A MT.O public service announcement

[Mr. Whippy]

As many of you know, MT.O has a large contingency from England Britain and Ireland British Empire British Isles UK country commonwealth-thingy.

In order to keep proper classification of these members, I link this youtube video to clear up the confusion.

[Grant Lamontagne]

At first I was scared to watch this.  Then, after watching it, I'm too confused to be scared....

Def

[Pacu]

informational!  i think that the voice guy did the micro-machine commercials in the 80s.

[NeitherExtreme]

Wow. I think I will now call all of you NESE's (Native English Speaking Europeans) from now on to avoid confusion.

Out of curiosity, how interconnected are the day-to-day laws in the four main UK countries?

[nuphoria]

It's all very straight forward.... we used to rule a lot of the world, and now we don't.

Sorry for any confusion caused

[Neil]

So what was tricky about that?

[Dunc]

Simples 

[AHB]

I lost track after about 3 min..

[Inzelique]

My head exploded 20 seconds from the end

[stressmaster5000]

Say that again?

[Sparky415]

( Yep far too much time with sheep    )

That seems OK to me 

[Medic82]

So the native English speaking folks can have their own Jersey Shores reality show

[Gareth]

That actually is pretty spot on.  I hadn't realised we still had so many Overseas Territories left though.

[Gareth]

Wow. I think I will now call all of you NESE's (Native English Speaking Europeans) from now on to avoid confusion.

Out of curiosity, how interconnected are the day-to-day laws in the four main UK countries?

That's actually a pretty complicated question in itself.  Basically they're often very similar, if not the same.  The one thing that the video says that I'd dispute is how our Parliamentary system works.  What the video seems to say is that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have independent , autonomous Parliaments.  It's not quite that simple, only some decision making has been moved over from Westminster (London) to the local Governments.  Even more confusing is that what powers have been passed over differs from Country to Country.  So the Scottish Parliament has different powers to the Welsh Assembly and the Northern Irish Assembly.  Clear?

[Gareth]

Wow. I think I will now call all of you NESE's (Native English Speaking Europeans) from now on to avoid confusion.

Out of curiosity, how interconnected are the day-to-day laws in the four main UK countries?

That's actually a pretty complicated question in itself.  Basically they're often very similar, if not the same.  The one thing that the video says that I'd dispute is how our Parliamentary system works.  What the video seems to say is that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have independent , autonomous Parliaments.  It's not quite that simple, only some decision making has been moved over from Westminster (London) to the local Governments.  Even more confusing is that what powers have been passed over differs from Country to Country.  So the Scottish Parliament has different powers to the Welsh Assembly and the Northern Irish Assembly.  Clear?

Oh and to make it even more complicated, this is all fairly recent.  For example the Scottish Parliament only reformed in 1999, having been dissolved in 1707 in the Union of the Crowns.  That said Scotland has always had a different (though broadly similar) legal system the the rest of the UK. Clearer?

[ari6126]

Another question: Why do the Brits love polls?

On topic, remember that in some ways the US is similar. "American" usually means from the US, but Canadians and Chileans are also from the Americas. The federal, state, and local governments all make laws about various things. The entire country doesn't even use the same legal system. Most of the US uses common law, but Louisiana uses civil law. In Puerto Rico, the local courts are in Spanish, but the federal courts are in English. Add in the Native American reservations and it doesn't really seem that simple. Then you have Guantanamo, the US Virgin Islands, Diego Garcia and the District of Columbia. I've been to places that take the US dollar that aren't in the US, and I've been in places in the US that take other money.

[NeitherExtreme]

Wow. I think I will now call all of you NESE's (Native English Speaking Europeans) from now on to avoid confusion.

Out of curiosity, how interconnected are the day-to-day laws in the four main UK countries?

That's actually a pretty complicated question in itself.  Basically they're often very similar, if not the same.  The one thing that the video says that I'd dispute is how our Parliamentary system works.  What the video seems to say is that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have independent , autonomous Parliaments.  It's not quite that simple, only some decision making has been moved over from Westminster (London) to the local Governments.  Even more confusing is that what powers have been passed over differs from Country to Country.  So the Scottish Parliament has different powers to the Welsh Assembly and the Northern Irish Assembly.  Clear?

Oh and to make it even more complicated, this is all fairly recent.  For example the Scottish Parliament only reformed in 1999, having been dissolved in 1707 in the Union of the Crowns.  That said Scotland has always had a different (though broadly similar) legal system the the rest of the UK. Clearer?

Thanks, interesting stuff. I'm only confused about that 1707 date... I thought history started in 1776.

[edcgear]

Now this explains much...

 

[nuphoria]

Another question: Why do the Brits love polls?

That's an easy one, we like to promote the illusion of democracy

[David]

Another question: Why do the Brits love polls?

That's an easy one, we like to promote the illusion of democracy

    

[Mercury]

Another question: Why do the Brits love polls?

That's an easy one, we like to promote the illusion of democracy

Ouch

[Shane769]

So the native English speaking folks can have their own Jersey Shores reality show

Guernsey Shore?

[Gareth]

So the native English speaking folks can have their own Jersey Shores reality show

Guernsey Shore?

[Shane769]

So the native English speaking folks can have their own Jersey Shores reality show

Guernsey Shore?

Less fist pumping, more POLLS!

[EvilOlivE]

This is very interesting, I saw this posted on another forum and thought it was pretty cool.  So hypothetically,  if you don't know exactly which country someone is from but you can tell they are from the British Isles somewhere, is it better to be safe and say they're from the British Isles or risk pissing off an Irish man by saying UK?     

[Gareth]

The whole accent thing can be tricky I agree, even within each individual Country there is HUGE differences from area to area.  Now I can't speak for the Irish (perhaps Cerbera could chime in here) but almost no-one I know would be offended if you called them British, just whatever you do don't call a Scotsman or Welshman "English". 

Luckily the Irish accent really is very distinctly different from any of the others and most get it right.  The trick is getting the Northern/Republic bit right.

[Mercury]

Now that I think about it, US accents are quite different too.  There is a huge difference in southern accents alone, and northern ones differ from east to west as well.  Then there's the whole boston thing.  I'm in texas, and we sound like we're from texas, but if you head to louisiana the difference is stark.  Then Georgia and the florida panhandle, they all sound ridiculously cliche' to me.  anyhoo, this may look pointless, but it is.