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John Cleese is funny as heck! but seriously, if that was to happen we'd be at war.

Keith Rasputin wrote:

> Yes but that London is mostly England to most Londoners in
> fact...

I've heard tell of strange lands outside the M25... but assumed it was a wind-up.

c.j.jaxxon wrote:

> John Cleese is funny as heck! but seriously, if that was to
> happen we'd be at war.

A century ago, the prospect of a US/British war was a serious one.

The main reason that Britain maintained a part of Ireland as a colony, was because of the expectation of a coming war with America, so needing a Western defence outpost against an attack by sea.

We cleverly avoided this war by dropping our pants and grabbing our ankles whenever the Yanks told us to.

The weirdest thing is, there was a real chance that Britain and the 'Good ol' U.S.A. could go to war against each other as recently as 1927; when America increased it's naval fleet and started to match the British.

warren zevon rip wrote:

> Eh? In 1907 the perceived enemy was plainly Germany, not the
> USA. The last time UK and US had fought had been in the early
> 1800s.

Countries always keep an eye on more than one potential enemy. Yes in 1907 Germany was the biggest threat but by 1920 it was Russia and America - but the US was always seen as a potential threat, till after WW2.

In practise, the threat has been born out and the US empire has taken over territory that used to be part of the British empire (Saudi, Iraq, Afghanistan...) But the Americans never had to attack us to take it - WW2 weakened us severely and left the Americans a free run to stroll in and take over. British strategy since then has accepted the strength of America and we tag along on their coat-tails.

If you look at US strategy today you can see them lining up wars with different enemies over a period of years. In the short term they're after Iran, but long term they're planning to take on Russia and China. This is how British strategy used to be, and the US was always a potential enemy.

I think the ultimate irony of Mr Cheese (Cleese) is that he currently resides in the USA. But that would, of course, be lost on the American's as the don't understand irony.

How long before the slovenly "of" replaces "have"? Initially it was just verbal but now its being written.

Mart

Current calculations show that if Scotland were independent tomorrow, with all oil revenues going to Holyrood rather than Westminster, the average Scottish tax payer would have to have their taxes increased by ?5000 per annum to match current spending.

I was watching a debate in the scottish parliament on BBC Parliament (yes, sad I know!) and this is what the Labour politician said. When asked to respond to this fact, the SNP politician just avoided the issue and, when pushed by the Labour politician, avoided it again! I suggest you look up the 'Barnett Formula' on wikipedia. It is very interesting.