Democracy - a good system?

And yet each countries Euro sceptics like to think they invented the whole idea :lol:

 

It is quite amusing to me that a fair-sized chunk of the EU Parliament is made up of Euro-sceptics! :lol:

How much do we hate each other?

 

You've got to spend sceptics to make sceptics Ricky!

 

I suppose we don't trust people of wildly differing cultures whom we've been fighting on and off for the last 2000 years to do what is best for us!

 

2000 years??
Britain does barely have half that age.

 

Actually:
England is around 1,600 years old,
Britain is far far older. Same age as Gallic France.

The Celtic chaps who were here from... whenever humans were in the area, are the British
The Germanic chaps who came over after the Romans left in ~400AD are the English

We were happily fighting off Roman invasions in 54BC, so 2000 years+ of warfare there...

 

But these early britons had nothing to do with todays english.Britain was not much more than a geographic name by then.There never was any british nation during the roman times, only different tribes.

They felt as much british as american indians felt us citizens before Columbus.

The entity that is England today emerged (like France)in the early middle ages.Only with this process could the feeling of "being english"developp.

 

English & British are very different things.
Why do you think the Scots/Irish/Welsh hate us so much?
(Amusing sidenote - 'Welsh' is Anglo-Saxon for 'foreigner' )

It is true that we did not really gain a national identity until the conquest of England by Wessex in the late 800s - and even then it was shaky.
However, just because we lacked a national identity then does not mean that we did not fight you. Our perception now (which is mostly what the Victorians drempt up!) is that Glorious Britain (sing "Land of Hope & Glory", "Rule Britannia" and wave a Union Jack around) is and has always been 'Great' Britain in every sense of the word.

To summarise (I wander too much)

Men from here have fought men from there for 2000 years.

Heck, we invaded Normandy in 1000AD.

 

I have read in magazines that the so-called "Neo-Nazi" movement is gaining strength in Europe, as is anti-Semitism in general. Is this true?

 

That is rather complicated.
I can only speak for France, and here there is not much neo nazism(I know it is really a problem in some other countries.)

There is however a right wing party in France(National Front) that usually gets around 15% of voices.This party could partially be described as extremist.

Anti semitism is said to increase however this also comes from the fact that many people interprete criticising a specific israeli politic as anti semitism which of course it isn't.
And there is also some anti semitism among the muslim minority.
But in general I would not say that in Europe such views are really increasing.

 

As far as I know there is no organized and in any way popular Dutch neo-nazi movement. Only small splinter groups, mostly ignorance-driven brickbrains who don't know what they're really shouting for. The extremist right wing in Dutch politics has given way for the more moderately right-wing parties, and by a recent election outcome extremost right parties had practically no votes in all the land.

If any group is actively being discriminated and hated in Holland then it's the muslems.

 

That last is becoming true here, too, for obvious reasons.

 

better than the alternatives. every system has a pyramid affect, a few on the top a bulk at the middle and a large amount on the bottom.

 

Democracy is better than the alternatives, no doubt about it.