Ireland/UK: Why We Fight

[Blazes Boylan]

I Didn’t Hate the English — Until Now
In which an Irish woman discovers how little the
people who shaped her country’s fate know or care.

Last month, some video footage went viral in Ireland of a group of English men verbally abusing young women at a Dublin housing crisis protest. The men, it turned out, were part of a bachelor party who had come from Bristol and seemed to be dressed intentionally to look like a cartoon of landed gentry, in tweeds and the loudly colored trousers widely beloved by braying men of a certain kind.

It would have been a strange incident in any case, these English men who look like relics of the landlord class shouting at young Irish people rendered desperate because of skyrocketing rents, but it was to become more absurd still. After calling the women “scroungers” and demanding to know whether they had jobs, one of the men took the decapitated head of a pigeon out of his pocket and threw it at them.
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The secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Karen Bradley, recently admitted with startling candor that she didn’t know basic facts about the politics of the region where she is in charge: that nationalists — those who seek a united Ireland — won’t vote for unionist parties, and vice versa. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the arcane M.P. who looks as though he has been extracted from the nightmare of a Victorian child, has suggested bringing back border checks “as we had during the Troubles.”
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[silverjug]

I Didn’t Hate the English — Until Now
In which an Irish woman discovers how little the
people who shaped her country’s fate know or care.

Last month, some video footage went viral in Ireland of a group of English men verbally abusing young women at a Dublin housing crisis protest. The men, it turned out, were part of a bachelor party who had come from Bristol and seemed to be dressed intentionally to look like a cartoon of landed gentry, in tweeds and the loudly colored trousers widely beloved by braying men of a certain kind.

It would have been a strange incident in any case, these English men who look like relics of the landlord class shouting at young Irish people rendered desperate because of skyrocketing rents, but it was to become more absurd still. After calling the women “scroungers” and demanding to know whether they had jobs, one of the men took the decapitated head of a pigeon out of his pocket and threw it at them.
+
The secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Karen Bradley, recently admitted with startling candor that she didn’t know basic facts about the politics of the region where she is in charge: that nationalists — those who seek a united Ireland — won’t vote for unionist parties, and vice versa. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the arcane M.P. who looks as though he has been extracted from the nightmare of a Victorian child, has suggested bringing back border checks “as we had during the Troubles.”
++

I hate to say this but these pieces of trash can be encountered in the UK as well. Big mouths and small brains and feel very brave when in a herd.

 

[MarziPanda]

I feel like using this one incident to suddenly hate the English is... a little unfair? It's a horrible incident to be sure, and it should never have happened, but how many English people go on holiday in Ireland, live and work in Ireland, with no trouble at all? And vice versa for Irish people in England. There's a new generation of youngsters around who want to live more peacefully, and that should be encouraged. Like silverjug said, this kind of trash can be found anywhere. Football hooliganism, but this time without the football. They're not representative of how English people feel about Ireland.

And yes, May should have chosen someone else to be the SoS for Northern Ireland. Preferably, someone from Northern Ireland! I didn't agree with that either, but then again I have a general dislike for her and her party.

 

[zedda]

From OP

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the arcane M.P. who looks as though he has been extracted from the nightmare of a Victorian child​

lol

 

[imstilla.grandma]

I Didn’t Hate the English — Until Now
In which an Irish woman discovers how little the
people who shaped her country’s fate know or care.

Last month, some video footage went viral in Ireland of a group of English men verbally abusing young women at a Dublin housing crisis protest. The men, it turned out, were part of a bachelor party who had come from Bristol and seemed to be dressed intentionally to look like a cartoon of landed gentry, in tweeds and the loudly colored trousers widely beloved by braying men of a certain kind.

It would have been a strange incident in any case, these English men who look like relics of the landlord class shouting at young Irish people rendered desperate because of skyrocketing rents, but it was to become more absurd still. After calling the women “scroungers” and demanding to know whether they had jobs, one of the men took the decapitated head of a pigeon out of his pocket and threw it at them.
+
The secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Karen Bradley, recently admitted with startling candor that she didn’t know basic facts about the politics of the region where she is in charge: that nationalists — those who seek a united Ireland — won’t vote for unionist parties, and vice versa. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the arcane M.P. who looks as though he has been extracted from the nightmare of a Victorian child, has suggested bringing back border checks “as we had during the Troubles.”
++

In a blistering critique of how the Northern Ireland Civil Service operates, Comptroller and Auditor General Kieran Donnelly made clear that he does not believe Stormont civil servants are currently treating taxpayers’ money with appropriate care and respect. Mr Donnelly, a man who rarely speaks in public but whose job involves poring over government accounts and quizzing civil servants, spoke bluntly to Sir Patrick Coghlin’s RHI Inquiry ahead of its final week of evidence next week. Yesterday was another day of grim evidence for the body of civil servants who next week Secretary of State Karen Bradley plans to give the power to take ministerial decisions without any democratic oversight.
He said: “It is clear to me that value for money is not front and centre in the mindset of too many civil servants...and maybe not enough interest is taken in the issue of over-compensation.”
Mr Donnelly, who has spent three and a half decades in the Northern Ireland Audit Office, said he believed that civil servants got more “brownie points” for meeting targets and spending public money than they did for achieving value for money for taxpayers.
Mr Donnelly said: “You’ve captured that perfectly. As I have thought more and more about this particular case, I think we could make many recommendations about things like risk management and project management, all the rest of it – but unless there’s a step change in the behaviour, culture and leadership, we’re not going to make nearly enough progress.”
Spend taxpayers’ money as if it is your own, auditor tells civil servants

 

[Laughing]

I hate to say this but these pieces of trash can be encountered in the UK as well. Big mouths and small brains and feel very brave when in a herd.

IMHO these pieces of trash (sadly) have no geographic limits at all....

As a person of Welsh/Scot/Irish heritage, with cousins in Australia (transportation) and South Africa (Boer War) yeah this stings.

 

[evenadams]

The only startling part of the headline in the Times was the " -- Until Now."

 

[silverjug]

In a blistering critique of how the Northern Ireland Civil Service operates, Comptroller and Auditor General Kieran Donnelly made clear that he does not believe Stormont civil servants are currently treating taxpayers’ money with appropriate care and respect. Mr Donnelly, a man who rarely speaks in public but whose job involves poring over government accounts and quizzing civil servants, spoke bluntly to Sir Patrick Coghlin’s RHI Inquiry ahead of its final week of evidence next week. Yesterday was another day of grim evidence for the body of civil servants who next week Secretary of State Karen Bradley plans to give the power to take ministerial decisions without any democratic oversight.
He said: “It is clear to me that value for money is not front and centre in the mindset of too many civil servants...and maybe not enough interest is taken in the issue of over-compensation.”
Mr Donnelly, who has spent three and a half decades in the Northern Ireland Audit Office, said he believed that civil servants got more “brownie points” for meeting targets and spending public money than they did for achieving value for money for taxpayers.
Mr Donnelly said: “You’ve captured that perfectly. As I have thought more and more about this particular case, I think we could make many recommendations about things like risk management and project management, all the rest of it – but unless there’s a step change in the behaviour, culture and leadership, we’re not going to make nearly enough progress.”
Spend taxpayers’ money as if it is your own, auditor tells civil servants

Let's be honest, taxpayers money is thrown around willy nilly in the UK ,we are a bottomless pit.

An example: I not long ago moved to the West Country in the UK (I am English), the local council were find £2.5k by the ombudsman because they continually ignored a directive to remove some decking. They were given 18 months to do this. A drop in the ocean, and just shows tax payer/community charge payers are treated with contempt.

 

[silverjug]

IMHO these pieces of trash (sadly) have no geographic limits at all....

As a person of Welsh/Scot/Irish heritage, with cousins in Australia (transportation) and South Africa (Boer War) yeah this stings.[/QUOTE


I am English with very little other heritage, but my husband is Irish, and to be honest most countries have some of their citizens which they are less than proud of. Their seems a lack of restraint in some people, with/without alcohol.