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| [ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, [9], 10 ] |
| Subject: Four more years! | |
Author: Ed Harris (Venezia) | [ Next Thread |
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] Date Posted: 12:39:23 11/03/04 Wed In reply to: Dave (UK) 's message, "Oh, and did I mention?" on 20:44:18 11/02/04 Tue I'll stick with the trend and say that I'm a Bush-backer. And now it looks like the Americans have chosen him to go on with the good work for another term, with the largest number of votes cast for a candidate in American history... rather like John Major, whose slender majority concealed the fact that he got more votes than any incumbent PM ever. While it is true, as has been posted here, that most British people would rather have seen Kerry win, this is not generally true of British conservatives - and I imagine that, since most Brits on this forum are conservatives, this would explain why they seem to be falling down on the Republican side of the fence. One is not able to find a conservative in Britain who opposed the recent war, and since the main reason which people cite for wanting to get rid of Bush is the war (for reasons which have never, in my opinion, been adequately explained), most conservatives in this country are not affected by the Anyone But Bush mentality which seems prevalent elsewhere. Also, I think that whoever said that our attitudes towards Kerry were coloured by his slighter emphasis on the Special Relationship was dead right. Where does multilateralism get us, unless we are being excluded in the first place? Nowhere (in fact, it dilutes our influence). Where does unilateralism get us? Also nowhere. But Bilateralism, the world rotating round the twin poles of Washington and London, suits us fine - it's like the inter-war years all over again. Of course, I am aware that this is an oversimplification, and takes no account of the fact that Anglo-American relations are 'unequal'; but this Bilateralist view doesn't have to be a watertight argument for people to believe it. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> Subject: from where I sit, bilateralism looks like unilateralism with a fifth wheel | |
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Author: Ian (Australia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 13:02:02 11/03/04 Wed [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> Subject: Oh, quite... | |
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Author: Ed Harris (Venezia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 17:51:32 11/03/04 Wed ... because if I were not a monarchist and a great fan of the other three major countries of the Commonwealth, then I would certainly become a Fifty-First Stater. Britain has lost its way, and needs a new form of political relationship with another country, or other countries, to revitalise the nation and restore a sense of who we are. In that context, my prefered options would be, in order of preference: 1st) Reunification of the British World, or at any rate closer ties with the Commonwealth in an attempt to make that organisation meaningful. 2nd) Condoleeza Rice's suggestion that we should join NAFTA and eventually incorporate ourselves into a union of the USA, Canada and the UK. 3rd) GIve British independence from Europe a chance and see where that leaves us in a generation or two. ... ... 4,906,896th) the European Union. Let's hope that we find something better than Option 4,906,896!) [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Option 4,906,895 | |
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Author: Dave (UK) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 22:29:56 11/03/04 Wed Join a greater Azerbaijan... [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Indeed. | |
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Author: Ed Harris (Venezia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 16:15:14 11/04/04 Thu I read an interesting study a few years ago on the subject of the UK and Japan. There was a lot of dated Freudian guff about how a people which lives on an island and has an overseas empire is necessarily going to produce a national mentality similar to another island which has an overseas empire etc etc. But the thesis was quite interesting, and listed all the similarities between the Japanese and the British, and not just in terms of historical parallels (which are eerily numerous). Such things as the fact that, in Asia, the Japanese are seen as funny old-fashioned people with a hereditary monarchy, who are always insisting on quaint old etiquette like bowing, and forever carrying round umbrellas. Does this, by any chance, remind you of the way in which Europeans see the British? So perhaps we should go for option 4,906,895 - union with Japan! [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: yes, but.... | |
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Author: Dave (UK) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 16:37:54 11/04/04 Thu Yes, if only we had their railway system ;-) There are indeed many similarities. However, where the similarities end is the fact that Japan is not seeking to place control of its economy, currency, legal system, immigration, trade, employment laws and defence, in the hands of their neighbours (China, Russia and North Korea) [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Hm... | |
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Author: Ed Harris (Venezia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 22:50:05 11/04/04 Thu Rabid Europhobe as I am, I would hardly put Belgium, Denmark, and Portugal in the same league as North Korea, China and Russia! [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: I wasn't being entirely serious ;-) | |
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Author: Dave (UK) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 23:16:42 11/04/04 Thu [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Nor I | |
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Author: Ed Harris (Venezia) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 23:27:03 11/04/04 Thu [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Even some Germans aren't that keen on it | |
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Author: Curnoack [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 19:04:14 11/05/04 Fri Regarding Europe... "Rabid Europhobe as I am, I would hardly put Belgium, Denmark, and Portugal in the same league as North Korea, China and Russia!" Many of the people in these countries actually have the same fears you do. I was in Germany in '02... far from being the rabid pro-Europeans they are made out to be, in actual fact many of them were opposed to the Euro, and the large amounts of cash they had to hand over to the EU... Yet if you look at the media, one side will have you think the Germans are the biggest Europhiles of the lot, and the other that they want to make it a fourth Reich. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Japan's nearest neighbours... | |
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Author: Paddy (Scotland) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 10:01:46 11/05/04 Fri Those bastions of enlightenment! [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |