Very sorry to hear it

"kim" wrote

I thought the promised referendum was on whether or not the proposed constitution for the EEC would be accepted. It didn't have anything to do with membership of the EEC as far as I'm aware.

John.

It amounts to one and the same thing. If the new constitution is not approved by every single member state then the EU treaty is dead and buried.

"In or out? That's the real question". [Tony Blair]

kim

"kim" wrote

Well we've managed without a constitution since joining over 30 years ago so I don't expect it will make an ha'p'orth of difference.

John.

In message , kim writes

I could, but I won't. By law we must have a general election in this country every five years or sooner, so that money would have had to be spent whether you like it or not.

Actually, I thought the only referenda that were proposed were for membership of the Euro (notice, not the EU) and there's no point in doing that as Gordon Brown's (in)famous conditions still are not met, and for the European Constitution, and there's no point in that until they sort out the current mess with France and the Netherlands voting "No".

He managed to cycle into a policeman, and there was that infamous pretzel incident in 2002 - you can hardly expect him to co-ordinate his suit and tie. :-))

I don't know why you got the idea I was in favor of the Iraq war, but you're wrong. I think it was one of the stupider things both our governments did.

OTOH, I am/was heartily in favor of going after OBL and the Taliban, I just think the way we went about it was ineffective. As witness the fact that we are still there and OBL is still loose.

I'm hoping that about 12 hours ago you got an email from me. (If so I'd rather the *origin* wasn't shared with folks - cheers)

That's hardly fair - we may be on the other side of the world, but we survive mostly by exporting. That is something of a tightrope walking exercise, especially when countries like Britain and the US are busy stirring up terrorism around the world and then moralizing that we should be helping.

Try learning a bit of your own history! Britain (my ancestors were British so I'm not exempt) blundered around the ME region drawing random lines on blank maps. The resulting borders run across tribal, racial and religious groupings. If you go kicking an Iraqi you may well be kicking a Saudi family or an Iranian or ...

I agree we don't know where the terrorists were from, but a lot of people have been upset by our British imperialisim, not to mention present day occupation and interference.

That's the bit I don't understand - why would anyone support warmongers if they're not making a buck from it?

New Zealanders did that from the Boer war through to Vietnam - it didn't do us much good.

So one small retaliation will justify your repression of the ME?

Sounds like it's time you started a new party!

I think the assumption was that you would reciprocate when the boogyman invaded Canada/Australia/New Zealand. The change that has come over NZers is that we no longer see your and the US's invasions of other nations as something we should support without good reason.

Regards, Greg.P.

I gather that there were a lot of policemen standing around waiting to be cycled into! :-) 10,000 odd. Can't he spend a few dollars to hire a "suit and tie co-ordinator"? Some of those "Intelligence" people who work for him would probably be capable of doing that job.

Regards, Greg.P.

I just now got back to the computer and there it was! Some mental gymnastics with GMT and daylight saving and I figured you wouldn't be at your desk for a few hours!

Thanks.

"Greg Procter" wrote

It's taboo to talk about the British imperial past in our schools today - the pc brigade have seen to that!

Funny though, isn't it, how they all flood to Britain to escape when their own regimes kick off. I didn't see many asylum-seekers from the former Yugoslavia queueing up for asylum in France, and we seem to have been inundated Iraqis in recent years.

John.

At Sat, 9 Jul 2005 10:24:49 +0100, message was posted by "John Turner" , including some, all or none of the following:

Yes, for some reason Britain has an international reputation for fairness and tolerance. Clearly not many expats take the Daily Mail...

Guy

Every western nation has benefitted from the military alliance with the USA.

On the contrary, New Zealand has earned the respect and admiration of freedom-loving nations throughout the world.

Britain cannot be seen to surrender to an act of terrorism..

(kim)

No. We are aware that New Zealand troops have intervened in the affairs of many islands in south-east asia (Papua New Gunea, Solomon Islands, countless small dependencies). We do not know if the intervention is justified or not but we still support the New Zealand government's policy. We know that New Zealander's are civilized people and assume that what they are doing is correct.

(kim)