Why not move to Portugal?

(April 19, 2016 at 4:47 pm)Napoléon Wrote:

(April 19, 2016 at 4:30 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Just curious...how did you feel about Scotland leaving the UK?

If that's what they voted for, as an Englishman, let them have it. They can then pay for their own military, their own university fees, and their own fucking car parks.

But that really wasn't the question.  The question was how did YOU feel about it?  Did you think it was a good idea at the time for England or Scotland?

Are smaller and smaller political entities better or worse?  Should everyone in a country look alike, talk alike and think alike?  I find what amounts to a wave of tribalism in Europe to be troubling.

(April 20, 2016 at 12:56 pm)Bella Morte Wrote:

(April 20, 2016 at 12:15 pm)Mathilda Wrote: If the UK leaves and Scotland does not get its independence then I'm going to become a German national.

Hope you've got a degree. And of course that your German is good. I'll be moving if Scotland gets independence.

Degrees and my father is German. Und Ja mein Deutsch ist ziemlich gut aber es könnte besser sein.

Incidentally my brother who hasn't ever lived outside England and who has a German passport because he was born in Germany before moving back, is unable to vote in the referendum. My father who has lived in England for 40 years and is now mistaken for an English person can't vote either.

What? That's ridiculous.

(April 20, 2016 at 1:11 pm)Mathilda Wrote:

(April 20, 2016 at 12:56 pm)Bella Morte Wrote: Hope you've got a degree. And of course that your German is good. I'll be moving if Scotland gets independence.

Degrees and my father is German. Und Ja mein Deutsch ist ziemlich gut aber es könnte besser sein.

Incidentally my brother who hasn't ever lived outside England and who has a German passport because he was born in Germany before moving back, is unable to vote in the referendum. My father who has lived in England for 40 years and is now mistaken for an English person can't vote either.

Well, good luck whatever happens.

(April 20, 2016 at 1:08 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Are smaller and smaller political entities better or worse?  Should everyone in a country look alike, talk alike and think alike?  I find what amounts to a wave of tribalism in Europe to be troubling.

It's the not so good old nationalism. They raised their ugly heads in the wake of the crisis of 2008 and first had their field day with Portugal, Spain or Greece. Slackers the lot of them. Then they moved on to muslims. In fact they didn't have to move at all, since muslims always were their new jews. Hated by the primitives for all kinds of reasons, sometimes using the very same old vocabulary, so that if you replaced muslim with jew you would get a perfect nazi speech. Often times religiously motivated on the outside, sometimes, as is the case with Poland or Hungary, also from the inside. Apart from fighting anyone not of the purest blood, they also constantly invoke the judeo christian heritage, which is especially ironic in my country, since many prominent members of our resident rightwingers are known to have neonazi and Holocaust denier roots.

(April 20, 2016 at 1:11 pm)Mathilda Wrote: Und Ja mein Deutsch ist ziemlich gut aber es könnte besser sein.

Well enough for me.

(April 20, 2016 at 1:08 pm)Minimalist Wrote: I find what amounts to a wave of tribalism in Europe to be troubling.

What is more troubling is the idealism of people who want a 'united Europe'. It's not realistic.

(April 20, 2016 at 2:23 pm)Napoléon Wrote: What is more troubling is the idealism of people who want a 'united Europe'. It's not realistic.

So your position is to take a dump on idealism and ride with the likes of UKIP or Pegida? The same mindset by the way that gave us the bauties of the last century. Which was one of the reasons the community was started. Futile idealism on the side of De Gaule and Adenauer obviously. Who really weren't known to be liberal dreamers. Just hardliners finally realising that the previous approach ended up at a lethal dead end.

(April 20, 2016 at 12:11 pm)Mathilda Wrote:

(April 20, 2016 at 12:01 pm)Napoléon Wrote: This is really nothing like the Scottish referendum. Drawing conclusions from that and relating it to this vote is going to leave you quite surprised.

How is it radically different then?

Because one is a country voting to leave a politico-economic project made up of a huge variety of countries with wildly varying economies, cultures and languages, that has been going for less than 50 years. Another is a country leaving a sovereign state that it's been joined to for well over 300 years, that it shares a language, culture and the entirety of its laws with. 

If you can't see how that is radically different then I can't help you. Ofcourse, there's similarities. But it's like saying Venus and Jupiter are similar simply because they're both planets. Yeah, they're both round I guess.