Or, of course, because we moved here and got a passport. But don’t tell that to the population of those groups, they won’t like it!
“Our current government is more willing to put every other country before that of the English.”
Is this person seriously suggesting that the government elected to look after the interests of this country in particular (a concept that I, incidentally, I am against at any rate) actually looks SPECIFICALLY AFTER THE INTERESTS OF EVERY OTHER COUNTRY INSTEAD? The entire concept is laughable. The reality of the situation is that, instead of just saying ‘f*** everyone else-only the British matter’, this government is, to a small extent, recognising that everyone matters and, in a situation relating to immigration, both sides must make compromises and respect the other.
“Our own skilled unemployed struggle for employment whilst company’s employ foreign labour to replace them.”
Really? Most of the people in these groups cannot even manage to tie their own shoelaces, let alone do something that could cause them to be branded ‘skilled’. Likewise, throwing around the word ‘great’ all the time actually shows their insecurity. I do not feel worthless when I recognise that the place I have been born is no more or less great than any other; the population of this country has, in the past, done positive and negative things for the wider world.
“As Britons, we have our own culture”
Actually, we don’t have one culture; we have many here in Britain. I do not have the same culture as the next person who was born here, and so on and so on… So, the notion that immigrants bring a culture that is foreign and dangerous to ‘our own’ is completely incorrect, because there are many currently present in the first place, so what is the problem with adding a few more?
“If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.”
This quote probably requires one of the shortest responses. It is simply untrue. Aside from the fact that, as I have already illustrated, there is no ‘our culture’, 45% of people in this country officially do not believe in God. We are one of the most atheist (but not yet secular) countries in the world. Any other completely rubbish statements these people see fit to make?
“We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change,”
Ditto
I was laughing pretty hard when I looked at all these and I hope they gave you a chuckle too. The overriding message to take from this is, before you start bitching about how people do not speak English, learn to speak English yourself. Before you complain that immigrants are ‘taking our jobs’, acquire some skills that make you more qualified to do those jobs than the immigrants. Because, if these people who are more qualified than you are as dreadful as you say they are, what does that make you?
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