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So we should have a superstate because it might prevent conflict.... sounds kind of Bush-esque to me.... There comes a point were the ends don't justify the means...
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We will have an european superstate because the european people decided so, via their democratly elected representatives. All the process of creating the political structures of EU are democratic and based in desire of living in peace, prosperity and safety, having peaceful, respectful and fair relations with the rest of the world. What does Bush have to do with all that?
That superstate only would be Bush-esque if feeded by cowboyesque pseudo-ideology based on ignorance>fear>hatred against the outsider world as a whole.
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Clearly Ireland doesn't want it. But you don't care about democracy so you go on signing...
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Ireland rejected the Lisbon Treaty, not the EU. As I wrote before Ireland will probably have a special status inside EU, or perhaps they will decide to leave EU, who knows. The Irish people wish will be respected, no doubt about it. All the others accepted the Treaty by democratics ways, anyways it would be against the Treaty's own rules (and spirit) imposing it.
On the other hand, how democratic would be having 1 (one) country telling all the 26 other members what to do?
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Ireland just got sovereignty 1922 (and even then it was only 3/4 of the nation) so I don't blame them for not wanting to sign on to the Lisbon Treaty. I'm actually surprised that Bulgaria, Slovakia, Estonia, etc. signed on as quickly as they did.
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The Treaty wasn't voted on in most countries ... just Ireland. The EU is already less democratic than the United States. That was fast.
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Putting aside for the moment the issue of British people understanding, or not understanding, American slang (most do, especially younger Brits), how about Americans trying to get to grips with the Scouse UK accent (Liverpool and Merseyside area of North West England).
Here is a YT clip from a phone-in competition on BBC Radio Merseyside (in Liverpool) from which you can not only get a good idea of what the Scouse accent sounds like, but at the same time obtain a really good impression of the Scouse character, including sense of humour, which really is in a class of its own! It's little wonder that many of England's comedians came from Liverpool! The stock phrase of past comedians was that to live in Liverpool in the first place you just had to have a sense of humour!
Liverpool is, of course, the home city of The Beatles, in addition to other groups still flourishing on the scene.
It's the Scouser woman in this clip who is the comic - although she sounds incredibly stupid she just oozes the Scouse personality. She was asked which country is the only one in Europa (sorry, Europe) which drives on the left, the answer, according to Radio Merseyside being England. It should of course be the entire UK, including Scotland and Wales, but Ireland and Malta also drive on the left, but that's English nationalism for you! ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7APmG5qN5A&feature=related
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Here's what I think is a group of Dutch guys (judging by their accents) coping well with driving on the left side of the road on a wee bit of a dreich wet day in the Scottish countryside. They were listening to Caledonian Radio music so apart from good left hand driving skills they have good musical taste as well.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zYA_z2cra0&feature=related
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Damian- I didn't have any problem with the Scouse accents at all, but then again I went through an embarassing Catherine Cookson films made in the 80's stage, so I'm probably not a good example as far as Americans go. That was too funny btw. Surely that's scripted?
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***Surely that's scripted?***
No, Rene - definitely it is NOT scripted - entirely spontaneous, entirely genuine, as with all live phone-ins. Apparently this particular phone-in is a regular feature on BBC Radio Merseyside on a Sunday morning, hosted by this bloke Billy, broadcasting specifically to the Liverpool / Merseyside area, but which is received in much of North West England and much of North Wales and parts of the North Midlands. Remember the UK is a physically small country, and for the most part densely populated, so all local radio station areas have a high degree of overlap, so most regions are able to listen to several local channels, and the same with local TV.
The woman featured in that clip was obviously elderly, and so typical of many Scousers with her friendly sense of humour, and though she showed herself to be quite dim it was done in such a way that you can't help but love her for it, and all Scousers really. They have always had the reputation for being loveable rogues, or scallies to use the Scouse vernacular.
This Scouse woman enjoyed the whole thing chatting with Billy, and in her own words she said she hadn't had so much fun "since the May Blitz". This definitely proved she was elderly as she was referring to the dreadful WW2 aerial bombing raids on Liverpool and Merseyside in May 1941 which lasted every night for over a week and which devastated much of the city and killed many hundreds of people, and equating such horrors with fun demonstrated a sort of coping mechanism in which humour is used to counteract and overcome such a horrible situation. At least I assume she actually experienced "The May Blitz" as it is now so long ago - maybe the expression has now passed into Scouse folklore, but that's incidental - she just demonstrated typical Scouse humour.
No it wasn't scripted at all - the woman was genuinely as clueless as she showed herself to be, but so funny with it. Typical Scouser! You just gotta luv 'em - even the accent, and that's saying something! ;-)
I haven't been to bed yet - 07:00 hours on a Sunday morning after a night on the town and I feel as fresh as a daisy....try it, it's good therapy..
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Damian, I highly doubt they would tell you if it were scripted... Do you work on this show or something?
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***Do you work on this show or something?***
Now, ask yourself this - is it even remotely likely that I'm personally connected with this show? I am in Edinburgh, Scotland - this show is broadcast from Liverpool, England. Respectfully - try not to be such a numpty! ;-)
Take it from me as the gospel truth - as sure as eggs is eggs and snow is white - that show is in no way scripted! Are all your radio phone-ins over there scripted? It really wouldn't surprise me if they were......!
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BBC Birmingham has a gardening tv show, which we can watch here in Croatia. Oh my Gawd, you can hardly understand their dialect.
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"Putting aside for the moment the issue of British people understanding, or not understanding, American slang (most do, especially younger Brits), how about Americans trying to get to grips with the Scouse UK accent (Liverpool and Merseyside area of North West England)."
That one is indeed a bit tricky. "Red Dwarf" had a bit of a following here in the states, and I remember Craig Charles' accent being a bit incomprehensible. I think it has a lot to do with the Irish influence--lenited 't's, 'd's and 'k's, dentalized 'th's, etc. There's also that strange pronunciation of "fur" as /fe:/, so that it's easy to confuse with "fear" or "fair."
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