BS: Words of wisdom from Hilary Benn!

Subject: BS: Words of wisdom from Hilary Benn!
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 06:27 AM

1. A thread not about why leaving the EU is a bad idea. We’ve made that argument and we haven’t changed our minds, but we lost. It’s happening. So instead, a few reflections on this moment for those who will be mourning and celebrating in almost equal measure tonight.

2. Britain was always a pragmatic rather than an ideological EU member state. We joined late and left early, but we will still be Europeans.

3. Our friends, neighbours and trading partners across the English Channel will still be our friends, neighbours and trading partners and that’s why we need to negotiate a close economic relationship for the years ahead.

4. This will be the most important priority over the next 11 months because all of us, especially businesses, will need to know what future we should plan for.

5. Britain is a great country and national pride is something that we can celebrate together. But that is different from a nationalism which divides - us versus them. So let us embrace our interdependence as human beings who share a small and fragile planet.

6. There has been so much debate about sovereignty, but it’s how we use it that matters. We never ceased to be a sovereign country, as the influence we had as a member state and the fact that we are now leaving both show.

7. For 47 years we chose to exercise our sovereignty in cooperation with other European countries and the need to do that will not disappear tomorrow. So let us find ways of counteracting the loss of influence that is one of the consequence of leaving.

8. Think about the great challenges we face as a world. Tackling climate change. Trying to contain threats to peace and security. Deciding the rules of international trade. Dealing with the movement of human beings across the globe or new disease outbreaks.

9. How can we best deal with all of these things? By working with others as we build alliances and promote our values.

10. And the EU’s future? It will evolve and we should wish it well. After all it has succeeded in doing something extraordinary in preventing a return to the conflicts of the past that claimed the lives of generations of young Europeans, including so many of our own citizens.

11. A final thought. Those of us who mourn tonight were often wrongly said to be pessimists about about our country’s future. I think the contrary is true for it is when we are confident about ourselves that we are able to reach out and engage with others.

12. And in that same spirit, however we feel tonight, that is what we must now together do.

Subject: RE: BS: Words of wisdom from Hilary Benn!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 06:35 AM

Even those who crow about winning have lost. They've lost just as much as we remainers have lost. The difference is that we know it now and they are very shortly going to find out.

Subject: RE: BS: Words of wisdom from Hilary Benn!
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 07:44 AM

Exactly!!

Subject: RE: BS: Words of wisdom from Hilary Benn!
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 03:47 PM

I was astonished and disgusted to see something online just now. It's a printed notice on a sheet of A4 paper, stuck to a main door in a block of flats. Words to the effect that all residents who do not have English as their first language should 'go home', and after Brexit they are no longer wanted here, etc etc (other racist, xenophobic stuff)
What made me choke on my tea was the fact it was posted on the apartment's main door in...NORWICH!!!
I could hardly believe it, as we've always found Norwich (and Norfolk in general) to be free of any racism. Absolutely horrifying.

Subject: RE: BS: Words of wisdom from Hilary Benn!
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 04:51 PM

Gee it sounds
like another
Brexit thread
to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Words of wisdom from Hilary Benn!
From: Raggytash
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 04:57 PM

Sadly Eliza I think the poster is only the beinning of such things.

I fully expect that such will become 'acceptable' in some quarters.

I would go further and say it may well become the 'norm'

Divide and conquer comes to mind.

Again, sadly, some on here deem this to be OK, I for one, do not.

Subject: RE: BS: Words of wisdom from Hilary Benn!
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 04:59 PM

It stinks.

Subject: RE: BS: Words of wisdom from Hilary Benn!
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 05:29 PM

It does indeed Backwoodsman. It was soon torn down by the Council officials,(the flats were council ones) as it had been stuck there by some private individual.
My husband's English is still a bit dodgy, bless him. But we've never had anyone say 'he ought to go home'.
I do hope that all people will be able to pull together amicably post-Brexit. Everyone has something to contribute and offer in our society.

Subject: RE: BS: Words of wisdom from Hilary Benn!
From: The Sandman
Date: 02 Feb 20 - 04:34 AM

i think part of the problem is the low standard of education.

Subject: RE: BS: Words of wisdom from Hilary Benn!
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 02 Feb 20 - 05:02 AM

If you come to Croydon (perish the thought!!!) you can listen to the sons and daughters of white English folks attempting to speak English gone wrong with their "bruvaaaaaaars and sistaaaaaaaars"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Words of wisdom from Hilary Benn!
From: Senoufou
Date: 02 Feb 20 - 05:41 AM

Hahahahaa Bonzo! I just love that accent, especially if they end each phrase with 'innit'. ("Lee Nelson's Well Good Show. Kwaliteeeee Innit?")

There's a TV advert on at the moment for GoDaddy (I believe they create websites) and they've dubbed Innitspeak over some conversations among actors in a cafe etc. Very very funny. And also the Dizzy Rascal advert for Ladbroke's Casino.

I think it would be dreadfully boring if everyone spoke with exactly the same RP accent, like cloned robots.
My husband makes our village shopkeeper die laughing when he bursts into the shop with, "'Ello. 'Ow are you? Aaaar yew orlroit bor?" He has a weird mix of African, French and Norfolk speech!

Subject: RE: BS: Words of wisdom from Hilary Benn!
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 02 Feb 20 - 09:23 AM

That must be hilarious !! We have a plethora of accents within 50 yards of our house - Kenya/Asian over the road, and next door to them Hong Kong, next door to our left we have a super family from Sierra Leone - he speaks full RP but his wife who lived in the USA for many years, speaks with Ohio accent!

Subject: RE: BS: Words of wisdom from Hilary Benn!
From: Senoufou
Date: 02 Feb 20 - 09:29 AM

Oh I'd be in heaven there Bonzo! I seem to have an obsession with this (always have, and love trying to imitate accents, not in a mocking way but just to see if I can do it)
Trouble with my husband's English is that his colleagues tease him (so does our lovely Norfolk neighbour) and they teach him loads of naughty words, which for some reason he learns very quickly. He's recently learned some very rude expressions for gay men such as 'bum bandit' and 'uphill gardener'. I'm mortified when he comes out with this stuff!

Subject: RE: BS: Words of wisdom from Hilary Benn!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Feb 20 - 10:16 AM

A few weeks back it was decreed that we can tolerate one UK political thread at a time. I can move this content onto the existing thread or close it, your call. (If we ever reach a point where politics can be discussed calmly and without all of the insults and name-calling that may change.)

Subject: RE: BS: Words of wisdom from Hilary Benn!
From: Iains
Date: 02 Feb 20 - 11:38 AM

There were far more sensible words of wisdom from Bennie minor's pater:

I took the view that having fought [Europeans in the Second World War] that we should now work with them, and co-operate, and that was my first thought about it. Then how I saw how the European Union was developing, it was very obvious that what they had in mind was not democratic. ... And the way that Europe has developed is that the bankers and the multinational corporations have got very powerful positions, and if you come in on their terms, they will tell you what you can and cannot do. And that is unacceptable. My view about the European Union has always been not that I am hostile to foreigners, but that I am in favour of democracy ... I think they're building an empire there, they want us to be a part of their empire and I don't want that.