THE BRITISH THREAD II

Not exactly. I'm saying there was no Queen Elizabeth I of Great Britain until 1953, so they numbered her (deliberately and arrogantly) wrong.

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Apparently the outcome, as has been exhaustively explained lately, will have a profound effect on England, whatever happens.
So sick or not, you should take an interest.
Maybe there's grounds for another armed invasion to annexe the blighters again.

We don't want an invasion, we want effective borders with passport controls.

I hear that the mayor of Calais wants those for England too, sooner the better.

No one's forcing you to stay in England.

This has got rather personal. If you think back, you will remember that I am a natural "No" voter, if I only had a vote.
Have you got Romeo writing your stuff now?

You started off by attacking English arrogance, and I've had a bellyful of the Scottish campaign. I always knew the Scots didn't like us, now I understand how much they hate us. The message has got through.

Scotland has taken English goodwill for granted, the English have bent over backwards to accommodate the Scots. When I was teaching in Essex during the World Cup I remember the kids waving English and Scottish flags. That would not happen today. The message has got home loud and clear.

Alex Salmond was talking about "friendly relations" continuing, well I've seen precious little of that from this side of the border. If Scotland goes independent expect England to play hardball with the Scots, there will be no currency union and there will be policed borders. I wouldn't be surprised if those were manifesto commitments before the next general election.

I actually asked why our queen has been given the wrong number.
What is your explanation of that, if it's different from mine?

But Wee Eck has gone on record to say she'll still be able to take her holidays at Balmoral.
I imagine she'll be able to keep her estate there. Maybe the rent will go up a bit.

You probably mean British and Scottish flags.
What proportion of the English population, before this year and even now, identify the Union Flag (the "Union Jack") as the flag of England?
95%? Even more?

It's arrogance closely allied with ignorance. It's not attractive. You should look to the beam in your own eye.

I don't give a monkeys about the Royal family. I believe you've just been on holiday to Cornwall, but on your return you don't talk about your holiday, but about something you dislike about English people, our supposed arrogance.

We would be less arrogant if you told us what to do, like adopting Scottish regnal numbers and allowing an independent Scotland to dictate currency union and open borders.

I'm sick of our politicians constantly kowtowing to the Scots, and Alex Salmond telling us that refusing to enter a currency union would be a betrayal of the Scottish people. So what? If Scotland goes independent the English owe Scotland nothing. No currency union/controlled borders and a refusal to allow Scotland to join the EU/NATO unless it honours its debt obligations, (like bailing out RBS for starters.) Any default should be registered with agencies like Moodys. All Scots, like other foreigners, should be required to carry a passport or be deported back. Let's face it half of the winos on the streets all have Scottish accents, we could do without them for a start.

No I do not. I mean exactly what I said. English flags.

and Scottish flags.


And you have the brass neck to call us arrogant. I've never told you what you really mean.

I think you're being disingenuous. You (and your pupils, presumably) must therefore have been in the 5% of English folks who, prior to the National Front assuming the Union Jack was theirs and stood for what they believe in, knew that the Union Flag was a flag representing the union of three (later four) countries and is not the English national flag. We never saw a cross of St George until the NF did that. Never. English folk think the flag is theirs.

Why do you think Queen Elizabeth II was not properly numbered? King James VI of Scotland became King James I of Great Britain; the precedent could not be clearer, wouldn't you agree?

I really can't believe it's not Romeo writing this stuff.
The Cornish people are pretty pissed too, they'll be next banging on the gates of Westminster.
You know there are more pandas in Scotland than Tory MPs. Mrs Thatcher and Sir Keith Joseph, remember them, used the bonanza from the North Sea to dismantle British manufacturing and break the power of the unions.
Tory MPs are not popular up there.
If the British Labour Party could get a grip, the attraction of the Independence option would be much less potent.
There are two good articles in The Guardian today about this.

Queens Elizabeth I of England and Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
Both are distinguished by their ordinals, very similar for instance King Alfonso XI of Castile and Alfonso XII of Spain.

The "Elisabeth case" was settled in MacCormick v Lord Advocate (That Wikipedia report gives some more explanations as well as links.)

You can make up figures all you want, but I've never met anyone who thought the Union Jack was the English flag.

YouGov: What does the Union Jack mean to you?