Westminstenders: Waiting for Sanity

[RedToothBrush]

We could be waiting a long time, but that's what we have to wait for as that's what the EU is waiting for.

The EU has requested we expand on our plans for 'alternative arrangements' with regard to the backstop.

We need to do so before the next HoC vote on 14th Feb. The EU see no point in shifting their position before than. And the UK will struggle to provide the info the EU want before then. So there is now some doubt as to whether the vote will go ahead as planned.

About a third of the Cabinet now believe that Brexit will have to be delayed due to legislation not being ready for exit date. However we don't have power over this and we might still exit without it.

There is no Brexit related business next week in the HoC to prevent pesky amendments. The recess has been cancelled but MPs have been told its OK to go on their ski holidays so it's just a PR stunt.

Meanwhile No Deal is in full effect as businesses trigger their exit strategy in the absence of certainty. No Deal is reality for many even if we do have a last minute deal...

We are all about to get poorer. As that's what we voted for.

I mean this in the nicest possible way, but I think you need to get out a bit more!

I am a geek, by profession. This stuff, it's like a busman's holiday!

I mean this in the nicest possible way, but I think you need to get out a bit more!

Stats. Pretty stats. I love stats. Stats rock.

(looks around. Yep definitely out of the house right now)

Having wasted spent so much time on MN some observations are coming to mind. I will need to save them for the day after Brexit day unfortunately.

Mistigri that's interesting. Especially in the light of the dubbing vs subtitles debate - France dubs, the Netherlands subtitles. I remember the Dutch subtitles to 'Allo! 'Allo! - the translations of the original jokes were stunning and often funnier than the originals. Getting both felt like a treat. The way they translated Officer Crabtree's mispronunciations was totally consistent and maintained the level of innuendo perfectly.

@missclimpson, I can only talk for the GCSE I did in 1993. I hope they have improved since then! Perhaps I'll never find out as my children are 10 and 11 years from taking them, so they may not even exist by then!

I don’t get that. British people ARE known to be immigrating everywhere. They DID and DO emigrate very easily.

Everything has to be viewed through the prism of class.

Some British emigrate easily. Which means they leave some British behind.

In other news, the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016 ....

I live in Spain and lived briefly in Portugal before I came here. Spain dubs and Portugal subtitles. I'd always understood it was one of the reasons the Portuguese were much better at English than the Spaniards.

The article about the stupid Brexit pensioners really fucks me off actually. It makes mention that the vast majority of Brits in Spain are actually of working age and then goes and talks to stupid bloody Leave pensioners. There are so many of us here, working, with mortgages, kids, who speak the langauge and have integrated and we're really fucking worried!

I will need to save them for the day after Brexit day unfortunately.

Sounds ominous.

I have many Brexit reflections. Many are not too kind about my country.

Everything from disposal lifestyles to a desperate need to fit in and know your place and praise of ignorance.

Very late comment (catching up), but @SusanWalker I love the blankets you made for your children, they are beautiful.

Incidentally, or maybe coincidentally, I wonder if there's a similar language issue with the US going on ? An asymmetry which some perceive as driving inequality ?

thanks to posters mentioning Drawn Thread btw

An asymmetry which some perceive as driving inequality ?

Of course there is.

Who relates with a president with a tweeting age of an eight year old?

@Maryjoyce
are you choosing to personally insult my husband (and his audiences) ?

Can we just report the gratuitous personal insults rather than engaging?

golondrina
The BBC did a 'vox pop' with some Brits in Spain, who effectively lived in a gated community (although not actually enclosed) and the fact they never had to speak Spanish and rarely saw Spanish people made me feel quite sick. It was the fact they thought it was a good thing was the worst aspect.

It is probably much easier for the BBC and other media to reach "expat" pensioners in places with a large British community than seeking out working British immigrants in Spanish communities.

Funnily enough I think I know one of the people in the Guardian article on the British in Spain, if it's the person I think it is she's an old friend of my mum's.

I went to uni with a danish guy. He said they all had really good english because no one ever learnt danish. And that films would just be televised in english so if you wanted to watch the latest films you had to be able to keep up.

I feel rather sad that neither of my children are doing a language for GCSE having done a languages degree myself. But I do feel they would have been more inclined if language lessons started in primary. The earlier you start a language the easier you're going to find it I feel.

@Ta1kinPeace Sorry I am trying to catch up with the thread.
Anyways, the Hungarian vocabulary is so huge and synonyms are so widespread in my opinion, because when the language was modernised in the 18th and 19th century patriotic authors have made up tonnes of words. Their work is still compulsory reading, so everyone has to understand the words.
Being in the Austro-Hungarian empire the language has a lot of words meaning the same thing originating in different languages: German, Slovak, Romanian, etc.

I am not saying that Hungarian will take the world with storm, I just do not think that English has necessarily more synonyms than others.

Elenade
i was aware that Hungarian is a huge language
but do not think its one that will ever catch onfor diplomacy
because it is disconnected from other languages
and many of the synonyms do not have nuance

and nuance is what gives English its edge

"How nice for you"
can have 1000 meanings depending on context

The 'english' discussion puts me in mind of the quote "two nations separated by a common language" in reference to the UK and USA.
As an IT bod I've spent almost 30 years working around the world and feel that there are several significant dialects of English - US, British, European and Mumbai spring to mind, with British very much a minority language?
If English retains its Lingua Franca status it won't be British English :)

Though Spanish and Mandarin will surely compete - the ultimate brexiteer irony in that they predict trade with Chinese and Spanish speaking territories is our future...

I think what really shocked me/makes me loathe a certain type of leaver is that they knowingly, wilfully and happily voted leave knowing that it would cause irreparable damage to their children's jobs, futures, their grandchildren's futures...and yet it's still "worth it".

There are families on MN who are having to uproot and move to the EU and their parents still think its "worth it".

Men and women who married into families to find out that they are considered "expendable" as are their kids.

Utterly, utterly baffling.

Ds1 didn't have to do a MFL but dsw will as they are moving to ebacc - at least for now!!

Jesus - BBC 1 news. Sunderland- apparently it's remainers fault , "too many people trying to stop brexit causing uncertainty "
NO - it's the government flip flopping on how they are going to execute it.....stupid - they are just stupid and wilfully ignorant