You had better start reading my posts a little bit more closely before you start calling me a liar, buster. If you read what I wrote correctly you would see that I was quoting one or two friends who were not happy about Gurkha citizenship. I never said anything about the entire British public. So please keep polite and civil. I would hate to have you fall into a snit like Terry-Thomas in “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.”
My friends are all theatre professionals; some of them you may know by name. None of whom belong to the BNP or the EDL. I suppose they have just seen too many changes in their lifetime and they are hurt and bewildered and include Gurkhas in their general anger.
And, again, if you don’t think America engages in self-criticism over our recent and present past, you are living on another planet. But we do not and never have had an Empire. Great Britain did.
And if you’d like to read an orgy of self-pity towards England while expressing a blistering hatred towards America, I recommend Caryll Churchill’s short play “Drunk Enough to say I Love You.” I was forced to sit through this nasty bit of xenophobia several years ago at The Royal Court.
I didnt saw you were a liar (now who is misreading?), I said you made statements about the UK that didnt hold up, were incorrect.
You said several friends and made a reference to their disgust being related to dark skin. At that sorry I had to object and reply, as I wont let accusations of British racism pass unchallenged. As along with Ireland, we are probably the least racist and antisemitic country in Europe, and have rejected right wing (and other) extremism from the 1930’s to 2011. Any FR’er could have taken your comment to suggest a general racist attitude in Britain.
Let alone most freepers are unaware of the love in the UK for the Gurkhas. Another point I had to make.
Re Empire, I didnt say the US was an imperial power a la the British, Roman or French empires, I said that at times the US HAS BEHAVED like a colonial power. Conquest, expansion and subjugation. Sorry, but thats a fact.
America tried to annex Canada twice(and twice got a very bloody nose). Manifest Destiny, the Mexican American war, the Spanish American war, the Phillipenes, Central and South America. America in the 19th and early 20th century was a rapacious imperial power like us in all but name.
Wasnt it Twain who said the US was behaving so badly that the Stars and Stripes?. Wasnt it Smedley Butler who said he acted like a high class thug for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers?.
I didnt saw you were a liar (now who is misreading?), I said you made statements about the UK that didnt hold up, were incorrect.
You said several friends and made a reference to their disgust being related to dark skin. At that sorry I had to object and reply, as I wont let accusations of British racism pass unchallenged. As along with Ireland, we are probably the least racist and antisemitic country in Europe, and have rejected right wing (and other) extremism from the 1930’s to 2011. Any FR’er could have taken your comment to suggest a general racist attitude in Britain.
Let alone most freepers are unaware of the love in the UK for the Gurkhas. Another point I had to make.
Re Empire, I didnt say the US was an imperial power a la the British, Roman or French empires, I said that at times the US HAS BEHAVED like a colonial power. Conquest, expansion and subjugation. Sorry, but thats a fact.
America tried to annex Canada twice(and twice got a very bloody nose). Manifest Destiny, the Mexican American war, the Spanish American war, the Phillipenes, Central and South America. America in the 19th and early 20th century was a rapacious imperial power like us in all but name.
Wasnt it Twain who said the US was behaving so badly that the Stars and Stripes should be changed for the skull and crossbones?. Wasnt it Smedley Butler who said he acted like a high class thug for American big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers?.