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Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
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A small point but one which has arisen down here among my own bevy of health and educational professionals. To what extent, Chad, can your wife discuss 'cousin marriage' and other cultural i.e. racial i.e. racist causative factors freely with her colleagues?
Our multicultural society has long leapt the tenuous bounds of both Europe and the Commonwealth -- the latest is the quite extraordinarily large numbers of Somalis -- so we are soon going to have to really get down to discussing what 'multicultural' actually requires on the ground. The French bludgeon model of demanding all shall be French in word and deed is hopeless but our own three-step programme 'ignore, cherish, panic' is not much better.
What about a Ministry of Minorities since government machinery is apparently being shaken all about by Dom? The Welsh, Scots, poor, women, northerners and handicapped have already been covered so there's no new principle involved.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
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As I have pointed out before, when I'm in a crowd -- say at a party or on the top of a London bus -- I often notice that I am the only person present who doesn't belong to a minority. So today's multicultural society might be like the old British Army paybook situation: where it says 'Religion' you have to put in an actual religion. You're not allowed to say None, Atheist, Agnostic etc. This was not because the British Army was unenlightened, it just knew that every squaddie would put 'None' if it meant getting out of Church Parade. We should all be allowed to belong to a minority. That's only fair.
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Chad

In: Ramsbottom
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To what extent, Chad, can your wife discuss 'cousin marriage' and other cultural i.e. racial i.e. racist causative factors freely with her colleagues? |
Only within a small trusted group of close friends.
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Chad

In: Ramsbottom
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I often notice that I am the only person present who doesn't belong to a minority | .
We should all be allowed to belong to a minority. |
The elderly?
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Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
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Unless the cousins are being imported... |
It occurs to me that they might very well be and that this is exacerbating the situation.
It can be extrapolated from people-smuggling (and its attendant risks) that legitimate permission to live in Britain is worth a five or even six figure sum. Spousal permission has become more and more hedged around but the situation, as far as I know, is that it is still possible where a degree of long term commitment can be shown on both sides. An arranged marriage (for cash) wouldn't fit the bill but an arranged marriage (for real, between cousins) almost certainly would.
It is a strange concept to us, marrying someone because we are told to, but if it is worth, directly or indirectly, a five or six figure sum, even we might give it a whirl. People used to it would surely jump at the chance.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
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Not any more. We are dealing, remember, with disadvantaged minorities. And it can only get worse i.e. better, as we live longer and longer and the ladder is drawn up to keep more and more grey voters safe from the depredations of the working population. Hence my proposal that the voting age should not be lowered for the young but for the old. You may be entitled to live out your days on the fruits of your working life but not on the fruits of other people's working lives. Apart from me.
I see they want to abolish the free telly licence for the over seventy-fives. That'll go through the day after the licence fee is abolished. However everything will change when the thousand pounds a week it costs to keep an ageing demographic in sheltered accommodation exceeds the Gross National Product. So long, suckers, we were the Golden Generation.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
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This will surprise you. According to the Numbeo Crime Index Ranking, the ten most dangerous cities in Europe are
10th—Malmo, Sweden
9th — Naples, Italy
8th — Nice, France
7th — Minsk, Belarus
6th — Nantes, France
5th — Catania, Sicily
4th — Birmingham, United Kingdom
3rd — Marseille, France
2nd —Coventry, United Kingdom
1st — Bradford, United Kingdom
For Birmingham, Coventry and Bradford to beat both the Camorra and the Mafia means only one thing. The Godfather Part Four begins shooting at Pinewood.
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Boreades

In: finity and beyond
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Mick Harper wrote: |
1st — Bradford, United Kingdom
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According to M'Lady, that's because it's near Happy Valley. She's expecting a sharp rise in the death toll this evening (final ever episode).
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