Terror attacks in France and Tunisia/now

I know what you mean Anniebach.

I live very close to a river, I stood on the bank , looked across at the mountains, held those who died and those who are left to grieve close in my mind and couldn't believe such a beautiful world could hold such darkness

I am not bothering with the other thread rosesarered , I was asked to explain here so I did, end of

We had a little gathering at our village hall, a silence, then a prayer. it was very moving.

Any remarks I make in answer to you Anniebach will be on the other thread.

Yes

Our tram stopped for it.

And me

Alone in the house, but I did. A little pause in life to take stock and count blessings.

Yes, jingl, I joined many others in the marketplace where we were each given a candle by one of the local churches. In the middle of a busy little English seaside town on a warm summer day everyone stopped and was silent for a minute. I found it very moving.

I was sitting in the car with the windows down at the village bus stop waiting to pick up DGS who is finishing school early today. You could have heard a pin drop. Just birdsong and the distant murmer of traffic.

The little things we take for granted

Thank you, little englander is just an expression used by many in Wales for years, if I thought a racist comment had been said I would have said so , I usually use it with a roll of the eyes and a shrug, sort of - here we go again . I want the four countries to always be the UK , I hounded friends in Scotland with mails - don't vote yes . We may be smaller countries with smaller populations but to be told - you don't pay the same in tax as we do is so irritating .anyway I am sorry that I did disrupt a thread on such tragedy and grief and I will not say little englander here again - cannot promise not to think it [ wink]

Anyone keep the minute's silence? I was in my garden and my mind drifted to that poor old pensioner who won't be seeing his English village again.

Oh dear.

If you have been on the receiving end as you say, then maybe you will understand why some are as fed up as you were with the use of negative terms and are merely saying so.

Diolch yn fawr to you too.

Unless of course it meant 'one of it's translations'

' Thank you, but I think you are having a laugh'.

It's all about context isn't it and how your post will be read .

Diolch yn fawr.

annieb it sounds as if you have encountered some shameful prejudice and the offenders in question deserve no excuse.
Please do not judge everybody by the actions of the few. I am not English, but know (hope?) from my own experience that what you describe is very much the exception and the result of ignorance, narrow mindedness and intolerance.

I did not call anyone a little englander, I did say - we have given them homes here - was a little England stance , and it was

To refer to the queen as the queen of England is too and the English parliment

To complain that Wales has free prescriptions but England hasn't yet not bothering to check that England has some cancer drugs which Wales does not is another one

1st March 1979 I drove a friend to Moorfield Eye Hospital for eye lazer treatment, I was wearing a daff, not draped in a flag and singing Myfanwy - I keep that for the six nations . Wales was holding a referendum that day for a welsh assembly not flipping home rule. A voice from a waiting bay floats across - loudly, causing much amusement to some - typical of the bloody welsh they want to get out of England but use our hospitals .

Panorama 1969 on the investiture of the PoW. The title is England's by right - no it's by murder - we have to put up with their road signs in a foreign language ,they should stop the language being spoken and let's all use the language of our country

Anyone who cares to google Capel Celyn, all Welsh MP's voted no, England voted yes and a beautiful valley was flooded , people evicted from their homes and told to either dig up remains from the graveyard or accept the graves would be concreted over before the flooding, this was 1965, an apology was given in 2005

These are little englander stances, they are not racist , xenophobic etc, just I suppose an arrogance that the England is the UK , just a few but this attitude is used frequently .

When there were the aol boards I was in a forum and on St David's Day several lovely English posters greeted me in welsh, so kind, I replied 'Diolch yn Fawr with a smilie and a x . I was reported for speaking a foreign language on an English only speaking board

If I have caused more offence I am sorry, just trying to explain what it's like on the receiving end , if anyone reaches this far and understands then - Diolch yn Fawr

Annie people often say 'most of us' when they genuinely believe that the majority believe the same as they do.

Sometimes they don't actually believe ithe majority agree with them, but want to give the impression that everyone agrees with them, to make their argument appear to have validity.

It doesn't mean that PMs are flying all over the place, or that there has been any conspiracy.

One thing is for sure, that whatever rubbish is written on Gransnet, someone, somewhere, will be silently agreeing with it.

Eloethan

If you read my post again you will see I have the total opposite view of what happened to yours.

I was trying to show how 'context' is important to written, spoken scenarios,.

Where I will agree in part with what you would say:-

a). I had been invited into my friends home and a younger person had said it, they would know it was a delicate thing to say. Even then I would assess the manner of how it was said , 'the context', it would not necessarily cause me offence. I am a white woman.

b). The other people in the room grinned or sniggered at the comment making it apparent they felt it was a racial comment and they wondered why I was there too, they did not, they looked mortified as they, unlike a very old man, knew it had a potential for discord.

c). The fact he engaged in a further conversations, such as asking if I had tried the simosas, proved that he was in no way being racially offensive he asked a perfectly reasonable question. He called me a white woman as it is descriptive, nothing more, nothing less.

The funny thing is 'intollerence' and 'political correctness' applied to literally everything and anything attatched to religion, colour, crede is to my mind an actual cause of making trouble where no trouble was intended.

just saying and I will be brief :
if someone accused me of being a 'little Englander' (originally meant someone who was against the expansion of the British Empire) I would find it 'racist' and rude because of the connotations now attached to the word. So many threads are very vociferous about the use of certain words and the effect they have on the person addressed - to my mind little Englander comes under that category and has no place in civilised debate
there said my piece and how I feel
nobody should call anyone a 'little Englander' even if in all innocence of the unpleasant connotations of the word.

fair enough, I have offended some English posters because they assumed I was accusing them of bring boorish, xenophobic etc but I was not and have said so several times, no matter, you will believe what you choose to believe

Well, no one's discussed it with me!

Soutra,thank you

I am not paranoid Ana, how can anyone speak for others unless they have discussed it with others ?

POGS With reference to the Diwali incident you mentioned, I think the remark "What is that white woman doing here?" is not a laughing matter and I hope the "gentleman" in question (whatever his age) was quietly told by someone that it was not acceptable. I think the way in which you dealt with it was very gracious but I sincerely hope that, at some stage, someone put him right.

Discourtesy and intolerance is, in my view, not acceptable from whomever it may come. However, it is easier to withstand such a remark when you are part of the ethnic majority. When you are part of an ethnic minority it may feel a good deal more intimidating and hurtful.

I find it difficult to believe that some people are unaware that the terms "Paki" "Chink", etc. etc. are offensive. If they continue to use those terms after being told that they are unacceptable, that would reinforce my feeling that their choice of words was deliberate.

noun
a person who opposes an international role or policy for England (or, in practice, for Britain)

That's what the dictionary says. There are further definitions which include xenophobic, anti-colonialism, when, for instance used in the days of the British Empire, and anti-interventionist (Afghanistan).
I suspect the term is used in so many ways today as to be made to mean whatever one wants it to mean.