BS: Post-Referendum Racism

Subject: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 25 Jun 16 - 03:54 PM

This is what you voted for. Are you proud?



Well?

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Jun 16 - 04:06 PM

I think a lot of people are beginning to realise that they voted unwisely. There is no prospect whatsoever of immigration numbers coming down, and none of the lying triumvirate (Farage, Gove, Johnson, as if I have to spell it out) will now give any sort of prediction, promise or forecast as to when numbers will come down. Gosh, how different from a couple of days ago. Yet that's what the campaign was about and that's what many voters were suckered into supporting. Interesting times still to come.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 25 Jun 16 - 04:24 PM

I usually wouldn't give the mail the time of day, but watch this space as I will be sharing other examples of racist behavior that come to light through my other social media.

I am generally worried that we may be on the verge of a growth in neo-fascism that is being stoked by the political far right.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: akenaton
Date: 25 Jun 16 - 04:56 PM

Get a fucking grip!
Some nutter leaving racist cards on people's doorsteps? how many were there 2, 10. I don't see any signs of Fascism except the lunatic fringe which is always with us.
Lunatic fringes come in all political persuasions, settle down and take you beating like men. Your ideology has been questioned and about bloody time......you have bullied and intimidated for much too long and the dispossessed are showing their teeth.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Jack Campin
Date: 25 Jun 16 - 05:42 PM

Eastern Europeans are an obvious target, and the fascist victory is obviously going to send the message that refugees have no rights whatever.

A less publicized target: the Irish. How long before they get it? What happens to Ireland when large numbers of them are forced out of the UK?

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Pete from seven stars link
Date: 25 Jun 16 - 06:01 PM

I think some of you are paranoid. You seem to be putting two and teo together and making two thousand. But I do hope that any future got will continue to shelter those fleeing war and violent persecution. But whatever limit may be set , it does not constitute nazism/racism.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Jack Campin
Date: 25 Jun 16 - 06:10 PM

Jo Cox isn't around any more to tell you different.

People who launch disavowable death squads of psycho killers know what they're doing.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Greg F.
Date: 25 Jun 16 - 06:14 PM

it does not constitute nazism/racism.

Give it a chance, pete, its early days yet.

Now, about those witches.......

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: akenaton
Date: 25 Jun 16 - 06:21 PM

Sounds like wishful thinking Greg?

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Greg F.
Date: 25 Jun 16 - 08:31 PM

Just give it time, Ake- its early days yet.

"It ain't over 'til its over". - Yogi Berra

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 12:51 AM

Nor are paranoid squeals over, from defeated archetypal leftie wankers who fail to get their fatuous paranoid messages across, it would appear. As Ake so rightly sez, "Get a grip!", you Shaws & Co-operators 'n' such; and stop demonstrating your 'oh-so-democratic' credentials by going into coniptions & objecting vociferously whenever the δεμος fail to conform to your prescriptive doctrinaire idiocies. There is something inenarrably pathetic about the way you lot always object to election results which happen to go against your side as being somehow unacceptable, and the way you go on striking these airs of outraged morality, as if only lefties should have democratic rights.

Should be ashamed of your stupid selves; but that'll be the day...!

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 02:16 AM

... always reminded of Kingsley Amis's brilliant summary of these, in essay "Why Lucky Jim Turned Right" as

"the massed choir of half a million voices crying in the wilderness"

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 03:19 AM

MGM - when you go off on one of those patronising self indulgent word wanks
it achieves nothing but making you look a bit ridiculous...

Which is a shame because you are one of the mudcatters I respect...



Reminds me.. it was hilarious watching David Starkey on TV the other night being put in his place by a young "Remain" supporter
who object to being so obnoxiously talked over and belittled.

Starkey shut up and sulked timidly for the rest of the debate.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 03:53 AM

"Get a fucking grip!
No Ake - you get a fucking grip
It's about time you came to term with your own racist and homophobic rants.
You are the one who constantly attacks sizeable minorities on this forum, describing one lot as spongers and the other as a disease carrying menace.
These are not a few nutter - they now represent a large section of the British people, tanks to people like you, they probably have for some time.
A couple of years ago a poll carried out in Britain suggested that one in three British people hold racist views - a sizeable "lunatic fringe"   
RACIST BRITAIN
"Should be ashamed of your stupid selves;"
No Mike - you should be ashamed of yourself - Mrs Suss'e plea of "never again, not to anybody" seems to have fallen on deaf ears as far as you are concerned.
This referendum was fought on the basis of pure racist hatred
The political or economic arguments never made sense from day one and the immediate outcome, with Britain running around like a headless chicken administering damage limitation, has proved what a dangerous move leaving was - not one of you has had the bottle to address the fact that it stands to have threatened to destroy The United Kingdom within a day - not one!"
You peoples' response to The refugee crisis, largely caused by the West's predatory attitude to the Third World' is comparable to that taken by the Nazis in pre-war Germany - there it was the Jews who were the scapegoats for German ills, here it is largely the Muslims, with a sprinkling of Poles to add a little flavour.
The world was treated to a display of Little England hating at its very worst.
Europe once again is once again threatened by the rise of fascism and you say nothing - history repeating itself with a vengeance.
Already, there are signs that many of the more astute Brexits are having second thought - that's how it appears from here anyway.
Not the rightist die-hards like you pair, it seems.
You seem to have a very short memory, or maybe comfort takes precedence over history
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 04:44 AM

Thanks for your respect, pfr. But I can't allow its existence to influence or inhibit my views or expressions.

"I am not bound to please thee with my answers"
The Merchant of Venice IV, i

Regards
≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 05:06 AM

Anyhow, unspecific assertions cut little ice. My comments, revisited, strike me as perfectly cogent and efficiently communicated. Pray expound on or demonstrate wherein or whereby you consider them to have made me appear 'ridiculous', or what constitutes this alleged masturbatory element you purport to observe in them..

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Raggytash
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 05:25 AM

I wonder why the phrase "Turgid bombast" comes to mind.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 06:59 AM

Your pompous avoidance of the realities of this appalling decision is an indication that you know them to be a fact and don't care.
Shame on you again.
Britain has become the doorkeeper to modern European fascism - shame on you again
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 07:54 AM

How clever of you, good old Jim, to know with such certainty what goes on in my 〠, what I really know and think.

And for your next trick...?

Sorry if pfr & Raggy [in't it time you trimmed those bloody whiskers!] & Jim & Old·Uncle·Tom·Cobbleigh·&·all don't like my literary style; but it's made me a fair bit of dosh over the years from The Times, The Guardian, Melody Maker, Private Eye, Folk Review, TES, THES, TLS, The Irish Press, Glasgow Herald, The Oldie, Record Mirror, Plays & Players, The Republic of Columbus Indiana ...

So live with it, darlings!

Luvyazall justasame

≈M≈
(Life Associate of the Institute of Journalists)

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Raggytash
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 08:12 AM

Are we supposed to be impressed ?

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 08:19 AM

Who gives a flying one if you are 'impressed'?

Go away and trim your silly whiskers, you boring little man...

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Thompson
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 08:37 AM

Without joining in the hysterical language that's being used in this thread, I'd like to point out that the media in Britain, including the advertising industry, has been sitting firmly on the nationalist/fascist horse in the last couple of years. Every second TV ad - for beer, or for washing-up liquid or for strange cooking methods - refers to 'British' or 'the nation'. And, worryingly, maps of 'the nation' increasingly show the islands of Britain and Ireland together as one unit. No thank you.

Here's an example; it's a jokey ad, but it expresses the tone.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Raggytash
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 09:17 AM

If we're not supposed to be impressed why on earth do you keep repeating how good you are supposed to be.

In a juvenile I would suggest it was insecurity.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 10:03 AM

Political Race riots are not a hypothetical in the USA. If Britain wants a taste there are some things you should think about.

Once a mob is given permission, rules of civility cease.
Even the normally civil people will participate by looking on and not lift a finger to save the life of another being beaten to death right in front of them.

I have witnessed this phenomenon from both sides, victim and spectator.

The hard core give themselves permission but when an entire society is given permission to defend their fears and prejudice the society has a mob quality that is sudden and surprising.

No one is entirely immune. You behave like a soldier in actual combat for the first time and it is different than you ever dreamed.
Remember what happened to the Tutsi? The genocide was the result of high-risk politics in Rwanda, rather than some revival of "ancient tribal hatreds". .
Fast lane fascism takes as little as 2 years to take hold.
Remember how fast the Hutus

Paranoia is not the issue, it is naiveté

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 10:16 AM

"How clever of you, good old Jim, "
And how cowardly of you to resort to insults rather than respond to what is hapening - or am I making it all up - did I dream that Scotland have called for a referendum and Ireland is considering one.
Are the extreme right wing organisations not gathering their forces to move into Europe, are firms not considering moving out, is Marine Le Pen an erotic fantasy....
What here?
It really can't happen here - can it - not in good ol' Britain.
One of the times when your response acts as confirmation - the right is always right as far as you're concerned..
"Go away and trim your silly whiskers, you boring little man..."
Sad to see someone who showed so much promise lapse into second childhood
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Greg F.
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 10:25 AM

Which is a shame because you [EmGee] are one of the mudcatters I respect...

I heaven's name, WHY?

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 12:19 PM

Agreed, Greg. You earn respect. You don't get it automatically just because you're ancient and can write flowery bollocks.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 12:26 PM

It sounds like the cart was before the horse with that referendum - many people didn't understand the racial/social consequences until after the vote. In a radio interview I heard one young woman say that she didn't think her vote would count, so on a whim she voted "exit," but that wasn't what she really wanted. Does she get a do-over? Is it time to pull up her big girl socks and live with the consequences, or will enough people finally realize they didn't take it seriously and ask for a new vote? Referendums are a way to learn the public opinion but it could become a huge see-saw tipping first one way, then the other, depending on passion vs fatigue with the topic. And if they are binding or not. Britain's younger people just learned a difficult lesson - if you don't vote, you lose.

Get your popcorn and settle in to watch, there are going to be some interesting political histrionics on the world stage.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 12:35 PM

Can't help it... it's the way my provincial respectable working class council estate family brought me up...

"Respect education, achievement, and your elders"

.. of course that upbringing & culture also instilled a healthy sense of mockery for pompous self righteous condescending twattery.... 😜


Sadly since the thatcherite destruction of 'labour heartland' heavy industry and social cohesion
in the regions that are now such sinkholes for despair and thuggish xenophobia,
that culture that produced me is now almost extinct....

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Thompson
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 12:37 PM

Ireland considering a referendum? News to me! If there were a referendum here, it would certainly be 99% for staying in the EU. Plenty's wrong with the EU - it can be a bully to its weaker members - but that's fixable. A lot of countries floating free with no trading area and making deals with each other and stabbing each other in the back? A lot worse.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Thompson
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 01:40 PM

I'm reading about horrible things in England. From the Guardian piece 'Racist incidents feared to be linked to Brexit result', some quotes:

==
Fras said the man began quizzing people in the queue about where they were from. "He pointed at another gentleman in front of him and said: 'Where are you from, are you Spanish? Are you Italian? Are you Romanian?' And he said 'No, I'm English'," said Fras.

Fras, a Polish consultant in European educational projects who lives in London, said he was concerned about what incidents like this might mean for those like him who have moved from the EU to Britain.
==
"This evening my daughter left work in Birmingham and saw [a] group of lads corner a Muslim girl shouting 'Get out, we voted leave'," she posted on Twitter.
==
Earlier that day, Faulkner had celebrated the referendum result as a "major victory for the right wing, adding: "Oi Muslims pack your bags".
==
…instances reported of a Polish woman being told to get off a bus and "get packing", of a Polish man being told at an airport that he "shouldn't still be here, that we had voted to be rid of people like him", of a Polish coffee shop worker being jeered at and told "you're going home now" and of Polish children at a primary school crying because they were scared of getting deported from Britain.
==
In a photograph published to Twitter, one man in Romford was shown wearing a T-shirt reading: "Yes! We won! Now send them back".
==
One alleged incident involved men chanting "Out, out, out" at Muslim women and in another he said a man at King's Cross station "yells 'Brexit' in my south Asian friend's face".
==
Daughter tells me someone wrote "[Child's name] go back to Romania" on the wall in the girls toilets at School today.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Greg F.
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 01:52 PM

Yup! Boris Nigel Trumpism is ascendant WORLD-WIDE fer shure!

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 03:55 PM

"If we're not supposed to be impressed why on earth do you keep repeating how good you are supposed to be.
In a juvenile I would suggest it was insecurity"
,..,.,
My goodness, there's profound & perspicacious! Was there ever such a pitiful pathetic piddling piece of penny-in-the-slot pussy-collar-gee?

I'm done here. No reason to put up with abuse from most manifest intellectual inferiors like Raggytwit and GregFatuous and Silli·Shaw.

See you sometime on some other thread.

Maybe.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 03:57 PM

Well this is what the leave campaign homed in on. It was their trump card (allusion fully intended), to pander to the most basic and unreconstructed racist instincts of the British people, and it worked. Without the immigration issue, which is temporary (we were welcoming them with open arms ten years ago), the leave campaign would have been routed. But they played this card with all their night and it worked. Which makes Farage, Gove and Johnson a bunch of lying, racist bastards.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 03:57 PM

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/26/racist-incidents-feared-to-be-linked-to-brexit-result-reported-in-england-and-wa

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 04:02 PM

According to reports from the Cambridge News, a number of cards saying "Leave the EU/No more Polish vermin" in both English and Polish were found outside St Peter's school by teaching assistants and students, including an 11-year-old Polish child, who reported they made him feel "really sad".

Many of the reports of incidents seem to show the mistaken belief that EU citizens living in the UK will be forced to leave the country as a result of the referendum result, with instances reported of a Polish woman being told to get off a bus and "get packing", of a Polish man being told at an airport that he "shouldn't still be here, that we had voted to be rid of people like him", of a Polish coffee shop worker being jeered at and told "you're going home now" and of Polish children at a primary school crying because they were scared of getting deported from Britain.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 04:09 PM

https://www.facebook.com/sarah.leblanc.718/media_set?set=a.10101369198638985&type=3

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Raggytash
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 04:13 PM

I do trust that you keep to that promised MGM.










I can only live in hope.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 04:44 PM

Oh, dear. Whisker-trimming. Enter stage left, Sweeney Todd, Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 05:18 PM

This was more or less on my doorstep

POSK London Retweeted
HammFul MPS ‏@MPSHammFul 6h

2/2 and following the incident in King St #Hammersmith #W6 we have also increased our patrols in the area
41 retweets 20 likes
POSK London Retweeted
HammFul MPS ‏@MPSHammFul 6h

1/2 We are investigating the racially motivated criminal damage on a building in King St #Hammersmith #W6 Any witnesses & info pls call 101
144 retweets 40 likes
POSK London Retweeted
Jakub Krupa ‏@JakubKrupa 4h

Flowers from a local resident who wanted to express sympathy with #PolesinUK after racist incident @posklondon today
41 retweets 79 likes
POSK London Retweeted
Andy Slaughter MP ‏@hammersmithandy 7h

.@posklondon was founded by the generation who fought with Britain against Nazism and who helped build our inclusivity and prosperity 4/4
161 retweets 151 likes
POSK London Retweeted
Andy Slaughter MP ‏@hammersmithandy 7h

We are proud in west London to be the centre for the Polish community in the UK and the home of @posklondon 3/4
129 retweets 134 likes
POSK London Retweeted
Andy Slaughter MP ‏@hammersmithandy 7h

This is an outrageous act that disgusts not only me and the Polish community but everyone in Hammersmith & Fulham. 2/4
115 retweets 101 likes
POSK London Retweeted
Andy Slaughter MP ‏@hammersmithandy 7h

Hammersmith police are investigating graffiti found on the Polish Cultural Centre this morning as racially motivated criminal damage 1/4

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Jun 16 - 04:37 PM

This isn't a thread about the rights and wrongs of Brexit. It's about the nasty upsurge of racism and xenophobia that seems to have been triggered by the campaigning. The kind of people responsible have always been tgere, but there are signs more of them are feeling it's OK to come out and show their true colours.

It's up to tge rest of us to show them that it definitely is not OK. Decent people who voted or campaigned to get out of the EU - and there were planty of them - should feel at least as eager to counter that kind of thing. In fact that is somethinng which could heal some of the deep wounds that have been caused.

There's a symbol that's starting to spread that Might help. People are fastening a safety pin on the lapel - it,s a symbol of solidarity and opposition to racism. Safety pins hold things together. It's got a history actually, though whether thatt,s where the idea came from, or whether its parallel thinking, I don't know. People in Denmark used to pin them on during the occuppation for the same reason.

They used to wear them tucked out of sightmostly. We don't need to. But I've started wearing one. If it catches on, and people know what it means, it could make the place feel feel a

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Jun 16 - 04:40 PM

...feel a little bit safer for people from abroad who are worried about hostile natives.

And I'm making a point of buying bread from a Polish shop. Tastes better too.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Senoufou
Date: 29 Jun 16 - 05:35 PM

I agree with you McGrath, there have always been racists among us, but they seem to have been activated and energised somehow by the result of the referendum.
I'm rather schoolteacherish by nature and being elderly don't much care about being insulted or given a mouthful, so I'd wade in without hesitation if I saw anyone being racially abused in public. I just couldn't turn a blind eye and would have to intervene. No doubt I'd be decked, but we have to get serious with these ignorant bullies.
Luckily, I live in the quiet countryside, but there are racists everywhere sadly.
I think I'll be wearing my safety pin too McGrath. As long as people understand what it means, it would show that I care and would defend anyone if they needed my help.
Having an African-born husband worries me too on his behalf. Although he's a British citizen now with a full UK passport, no doubt the racists would love to have a go at someone like him. I just hope this nasty phase will pass in time and everyone will settle down again!

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Jun 16 - 10:19 PM

It seems to be catching on. As well as going viral in social media it's getting a lot of press coverage - and Piers Morgan has declared it is "utterly absurd" which should actually help. (He sneered it was just a way for people to show they weren't racist - which of course is precisely the point, because it can't be too nice worrying the person next to you is racist, if you're an immigrant liable to get abused. Or in fact, whoever you are.)

The good thing about is, it doesn't matter if you voted in or out, left or right. Just that you aren't despicable. And we could do with something to remind us of something we have in common that's worth holding on to.

Here's a Portuguese ad I liked that is relevant:here

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 30 Jun 16 - 03:29 AM

"Was there ever such a pitiful pathetic piddling piece of penny-in-the-slot pussy-collar-gee?"
In the light of such intellectual depth I'm sure everybody bows to your depth of reasoning.
Perhaps it's time that Britain took a closer look at the detrimental effects of higher education
Please Mike - you are becoming embarrassing.
Posted ths on another thread, but I man an elderly Irishman at a session in Limerick of Tuesday; we were discussing the racist attacks on foreigners by Brexits
He said, "They'll get used to it - we had to".
I'm sure many Jews fleeing to Britain from Nazi Europe would have said something smilar.
As we used to say in Liverpool, "Ding-ding - I'm on the bus", eh Mike?
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Senoufou
Date: 30 Jun 16 - 03:52 AM

I remember in the fifties and early sixties, living in W London, seeing notices in the windows of lodgings: No Blacks No Irish. And, as you say Jim, the poor souls just had to get used to it. My mum was Irish, and she always took care to modify her delightful, soft accent in public to a slightly 'posh' one, which I hated.

I bet these racist warriors wouldn't dare to shout their rubbish at a large group of, say, Muslims in Bradford, or in a pub in Boston where the Polish folk were numerous. From what I've read, they're picking on defenceless solitary individuals. All bullies are cowards inside.

I think it's appalling enough that people are abused in this way, but even more shocking that they become inured and merely suffer in silence. Nowadays there are thankfully laws against evil racist behaviour. But it shouldn't have to get that far, as all of us who deplore it (and I do believe we're in the majority in most areas of UK) should speak out stridently whenever we encounter it.

And Piers Morgan can go and boil his head!

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Senoufou
Date: 30 Jun 16 - 04:01 AM

By the way McGrath, I thought that Portuguese video was absolutely brilliant!

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Thompson
Date: 30 Jun 16 - 04:16 AM

Senoufou, the accent thing is funny. Many years ago I met a teddibly upper-class type, the type of Irish person who has a British RP accent, and hated him on first hearing. My accent immediately became gratingly Dublin, and his more and more awfully-awfully. After about 20 minutes of talking together, and finding that we had mutual enthusiasms and actually rather liked each other, our accents had practically met in the middle!

By the way, I heard Obama speaking today and saying "if Britain leaves the EU". It seems that the political classes are trying to rescue themselves from a disaster.

The British have obviously taken a lesson from the beating given to Greece when the Greeks voted in an anti-austerity government and went straight in to negotiate; by delaying and delaying, they think themselves likely to get a better deal. This may go against them, but it may not.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: Senoufou
Date: 30 Jun 16 - 05:40 AM

My mum was from Cork, and I always loved her accent (and that of all my Irish aunties, of which there were many!) I used to stare at her in disbelief when she adopted this lah-de-dah thing when we were out.
But if someone can't speak as they're accustomed to, for fear of persecution and racism, it's a terrible shame.

My Irish cousin was a nurse in London, and I reckon she was 'accepted' (gee thanks!) because of her caring job. ('You can stay here if you're prepared to wash bottoms and clean up sick'.) I've recently seen similar attitudes expressed about finding carers of the elderly, as 'we Brits' won't want to do it for minimum wages', the inference being that it's good enough for 'them'. Same with the field workers in Lincolnshire, cutting cabbages in the bitter cold.

I once had a long conversation with a dreadful South African old geezer, who was lamenting the dearth of 'Blecks' (his pronunciation) to do the menial jobs around his farm, for the equivalent of a fiver a week. I had to fight the urge to punch the lights out of him. He seemed to think I was ghastly for having a black African husband, the racist pig. But I'm savvy, I listened politely, because if you let them yatter on, you learn an awful lot about this type. And it's not pretty.

Subject: RE: BS: Post-Referendum Racism
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 30 Jun 16 - 07:25 AM

I thought the symbolism of safety pins was that the wearer is someone who it is safe to engage with.