How will we measure the success of Brexit?

All those car workers out of a job can deliver parcels.

Parcels of meat and veg from the farm shops?

What an elegant solution

I was sad to see that someone had blanked out the name of a town their town was twinned with in France. It happened on January 31st, and seems such a silly thing to do. Town twinning started after the Second World War to promote healing and friendship amongst nations. Perhaps, now that we are going to be so insular, we should twin Brexit-voting places with Remain voting towns.

Blanking out a twinned town is just ignorant

As is putting notices on the doors of blocks of flats saying that after 31st Jan 2020 the residents must all speak English...

What on earth is wrong with expecting those who want to live here to learn our language?

How would they be able to work, fit in and contribute to society if they refuse ?

As for crossing out the European twinned name, well that’s ridiculous.

Oh, do grow up, JE. You think like a child.

jennifereccles if you lived in France would you speak French all the time, even at home with your family?

JE, on one thread you make excuses for Johnson's lies I think what he was saying was ... on the Speech thread and now you think it's okay to put up notices up to say everyone should speak English.

I despair, quite honestly. To me, these comments are wrong on so many levels but you obviously think they are okay. We are such a divided society and I can't see it changing.

You are extremely rude MaizieD which tells me everything I need to know about you.

But don't you see JE, that the others might just see your comments as "rude" too? Presumably not.

I certainly saw your post as intolerant, jennifereccles.

I can't for the life of me see that JenniferEccles has said anything 'rude' or that she thinks like a child and needs to grow up. ? What very unpleasant things to say.
It is generally accepted that people living here should learn to speak English in order to work and contribute. They don't need to speak it in their own home unless they want to, but it might help them become more fluent if they spoke it as much as possible. If I moved permanently to a country where most people didn't speak English then I would most certainly want to become fluent in their language. France is not a good example.

I know many foreign nationals. I have yet to meet one who has refused to learn English. I don't know if this is a big problem. In my experience many people who have learnt English as a second language have a better command of it than many native Brits.

Chesnut, sorry to ask but why is France a bad example?

France is just next door to us and you will probably find English speakers there. I'm talking about a more distant country where practically no-one speaks English. You would want to get familiar with their language. That also applies to people coming here because most of us don't speak their language.
Greta: there are many who may not exactly refuse but won't bother.

We won’t, the next Generation will .

Chestnut, yes, you have got it. What JE said would be seen by many an extremely unpleasant. You think it's okay to point out other people's comments that you feel are unpleasant but don't see, or it seems care, that others find a comment like JE's "extremely unpleasant".

It is generally accepted that people living here should learn to speak English in order to work and contribute.

You may not believe this but I have never thought this to be "generally accepted" a phrase which seems to carry as much stick as carrot.

If I moved permanently to a country where most people didn't speak English then I would most certainly want to become fluent in their language.

But how many do?

I worked in Japan and certainly do not speak fluent Japanese. Had I stayed there a long time I might have. If I had English speaking family or kids while living there I would have spoken English to them. When I saw my English speaking friends while
I lived there we spoke English.

Defending that note is horrific.

The note was treated by police as a racially motivated hate incident btw. That means it is not acceptable.

France is just next door to us and you will probably find English speakers there.

This becomes more appalling by the post and again you have no perception. I am quite sure, you still don't see it.

In countries that people from England move to for work, they will often gather together in communities to make it less necessary to learn the language and absorb the culture. Why is it so unreasonable when the same happens in reverse?

The note pinned up in the Tower Block in Norwich was totally unacceptable on every level.

Do all those British expats in Spain speak fluent Spanish?

Or that they don't speak English among themselves either when they are out or at home?

The big difference when discussing what is ‘rude’ is what is being aimed at posters on a personal level ( supposedly against GN rules) such as ‘you think like a child and need to grow up’ ( charming!) and what a poster thinks about a subject being debated.You may not like their opinion of it, but that doesn’t mean their stated opinion is ‘rude’.It’s a quite obvious distinction to most people.