tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809146912677894496.post2559035813014792766..comments2024-03-27T08:06:54.502+00:00Comments on The Thoughts of Chairman Bill: What Does It Mean To Be European?Chairman Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02104786653126767184noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809146912677894496.post-64017416741278094182009-11-22T19:09:36.021+00:002009-11-22T19:09:36.021+00:00If you live slap bang in the middle of Europe (as ...If you live slap bang in the middle of Europe (as I do), you'll see that while there are a lot of strange dotted lines drawn on Michelin maps, borders don't actually mean much. Here at Lago Maggiore they speak Italian but the dialect has a French twang and a lot of Fench words. Ten minutes north and you're in a region of Switzerland where they still speak Italian. Twenty minutes further along they speak German and/or Romansch depending on how they feel. And just a few hours away is Alsace-Lorraine where no-one really knows whether they should be speaking German or French. What I'm trying to say is that European countries dovetail one into another more gently and more subtly than you'd believe. Living on an island, though, we Brits don't have that kind of connection with the people who live on the other sides of our borders, and perhaps tht's why we have problems undersanding how it's possible to have a Europe that works as a single entity. Now I'm going to do the washing up - plates from Romansch-speaking Switzerland, an empty bottle of Burgundy, glasses from Germany, milk and butter from Italian-speaking Switzerland, parmesan from central Italy (and rubber gloves from the Midlands, where my mother thinks I live in outer Mongolia).Louise | Italyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00463696606000861953noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809146912677894496.post-6318049516444252572009-11-21T19:05:55.063+00:002009-11-21T19:05:55.063+00:00It's called the Roman Empire.
http://flashtra...It's called the Roman Empire.<br /><br />http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/eu-creates-historic-undemocratic-new-president-of-europe-post/Joyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11198238631600746173noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809146912677894496.post-78895008896601040692009-11-21T16:11:06.090+00:002009-11-21T16:11:06.090+00:00Alan: I hear what you say, but I think what has st...Alan: I hear what you say, but I think what has stopped major European nations from fighting is the fact they had a common enemy in the USSR, which has now been replaced by Al Q'aeda.<br /><br />The theory does not have any factual basis - in fact the reverse can be said to be true from so many historical instances.Chairman Billhttp://ttocb.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809146912677894496.post-23678529271546979682009-11-20T13:58:01.495+00:002009-11-20T13:58:01.495+00:00non-Europeansnon-EuropeansSteve Borthwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13361597018502017407noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809146912677894496.post-25704900076116302382009-11-20T10:14:14.737+00:002009-11-20T10:14:14.737+00:00Surely the Swiss take great delight when we start ...Surely the Swiss take great delight when we start tearing lumps out of each other....how else will they increase their gold reserves?The Spivhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07382350268661540615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809146912677894496.post-66563431150555027482009-11-20T08:44:42.960+00:002009-11-20T08:44:42.960+00:00What originally bound us together in the early 195...What originally bound us together in the early 1950s was the desire not to beat seven shades of shite out of each other ever 30 years (where did the 60 come from?). The original brilliance of the idea of Monnet and Schuman was that if you so tie together countries which have traditionally killed each other it makes it more difficult to do so in the future. In this sense the European Union has been remarkably successful - we belong to perhaps the first generation in centuries who have never had to fight in a European war. In my mind this is well worth the sacrifice of our monarchy (which is German), our national currency (a bit of an eighteenth century invention) and our blue passports (a Victorian concept).Alan Burnetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01015127443616786425noreply@blogger.com