Is Britain about to leave the EU?

[Silurian]

How does that make any sense? You'll be voting to leave because the UK already allows bankers to play with the economy and pass on their debts to us?

Many arguments for leaving do not make sense

 

[dutchfire]

Well, a compromise deal between UK and EU has been reached. Everyone claims to be (relatively) happy about the outcome.

Hard to find the details yet though, but at least:

- All EU countries will be allowed to adjust welfare benefits for children living in other countries. UK can start adjusting immediately, others not until 2020.
- UK got dispensation from the "continually further integration" of the EU.
- The "City" will be escaping some (all?) of the financial rules in the EU.

Yeah, if there's one problem with the EU, it is overregulation of the banking sector

 

[Borachio]

Heaven forbid that the City experiences any regulation!

After all, it's not as if it played any role at all in the financial meltdown of 2008, now, is it?

And why would anyone want to interfere with all the money-laundering, and straight-out tax evasion, that goes on there, escapes me quite.

/sarcasm

And yet... and yet it certainly is a cash-cow for London.

 

[Arwon]

Surely the best argument in favour of England voting for the exit is that it'll lead to the breakup of the United Kingdom.

 

[Borachio]

Eh? Does England get to vote for the exit?

But I think I see what you mean. If it's legitimate for the UK to split from the EU then it's just as legitimate for the UK to split into its constituent nations.

 

[Arwon]

Eh? Does England get to vote for the exit?

But I think I see what you mean. If it's legitimate for the UK to split from the EU then it's just as legitimate for the UK to split into its constituent nations.

I chose my words carefully. The English are far more numerous and their votes will be, as ever, decisive. They're also the ones who vote Tory and it's largely English nationalism behind UKIP. I can't imagine a pro-EU Scotland would have much desire to continue to be yoked to the English outside the EU.

 

[Borachio]

Hmm.

Again, I sort of see what you mean.

But the English don't really exist. At least, not as a voting entity, they don't.

I don't think anyone knows how many English people there are, even.

Most probably you meant the people who live (or who claim England as their primary place of residence) in the geographical item currently called England. But that includes innumerable numbers of Welsh, Irish, and Scots. As well as a great number of other people. Obviously.

But I'll readily hold my hand up to nitpicking, on this.

 

[Arwon]

Well, "innumerable" is one word for how many Scottish people there are in England. "750k out of 53 million or about 1.5%" is another.

Likewise there's about 38m people who identify as English living in England and Wales (out of 53m total residents) compared to about 5 million people in total living in Scotland.

 

[Borachio]

You're joking surely!

Where did you get these figures?

 

[Dachs]

Well, "innumerable" is one word. "750k out of 55 million or about 1.5%" is another.

what even is an innumerable number

is that like a known unknown

 

[Arwon]

You're joking surely!

Where did you get these figures?

Wikipedia handily assembles your ONS' census figures for easy perusal. So you could say I get my figures from each individual English person.

 

[Silurian]

19% of people who live in England decribed themselves as British. I think I gave that answer.
I am half English and Irish and was born in SW England

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_the_United_Kingdom#National_identity

 

[Arakhor]

I live in SW England, but I was born in NW England. I still identify as British, rather than English.

 

[Silurian]

I worked in Manchester once; when they commented that I was a southerner I replied at least I did not live as close to London as them.

 

[Arakhor]

Manchester is four hours by train from where I live, with London 'only' two hours away. Somehow, Manchester to London is also only two hours.

 

[Borachio]

I live in SW England, but I was born in NW England. I still identify as British, rather than English.

But of course!

And how many black people self-identify as English?

Here is the census question as it relates to ethnicity:

So tell me how that reveals how many English people there are in England?

Given that there's no way for people to indicate that they're Northern Irish, Scottish or Welsh. Rather than English.

As a matter of personal experience (even though that surely counts for nothing), I'd say I know very few people who'd tell me that they're English. But plenty who'll reveal a more or less recent Irish, Scottish or Welsh ancestry. In fact, I don't think most people know if they're English. Though they do "know" if they're not.

 

[gay_Aleks]

According to the unwashed man that steals my mail every day, black people cannot be English.

 

[Borachio]

Don't Bulgarian postal workers wash, then, Mr Tolni?

Actually I don't think British ones do either. I think they mostly wear shorts and let the dirt wash away in the rain, instead.

Also, something to do with rubber bands. If you frighten a British post person, they almost inevitably throw a rubber band on the ground.

 

[gay_Aleks]

I never said he was the postman. I think...he's homeless or something? So he steals my ads and burns them for heat? Kinda heart-warming, if only he didn't occassionally tell me 5 Ways To Discern The Inferiority of the Black Man.

 

[Silurian]

So tell me how that reveals how many English people there are in England?

There was a follow up to the census were they asked random people more questions. They did it by interviewing people in their homes in May/ June 2011. Maybe that question was included then.