Not going to happen anytime soon as it would be so boring, what would you talk about if you couldn't complain about the Council, the Government, taxes.
Lots of places have their own”thought processes”. That’s how some languages have words which cannot be translated into English - because the speakers of these languages have their own thought processes. Take a look at these: https://swaplanguage.com/blog/lost-in-translation-20-meaningful-words-with-no-english-equivalent/ Hiraeth is a lovely Welsh word that I as an English person wouldn’t dare to try and translate. Somebody on this link has had a try, but it’s a poor translation, same as “Saudade”. People in my area traditionally used words that summed up their feelings for their fellow men. “Mardy” describes a child that continually whimpers and cries about the unfairness of life. “Mither” describes the sense of irritation that the parent of that child feels. “Give over, yer mardy bum, mithering me all day long.” “Maungy” describes a peevish person of any age. So you could be mithered by a maungy mardy bum. We are a friendly lot in my home county.
I'm not sure the, "we are bigger than you" thing is going to cut much mustard this side of the pond, we are fairly clever, and most of us tend to know that. The "we are bigger and everything we have is bigger" is kind of what pisses off most of the world. Just need a bit of quiet, " we are good, but we dont sh*t on everyone else", it makes you appear much bigger. Try it some time.
@redstar you compared Texas to France. Interesting moving of the goal posts to compare the whole of the USA with France as a reply to a simple comparison of some basic statistics for France and Texas. You'd be better off comparing the USA to the EU in terms of population and achievements. Have you ever visited France? Do you have any understanding of its history, culture, where it's people are from and how they've developed their current way of life and government? I have visited Texas and have to say it's a very strange place with people driving round at all times of day in pick ups with rifles strapped to the cabin and bars. I was staying in Austin, its capital, visiting OH who was working on a project for IBM. We toured about a bit as we drove over tyo the Big Bend national park and then flew on to the Grand Canyon and finally San Francisco. Can't tell you how glad I was to find fish and vegetables on the menu there.
Is that different to wooing the likes of Lord Alli for funding then? How many politicians, especially those in cabinet, are poor? How many millionaires and big businesses are bank-rolling all political parties? How many millions do the unions bankroll Labour with? You're not telling me that none of that, regardless of party, comes without strings.
@Fat Controller I am all for more controls over funding for political parties including reducing the amounts allowed from big organisations be they businesses, unions or lobby groups and a ban on funding from any person or organsiation that is not domiciled and paying taxes in the country concerned be it the UK or any other.
So how would you suggest that parties raise sufficient funding then? As soon as any organisation, or person, makes any form of donation they effectively become a lobbyist. Even those donations that could be deemed to be relatively small, still have the potential (and indeed have led) to corruption of one form or another. It seems that when it is Labour that are being corrupt that more folks are willing to turn a blind eye...
@Fat Controller for me a lobbyist is someone paid by interested parties to try and influence political decisions be they at local council, national government, EU, WHO, UN or anything else that get sto decide how public funding is spent and who benefits from it. As for funding parties, just think how nice it would be if political parties had to have simpler, quieter, shorter campaigns and could no longer afford to throw money at newspapers, broadcasting companies and other forms of publicity and if there were time limits on canvassing. Make them all produce written manifestos we can read for ourselves and then be held to account on their promises such as reducing the cost of groceries, improving health care, cutting waiting lists, providing adequate housing and whatever else they think will win votes. It would have stopped Boris with his bus of lies and Labour would not have been able to cut the winter fuel allowance as it wasn't mentioned anywhere.
I guess you still don't understand, so will make it simple. Manager A opens up a shop and he runs the shop in that shop he has 5 staff of diverse backgrounds. Manager B opens up 20 shops and he runs the 20 shops, each shop has 5 staff of diverse backgrounds All shops are the same. It is obvious the same management style cannot be the same for Manager A and Manager B. Same with all countries.
