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I am trying to improve your popularity and help you but you always go against me and it doesn’t do you any favours. I had lots of messages in Sweden and in Denmark commenting how horrible you are for always going against me. You don’t want to be hated all over Europe do you?
 
Alan22 said:
Well it started with an event called the Highland clearances, ok I'll spare you shame of oppressive nationhood:)

The main reason, similarly to the Irish, and apart from a shared history of escape from English tyranny, is popularity and all round friendliness, the celtic types are just more welcomed, in communities as much as in pubs, we have a humility that people connect with, and a willing interest in other peoples ways, if for example, you meet a Scottish or Irish person you will notice they typically try to find things in common with you, this is not just a random habit, it is the inherent custom of the conquered, it's a survival strategy, they need to know if you ar friend or foe, you will notice this tiny invisble trait in a more pronounced way in countries that have survived upeaval or injustice, listen for it and it's there, then listen to the average Brit in the same circumstance.
I'll give you a real scenario, Castlevechio in Tuscany, I arrive at a coffee shop in time for the noon bells to sound from hill top villages across the gorge, the priest serving me(it's part of a church) asks where I am from, I say Scotland and strike up a lively conversation, I'm fussy with coffee and that also takes some time, cafe doppio e con latte has to be just right he tells me, this is normal in Italy, introductions and general chat is part of it all and anyone can join in, but sitting right beside me is an English couple with a different outlook on life, they had been sitting waiting and this was making their wait longer, not just but also they percieve it to be rude and they said so, we both apologise and I offer to pay for their coffee, they decline, and in that declining and misunderstanding of just the normal customs they set themselves apart, to sit in silence with their faces tripping them while all around we resume in enjoying the joy of human interaction, they could have accepted our apologies and joined in had lunch on me and been stuck there all day but no, their coffee didn't arrive on time and this was unnacceptible, therefore they must, by habit of nation, go in a very bad mood:)

Apologies for the shamless revenge:D
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I would've liked to have had more time to respond, But I got held up at my local coffee shop
Feeling sure that the Barista would enjoy a discourse with fellow coffee bore. It was with some horror that I realised (a couple of hours later), that I had been holding up the queue !

I did attempt to make amends by offering to buy their coffees, but they assured me that having listened to my instructive exchange on the correct way to make it, they were quite certain that no amount of coffee would succeed in keeping them awake longer. Hey ho, ...... some people are just unsociable I guess. :)
 
carol brown said:
I would've liked to have had more time to respond, But I got held up at my local coffee shop
Feeling sure that the Barista would enjoy a discourse with fellow coffee bore. It was with some horror that I realised (a couple of hours later), that I had been holding up the queue !

I did attempt to make amends by offering to buy their coffees, but they assured me that having listened to my instructive exchange on the correct way to make it, they were quite certain that no amount of coffee would succeed in keeping them awake longer. Hey ho, ...... some people are just unsociable I guess. :)
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Well observed Carol, I think on reflection you may be being to hard on yourself, and you are in fact not boring but Scottish, it's perfectly natural having had several generations of adjustment to English impatience, to assume you are in fact a dull person living among more important people, not so Carol, you are a vibrant and interesting person, the only conclusion I can draw is you are infact Scottish.
 
carol brown said:
Doesn't Rachael Reeves have a very punchy way of talking? It's very like listening to machine gun fire.
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I like Rachael Reeves, it occurs to me that the UK having always had male chancellors they might have missed a gift, I think a tighter grip on the shopping bill might just be a sensible economic policy.
 
Alan22 said:
Well observed Carol, I think on reflection you may be being to hard on yourself, and you are in fact not boring but Scottish, it's perfectly natural having had several generations of adjustment to English impatience, to assume you are in fact a dull person living among more important people, not so Carol, you are a vibrant and interesting person, the only conclusion I can draw is you are infact Scottish.
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Well I certainly have experienced a degree of Scottish impregnation. My son's father is an Aberdonian. A cut above your average Glaswegian I was led to believe.:)
 
carol brown said:
Well I certainly have experienced a degree of Scottish impregnation. My son's father is an Aberdonian. A cut above your average Glaswegian I was led to believe.:)
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I don't know how to put this to you Carol but the prinipality of Aberdeen was lost to the English throne in 1974, at the height of the Old Spice revolution.
 
In any event your dates are all wrong. It was 1986 before he finally left. I have a distinct recollection that the odour of boozy breath had lifted by1987.

I managed to find the only man from Aberdeen, and possibly the world that got himself thrown off an oil rig within 2 weeks. Sneaking a quick Cig during the performance of his arduous task, that of slinging a chain around the rig's drill bit, turned out not to be well received. I was very young I've forgiven myself, and he was very photogenic.

I've had to keep a sharp eye on my son for any signs of chromosomal damage. Thankfully he's shown no signs of it, though he does have a strange inclination towards verbose argumentativeness.
It's a puzzle, if I didn't know better, I might suspect he wasn't mine?
 
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carol brown said:
In any event your dates are all wrong. It was 1986 before he finally left. I have a distinct recollection that the odour of boozy breath had lifted by1987.

I managed to find the only man from Aberdeen, and possibly the world that got himself thrown off an oil rig within 2 weeks. Sneaking a quick Cig during the performance of his arduous task, that of slinging a chain around the rig's drill bit, turned out not to be well received. I was very young I've forgiven myself, and he was very photogenic.

I've had to keep a sharp eye on my son for any signs of chromosomal damage. Thankfully he's shown no signs of it, though he does have a strange inclination towards verbose argumentativeness.
It's a puzzle, if I didn't know better, I might suspect he wasn't mine?
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If you were there at the birth he's definitely yours, it's just as well I'm here to confirm these things!
 
Alan22 said:
If you were there at the birth he's definitely yours, it's just as well I'm here to confirm these things!
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I was only intermittently present at the birth of my children.

When a host has gone to the trouble of providing nice facilities I feel it's both churlish and ungracious not to make use of them.
In which spirit I made liberal use of the piped in supply of entonox.
At the birth of my first daughter I recall I was at Woodstock.....accompanied by the anaesthetist. Whom I'm told I thanked both for becoming an aneasthetist, and for taking me to the festival.
 
Bob Rathbone said:
It was an opinion, not a structured assessment of worth.
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I've been trying to understand the precise working of the 2nd chamber, after your remarks. I've always had the impression that it was generally a good thing - a sort of last bastion of defence against poorly considered legislation from the lower chamber.
But I'm not very familiar with it's reformation, or what drove it. I've noticed the periodical calls for getting rid of it, but not really understood the arguments against it.
Why do you feel it's failing Bob? And do you think we need it, as is my impression but not my certainty?
 
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