[Leica] More on UK

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (lrzeitlin@optonline.net)]

----- Original Message -----
From: lug-request@leica-users.org
Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 10:29 am
Subject: LUG Digest, Vol 31, Issue 43

Peter writes:

<<The United Kingdom is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland; 
each 
of which except for Northern Ireland, which has the status of "province", is 
legally a country in its own right and I am not going to discuss further 
here. 
For example Scotland has its own legal system and currency (same names 
different 
notes etc; very different laws in some areas). Under conquest and the 
various 
Acts of Union etc, all surrendered their powers to Westminster. Lately the 
constituents have been granted limited autonomy, which has been seized upon 
by 
both Welsh and Scots, causing conflict with Westminster. In addition various 
other constituents such as the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man have 
their 
own legal and tax systems which interact with the Enflish system in various 
ways. Berwick-upon-Tweed is a complete
ly different case with until recently a 
seperate standing under international treaty and has only recently made its 
peace with Russia after the Crimean War.>>


As a recently repatriated former long term resident of the UK I found it 
hard to underestimate the mutual antipathy between the English Anglo-Saxons 
and the Celtic Welsh, Scots, and Irish. To a foreigner, all Brits seem 
alike, but that's not the way they see it. The English regard the Scots as 
clannish dour folk, living in a cold forbidding country, who spend all their 
time fighting, drinking, doing sports that involve throwing heavy objects, 
and inventing practical things like steam engines, television, and 
penicillin. Whatever language they speak, it certainly isn't English. 

The Scots view the English as lazy wimps who cheated their way to the 
Scottish throne and are incapable of running their own country. They regard 
helping the English manage their affairs as a form of missionary outreach 
work. Scots point to 
the fact that if the British Cabinet were not 2/3 Scottish, England would 
slip slowly into the sea. 
        
        The Welsh are almost beneath notice by the English who believe that 
singing coal miners and drunken poets are the only good things to come out 
of Wales in centuries. The Welsh reciprocate by regarding the English as 
jackbooted thugs who delight in oppressing hardworking poor folk and 
appropriating miner's pension funds for London based welfare grifters. To 
add injury to insult, the English dominated supermarket chains import New 
Zealand lamb and mutton when the hills are alive with the sound of wooly 
Welsh sheep.

So refer to a Scot or a Welshman as an Englishman at your own peril. 

Larry Z