I think Adams is an Irish citizen, and not a British one.
Tim Send a noteboard - 23/01/2011 11:45:34 PM
At least, his wikipedia article says "Nationality: Irish". I certainly can't see him voluntarily taking British citizenship. To him we are the enemy. He doesn't take his seat in Parliament because he won't swear allegiance to the Queen.
Anyway, to understand the position you have to understand two things about the UK. The first is that we are not one of those nutty countries that gets all paranoid about people having more than one nationality. If you are British, we look after you, and we don't have a problem if another country also wants to look after you.
The second is that when it comes to Irish independence, we are like the pathetic ex-husband making doe eyes at his ex-wife hoping she'll come back to him. For this reason, we give Irish citizens all the same rights as British citizens. Even before we joined the EU, an Irishman could move to London any time he wanted without showing a passport, and immediately register to vote or even stand for Parliament. Not even when they left the Commonwealth and became a Republic did we turn against them.
(Incidentally, we also give the right to vote and stand for Parliament to Commonwealth citizens who live here legally, which is why Rebekah gets to vote. But Commonwealth citizens don't have a right of residence. So in theory we could have a Prime Minister who has to be deported because his visa expires
. EU citizens, by contrast, get to live here but not to vote in Parliamentary elections, only local and EU ones. And to devolved Parliaments, if they live in a devolved country. So between her two passports Rebekah gets all the civil rights of a British citizen, even though she isn't one.)
Anyway, to understand the position you have to understand two things about the UK. The first is that we are not one of those nutty countries that gets all paranoid about people having more than one nationality. If you are British, we look after you, and we don't have a problem if another country also wants to look after you.
The second is that when it comes to Irish independence, we are like the pathetic ex-husband making doe eyes at his ex-wife hoping she'll come back to him. For this reason, we give Irish citizens all the same rights as British citizens. Even before we joined the EU, an Irishman could move to London any time he wanted without showing a passport, and immediately register to vote or even stand for Parliament. Not even when they left the Commonwealth and became a Republic did we turn against them.
(Incidentally, we also give the right to vote and stand for Parliament to Commonwealth citizens who live here legally, which is why Rebekah gets to vote. But Commonwealth citizens don't have a right of residence. So in theory we could have a Prime Minister who has to be deported because his visa expires
. EU citizens, by contrast, get to live here but not to vote in Parliamentary elections, only local and EU ones. And to devolved Parliaments, if they live in a devolved country. So between her two passports Rebekah gets all the civil rights of a British citizen, even though she isn't one.)
Vigilantibus non dormientibus jura subveniunt.
—Nous disons en allemand : le guerre, le mort, le lune, alors que 'soleil' et 'amour' sont du sexe féminin : la soleil, la amour. La vie est neutre.
—La vie ? Neutre ? C'est très joli, et surtout très logique.
—Nous disons en allemand : le guerre, le mort, le lune, alors que 'soleil' et 'amour' sont du sexe féminin : la soleil, la amour. La vie est neutre.
—La vie ? Neutre ? C'est très joli, et surtout très logique.
So the Irish government has basically imploded.
- 23/01/2011 04:47:10 PM
1763 Views
I am now confused
- 23/01/2011 05:34:31 PM
1128 Views
You do realize Britain is pretty much the envy of the Western world at the moment?
- 23/01/2011 06:27:05 PM
1155 Views
Re: You do realize Britain is pretty much the envy of the Western world at the moment?
- 23/01/2011 06:34:47 PM
1092 Views
I did. There was more violence than in ours, that's true (ours have none so far, knock on wood).
- 23/01/2011 06:41:34 PM
1057 Views
Re: I did. There was more violence than in ours, that's true (ours have none so far, knock on wood).
- 23/01/2011 06:43:41 PM
1009 Views
Those protests were only violent by British standards.
- 23/01/2011 11:54:15 PM
1186 Views
What protests?
- 24/01/2011 07:26:49 PM
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Re: What protests?
- 24/01/2011 07:28:40 PM
986 Views
Re: What protests?
- 25/01/2011 09:23:17 AM
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There's a new objection
- 25/01/2011 11:38:25 AM
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I didn't object...
- 25/01/2011 11:47:11 AM
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And Britain had to live with the Conservative Wilderness for 15 years before it could get there *NM*
- 24/01/2011 02:43:16 AM
529 Views
Should I start chiming in on Norwegian politics now that I'm here...?
- 24/01/2011 12:42:03 AM
1020 Views
- 24/01/2011 12:42:03 AM
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Why not?
- 24/01/2011 08:49:07 AM
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'Cos I doubt you'll like what I have to say, for one thing.
- 26/01/2011 01:55:13 AM
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That's been a while coming, hasn't it? Cowen seems to be losing it.
- 23/01/2011 05:48:30 PM
1062 Views
Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 06:27:27 PM
1129 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 06:33:26 PM
1067 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 07:19:03 PM
1172 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 07:57:05 PM
1017 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 09:29:03 PM
1134 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 09:46:20 PM
1092 Views
I think Adams is an Irish citizen, and not a British one.
- 23/01/2011 11:45:34 PM
1052 Views
I found out something else today which makes it even better.
- 24/01/2011 10:37:45 PM
1235 Views
I was reading your post and going "what about the Chiltern Hundreds"?
- 24/01/2011 10:44:32 PM
1034 Views
Oh, alternatively we could elevate him to the House of Lords.
- 26/01/2011 11:08:44 PM
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Awesome idea. Something like "Baron Adams of Londonderry", I'm thinking. *NM*
- 27/01/2011 07:54:26 PM
512 Views
We made his arch-rival a Lord, after all, so it would only be fair.
- 28/01/2011 08:26:15 AM
1006 Views
Here you go
- 25/01/2011 12:55:33 PM
1155 Views
well, the only interesting thing in swedish politics is a wikileaks document and the reactions...
- 23/01/2011 06:21:00 PM
1104 Views
What is inappropriate about trying to keep out barbaric unskilled people?
- 23/01/2011 10:59:53 PM
1081 Views
The inappropriateness is the generalisation in the claim
- 23/01/2011 11:16:52 PM
1074 Views
Generalizations are inappropriate when they are disproven by statistics, and appropriate when proven
- 24/01/2011 07:33:14 PM
1010 Views
I've looked into the statistics a bit more.
- 24/01/2011 09:11:52 PM
1019 Views
I take it you're talking about the Middle East in its most narrow sense here.
- 24/01/2011 09:56:22 PM
1061 Views
... the fact that they are asylum seekers, and their skill certainly shouldn't matter in that case.
- 24/01/2011 07:08:14 PM
944 Views
Hopefully they'll stop using Irish officially as a way to cut down on unnecessary costs.
- 23/01/2011 10:57:08 PM
1010 Views
I'd support that
- 23/01/2011 11:26:20 PM
1078 Views
Ironically, if you de-officialised Irish you could get EU money to help preserve it.
- 23/01/2011 11:48:14 PM
977 Views
But why, why?
- 24/01/2011 08:35:43 PM
963 Views
Because it's the only thing justifying their insistence they're not British?
- 24/01/2011 10:03:54 PM
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- 24/01/2011 10:03:54 PM
1020 Views
But all language learning should be purely voluntary (after what parents teach their children).
- 25/01/2011 03:05:28 AM
996 Views
What, so you don't think students in high school should be taught foreign languages?
- 25/01/2011 06:34:21 PM
1029 Views
Irish is the mother tongue of about 7,000-15,000 people at most.
- 26/01/2011 05:04:00 AM
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Wikipedia says it's more like 40k-80k.
- 26/01/2011 06:41:41 PM
1422 Views
And Elaine, Stephen, or any other Irish people here: do feel free to comment.
*NM*
- 26/01/2011 06:42:36 PM
512 Views
*NM*
- 26/01/2011 06:42:36 PM
512 Views
More to the point, are YOU interested in learning Irish?
- 26/01/2011 05:15:18 AM
969 Views
Calling Ireland the new Sodom and Gomorrah, are you?
- 26/01/2011 06:02:05 PM
1115 Views
- 26/01/2011 06:02:05 PM
1115 Views
I don't think it's as fun as Sodom and Gomorrah, at least not post-crisis.
- 26/01/2011 09:48:54 PM
1065 Views
- 26/01/2011 09:48:54 PM
1065 Views
Re: I don't think it's as fun as Sodom and Gomorrah, at least not post-crisis.
- 27/01/2011 08:42:21 PM
951 Views
- 27/01/2011 08:42:21 PM
951 Views
Presumably because they agree with J.R.R. Tolkien and Tómas Sæmundsson about language's importance.
- 24/01/2011 10:16:05 PM
1108 Views
So Australians and New Zealanders are really English then? Austrians are just Germans?
- 25/01/2011 03:01:14 AM
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I never said I agreed
.
- 25/01/2011 08:19:11 AM
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.
- 25/01/2011 08:19:11 AM
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I would suggest that a distinct dialect does the job just as well
- 25/01/2011 02:23:59 PM
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The thing is, people who feel really strongly about that usually insist it's a separate language.
- 28/01/2011 04:20:57 PM
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It's really more about having a unique silly costume to wear at Miss Universe pageants.
- 26/01/2011 05:09:10 AM
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You're confusing what we sell to gullible American tourists with what we actually value
. *NM*
- 28/01/2011 04:15:01 PM
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. *NM*
- 28/01/2011 04:15:01 PM
459 Views
What the hell happened to the Celtic Tiger Country? *NM*
- 24/01/2011 05:47:12 AM
587 Views
The Celtic Tiger is dead, Ireland had a GDP contraction of 14% in the last two years.
- 24/01/2011 01:47:06 PM
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It's still there, but it aimed a bit too high and got a bit scorched.
- 24/01/2011 10:07:36 PM
912 Views
