Cleese: 'London is no longer an English city'

[wub]

he was a sick sadistic psychotic individual with serious mental issues and ruled with fear not reasoning.

Much like Basil Fawlty.

[noam]

he was a sick sadistic psychotic individual with serious mental issues and ruled with fear not reasoning.

Much like Basil Fawlty.

zing.

[jugo]

If a person doesn't speak the language and still gets the job over you ..... your sh*t!

your = indicating ownership of something. eg. your english isn't very good.
you're = contraction of you and are. eg. you're in need of help.

you're misuse of these makes it difficult to understand what your trying to say.
are you pointing out whose shit (noun) it is, or describing someone as shit (adjective)?

[hutyluty]

dont see why everyone gets so caught up on "britishness" anyway, whats so great about our culture that its so superior to all these immigrants coming in. we're all people right and it was just chance which meant you were born into your particular tribe, yet some peoplecling onto their place as part of some form of master culture where the immigrants have to be civilised or something when they come in, due to our oh so noble traditions.

so what if london/leeds isnt very english, probably never was and tbh makes no diffrence to anyone if you just look at everyone you meet as a person rather than their background circumstances or whatever

or something

[magma]

London has never been an "English" city. It has a phenomenally powerful Mayor and City Government compared to any other city for very good reason - it has always been an enclave for trade, commerce and the melting together of culture.

Cleese is correct, but he could have said the same thing at any time during the last 1500 years. It's not a bad or good thing, it's just how London works.

Surprised the conversation lasted this long.

the conversation lasted this long because there's deeper issues than the demographic of the city of london, and these are being expressed and discussed, despite what Cleese says

Ah, you've gone off topic. Gotcha. You carry on being all fighty with the simpleton (he won't learn, but I'm sure you'll feel good)

[noam]

London has never been an "English" city. It has a phenomenally powerful Mayor and City Government compared to any other city for very good reason - it has always been an enclave for trade, commerce and the melting together of culture.

Cleese is correct, but he could have said the same thing at any time during the last 1500 years. It's not a bad or good thing, it's just how London works.

Surprised the conversation lasted this long.

the conversation lasted this long because there's deeper issues than the demographic of the city of london, and these are being expressed and discussed, despite what Cleese says

Ah, you've gone off topic. Gotcha. You carry on being all fighty with the simpleton (he won't learn, but I'm sure you'll feel good)

if you dont practice arguing with bad views you might get caught out believing one

big ups

[faust.dtc]

If a person doesn't speak the language and still gets the job over you ..... your sh*t!

your = indicating ownership of something. eg. your english isn't very good.
you're = contraction of you and are. eg. you're in need of help.

you're misuse of these makes it difficult to understand what your trying to say.
are you pointing out whose shit (noun) it is, or describing someone as shit (adjective)?

Erm...

[LACE]

We should never have joined the EU in my opinion. Thats basically said to all the smaller more deprived communities in Europe that they can come to our country and we will have open arms and a new life for them. They've realised this and taken advantage of it hence the over-run of all the other cultures. Lets face it its primarily people with little money looking for work coming to this country and moving to the big cities (because its where the money is) ... it's not multi-millionaires moving to this country. My opinion, our immigration laws should be like Australia's. If you have nothing to offer/provide this country - jog on.

Always the immigrants taking advantage.
Look here, plenty of born and bred Americans/British/Icelanders have nothing to offer their respective countries, unless you count income tax, which immigrants can also contribute to. (Bit of a different story these days with high unemployment though.)
I mean really..let go of your societal paranoia..also known as ''us against them'' mentality. All your information is skewed, the numbers are right in front of you. Open your eyes to real injustice, like England's deadlock for social mobility, the class divide,the cost of tuition, corporate tax cuts/avoidance, economic recession and a lack of concern for the demands of the underprivileged. Realize that those at the very top ( of your own nation) care little for you and your needs because you are not one of them, just as you do to those immigrants different from you.

[JBoy]

We should never have joined the EU in my opinion. Thats basically said to all the smaller more deprived communities in Europe that they can come to our country and we will have open arms and a new life for them. They've realised this and taken advantage of it hence the over-run of all the other cultures. Lets face it its primarily people with little money looking for work coming to this country and moving to the big cities (because its where the money is) ... it's not multi-millionaires moving to this country. My opinion, our immigration laws should be like Australia's. If you have nothing to offer/provide this country - jog on.

Always the immigrants taking advantage.
Look here, plenty of born and bred Americans/British/Icelanders have nothing to offer their respective countries, unless you count income tax, which immigrants can also contribute to. (Bit of a different story these days with high unemployment though.)
I mean really..let go of your societal paranoia..also known as ''us against them'' mentality. All your information is skewed, the numbers are right in front of you. Open your eyes to real injustice, like England's deadlock for social mobility, the class divide,the cost of tuition, corporate tax cuts/avoidance, economic recession and a lack of concern for the demands of the underprivileged. Realize that those at the very top ( of your own nation) care little for you and your needs because you are not one of them, just as you do to those immigrants different from you.

Lol i wonder if spacekid realises where the majority of englands population came from originally. Were more french and german than anything else so i dont see how he can complain about european immigration. My granddad was czech and fought in the war, if that doesnt warrant the life he got post war then i dont know what does.

[cosmic_surgeon]

I spent some time in Amsterdam recently, and the biggest difference I noticed between there and the UK is that there's FAR less commercialisation. There's so many more private businesses with a far more personal touch (and the architecture has managed to sustain itself well). You can't walk 5 minutes without coming across an Argentinian steak house, but it doesn't matter because there's something personal about every one of them. It didn't matter at all how many internationals there were there, what helped it retain its being was not letting corporations in as much as the UK. Not to say there weren't chains, there were just so few compared to here. In Leeds there's three Subways within ~5 mins of each other (among a heap of others). Amsterdam felt like a people's city.

I don't worry about West Indians or the French or Germans (I'm actually descended from Saxon invaders rofl) in the UK - I love having so many cultures here. Dubstep itself's a very UK phenomenon, but how could it be without the cultural cross-pollination at its foundations? How could the UK itself be without the influence of other cultures? I've already mentioned Saxons, but how many other countless archaic cultures came to form the UK? What's destroying the UK's own culture is commercialisation, not the integration of other cultures. The integration of other cultures is itself a cultural phenomenon, as is commercialisation. The difference is, one allows us to appreciate the beauty of the various ways of other people, while the other is an artefact of a modern inclination towards function at the cost of beauty.

[bright maroon]

Sometimes people need to say things in order to work them out...
To face damnation at every misplaced sentiment is not good.

and on that note..I have another story - an example really..

South Street in Philadelphia - has always been a Bohemian mecca..

Shops and places for every kind of freak imaginable...underground record shops of every varity
punk stuff-headshops-eastern bookstores-piercing places-vintage clothing-skate shops-food of every ethnic variety-art stuff
you name it - its there - been a favorite destination point for me since I was about 14.

Well it went bling.

..and I don't mean "scary black person" - because there always been sneaker shops and urban clothing and graffiti stuff..

I mean it went BLINGGYY...high end handbags and shoes...$250 jeans...Fuckin' Ed Hardy Vomit..Rocawear

Well - the rent went up and immediatly drove out all (not all but alot) of the cool shops...
- the ones selling the beautiful $60 guatamalan sweaters..gone

hippies and pastafarians and beats do not mix well with Divas...

This to me was more of a gentrification spurned by ego driven drug dealers and their shitty taste.
The whole vibe of the area changed..

[capo ultra]

Sometimes people need to say things in order to work them out...
To face damnation at every misplaced sentiment is not good.

I don't think Cleese is facing damnation lol

sometimes misplaced sentiment needs to be recognised as misplaced sentiment lest others recognise this misplaced sentiment as fact

[bright maroon]

sometimes misplaced sentiment needs to be recognised as misplaced sentiment lest others recognise this misplaced sentiment as fact

right - I agree...just don't bite off face in process - Please

[brasco]

I tell you what, and it sickens me, everywhere you go in this country you see fucking them. Just laying about in the middle of the day, not giving a flying fuck about anyone but themselves. They only bother acknowledging you when they want something, especially food.
Oh and got to pay for their health care to haven't we, and I don't know about you but my insurance premiums are going through the roof. Sometimes you see one, reach out a hand and they just shun you, I mean what is the fucking point of them?!

Before we even talk about immigration, we need to address the fact that this once great country has way too many cats.

Cats also probably ruined dubstep

[capo ultra]

and they killing all our birds without no permit


mentally dead motherfuckers

[jugo]

If a person doesn't speak the language and still gets the job over you ..... your sh*t!

your = indicating ownership of something. eg. your english isn't very good.
you're = contraction of you and are. eg. you're in need of help.

you're misuse of these makes it difficult to understand what your trying to say.
are you pointing out whose shit (noun) it is, or describing someone as shit (adjective)?

Erm...

lol that's embarrassing

i changed it at the last minute, but didn't check.

*goes off to write 100 times 'you/you're'*

[bright maroon]

see - I cannot buy it now. I needed that.

[Kodachrome]

and they killing all our birds without no permit


mentally dead motherfuckers

smoking fucking rat poison! dumb fuckers smoking rat poison!

[NilsFG]

Lol @ how you're all having a hissy-fit about something trivial Cleese has said.

I live near Brussels, and my university's in Brussels, so I know a few things about the city. In 2001, 45% of the (official) population was an allochtoon.
Now it is guessed it's around 57%, some sources even say 67%, but it's probably still 57%. Now, I'm not complaining, but it is fair to say that when lot's of migration happens, local culture makes place for newer cultures .
A point about which lots of discussion happens; "should we adapt to them or should they adapt to us". Well, in reality, both scenarios happen, and it's not only an observation but also a truth that the local (as in culture in Brussels/Belgium) changes because of that and that lots of the older traditions disappear faster than they usually would.

I can imagine this happening in London too, hence what Cleese said.
He just made an observation about how some of the culture of England disappears and changes because of multiculturalism. That's not a fucking racist comment, it's a sociologic fact.
For some people (please note how I said SOME, as in NOT ALL PEOPLE) multiculturalism is like the holocaust. It's there but don't dare to talk about it! If what you say is good, everything's ok, but if it's bad or neutral you're a fucking racist, should be locked up in jail and raped in the showers.
And it's exactly that what makes arguing about multiculturalism so fucking hard.

Now if you think the comment I made is offensive you're seriously a butthurt person.

[capo ultra]

Lol @ how you're all having a hissy-fit about something trivial Cleese has said.

no one has? have you read the thread?

That's not a fucking racist comment

don't think anyone said it was?