OK, before people start nominating me for the Nick Griffin Of The Year Award, it's cards on the table time; I don't hate the Welsh. I don't care enough about anyone to hate them. I started this thread for two reasons, the first being that I was genuinely interested to see if anyone really knew about Wales outside the British Isles. I mean be fair; it's a small country, 2 million or so inhabitants, plus with all the Canadians, Americans, Australians etc. who proudly call themselves Irish or Scottish despite never having set foot on their shores I was interested to see if anyone would suddenly turn round and start saying stuff like "Of course I know about Wales, I'm Welsh myself (from Boston)!!!". The second is that I like taking the mick out of the Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Manx, Channel Islanders and people from other parts of England. In the same way that the Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Manx, Channel Islanders and people from other parts of England like taking the mick out of me. I am in fact about as English as our good old Queen; my mother's half of the family is from the Highlands of Scotland via Wales (yes, that's right; Wales!), County Cork, Lincolnshire and Scotland Road in Liverpool. My dad's side of the family are Old Lancastrians, so I'm 50% proper, pit-mining English and 50% bastard mongrel Celtic of wherever, which means I am in quite a unique position that allows me to banter with everyone else as an Englishman and to banter with Englishmen as anything else. And, at the end of the day, that's what it is. Banter. The Welsh don't take offence to it (all except the "professional Welsh"), in the same way as I don't take offence to being called a filthy half-breed or a Saxon bastard.
See where I said I was as English as the Queen? That was a jest; the Queen is in fact not wholly English, but is half German via centuries of inbreeding. Just thought I'd explain that there because people don't seem to get jokes. If you want to have a go at me for calling the genetics of the Royals into question please contact MI5. They will care.
Redmage said:
I can't think why. The United states is a region of North America, after all. And as proud as the Welsh are, I think few of them would claim to be a fully independent nation when, legally, they're a principality - part of the domain of Prince Charles. No?
Why wouldn't they claim they're a country when they're a country? Whenever I tell them they're a pathetic excuse for a country and should drop the R and accept the fact they are a county of England, they tell me how a county doesn't have a capital, it's own language or a semi-self-sufficient government. And call me an unwashed Saxon bastard. The thing you're missing is that although technically the USA is a region of North America, North America is not an occupying power which has controlled the USA for many years. Thus, people from the USA feel no enity towards North America, since it is merely a geographical label applied to a continent. Welsh people, most of the ones I know anyway, don't like being thought of as living in a "region of Britain", because although that's the reality of their situation it belittles the fact that Wales is a seperate state and makes it seem like it's part of England. The Scottish are the same. Do you see?
"War is a continuation of politics by other means." Carl von Clausewitz
Does that hold for Hamas and Hizbollah as well then?
Surely not.
Well, to be fully honest, I was returning the jest, by way of showing the rather peculiar light that it cast on the teller.
What?
The Romans attempted to conquer Wales because the Welsh tribes controlled significant deposits of copper, tin, and gold. However they were unable to push further north than Carmarthen on the southern frontier, nor further south than Caernarfon in the northern regions.
Heading south into Wales from Merseyside means driving a fair way before you get to Caernarvon, and going north from the modern border means a decent drive before you hit Camarthen. If they got that far in the north and south then the chances are they took at least two-thirds of the country.
You are a British citizen, right? I really shouldn't be having to tell you all of this.
If I could've been bothered to look at Wikipedia I probably would've known anyway. My rationale, or excuse, call it what you will, is this: why bother spending ages researching a 'net argument when you can just half-remember stuff from school? If it's wrong it's wrong, nobody will really think any less of me for it.
800 year subjugation? Hardly. Henry II gained title to Ireland in 1172, thanks to a grant from the Pope (who happened to be British at that time). However English law didn't extend beyond Dublin and Waterford until the middle of the 16th century, roughly 450 years later. It was another 100 years after that before the Protestant Ascendancy that placed British nobles in control of Irish lands. After that, have you looked at what the British had to do there in order to keep the island even halfway stable? Considering the enormous difference in military power between the British Empire and the island of Ireland, I'd say the trouble they've had holding on to that island is a testament to the Irish tenacity as fighters.
What trouble? The Free State was a concession and apart from that they've never actually had trouble maintaining control of anywhere. Yeah there were riots and stuff, but that's maybe two streets out of a whole city.
You really need to lose the superior attitude and dig into your history, if you don't mind me saying.
The attitude is explained above.
