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zakazaka

Listed below are comments made by zakazaka between Tuesday, 29th July 2008 and Sunday, 19th October 2008.

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Ethnicity and the five-year-old 8:41pm on 19 Oct 2008 @ delminister (#5)

1) you say that the study is flawed, then say that it shows that the concept of a multi-cultural society has failed. So the report is good for nothing, except when it comes to supporting your argument?

2) none of the available groups were "British" because British is a nationality, not an ethnicity. English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh can (arguably) be considered as such, but the modern concept of Britishness only came into being during the 17th century. Perhaps it is confusing that we have to group ethnic minorities along national lines, but it is a consensus reached among statisticians and sociologists, not evidence that all people with darker skin are loyal to their ancestral homeland. I also find it slightly offensive that you exclude non-whites from your definition of Britishness. Who asked you?

3) It is true that a multi-ethnic society will not always be successful, but a mono-cultural approach is what has most often lead to violence in the Middle East and South-Eastern Europe, not multi-culturalism. Oh, and you seem to be almost as confused with terminology as you are with idiom.

4) Perhaps it is unkind of me to say so, but I find it ironic that most 10 year olds (from whichever minority) would have a better grasp of the English language than you do; I'd have a long hard look at yourself before you start to point the finger at people just because they are different from yourself.
Autumn challenges for EU 4:19pm on 29 Jul 2008 Freeborn-John,

Should the BBC report mere speculation? The Irish "no" is of course a big issue, but is it completely balanced to report a "federalist" conspiracy to "overthrow" the result of the Irish referendum?

The 'Le Monde' article you linked to in your comment on Mark's post about France's "nuclear future" (relevance?) talks about the possibility of rerunning the referendum based on a guarantee that the 27-member Commission remains in place. This would be quite a dramatic change to the terms on which people voted.

Given that the proposed reduction is an important issue for national interests, isn't it quite conceivable that for many of the 862,415 Irish who voted "no", the prospect of losing a guaranteed Irish commissioner tipped the balance in the original vote? I would only have taken 60,000-odd for this to be the case...

Don't misunderstand me, I disagree with the idea of a rerun in Ireland for a number of reasons; however, a second referendum based on revised terms is not "overthrowing" the original decision, nor is it in fact "overturning" it. Anyway, it probably won't even happen.

As for BBC bias, is it unkind of me to suggest that you are equating being fair to the EU with being pro-EU? And I like reading about Cornish Pasties!

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