News / Poland torpedoes EU Day Against Death Penalty [71]

I just hope the aphids and vine-weevils don't agree with the death penalty - I'd be done for.

History / Polish Jews - they changed their Jewish surnames to Polish [532]


Oliver Cromwell invited them back in 1657, over 367 years after they had been brutally evicted by Edward I in 1290.
There was a small number of Jews living secretly in England in the intervening years, particularly in later times.


I agree that most grand conspiracy theories don't add up because everything seems to be more of a mess than a well organised elite would possibly settle for.

News / English vs. Polish hostility [323]


Fair enough.

I've never met a truly average person.
I've met people with dodgy opinions, weak minds and so on.
I know people who buy the Daily Mail every day, just for the crosswords.

Language / (part 2) Polish Language Pronunciation - Sample Words and Phrases [311]

I've noticed that the k or p in krz, prz can be fairly weakly pronounced,
but you did state in your first post here that the k is pronounced.

Language / (part 2) Polish Language Pronunciation - Sample Words and Phrases [311]

Because there are some difficult consonant clusters in Polish,
some people try to simplify their names for the benefit of speakers of other languages.

Not that this name is difficult for the English speaker.

It does include the 'rz' letter combination that stands for something like the English 'sh'.

The stress should be on the first syllable.

Language / (part 2) Polish Language Pronunciation - Sample Words and Phrases [311]

Mike Shack

News / Poland torpedoes EU Day Against Death Penalty [71]

I have stated before that how the prison system is administrated
does not affect fundamental moral principles.
These principles should affect the administration of prisons.
It is a shame that they don't.

News / English vs. Polish hostility [323]


And you're an average what?

News / English vs. Polish hostility [323]


It is not only governments who wield political power.
If a tabloid in the UK such as The Sun endorses a party in a general election, they will probably win.
Money speaks loudest.

News / English vs. Polish hostility [323]


Luckily, America is well known enough without him.
Still, there are always the sheep...

News / English vs. Polish hostility [323]


You're probably right.

I don't go for conspiracy theories that say everythings all controlled by X and/or Y,
but the media is controlled by a small number of people - fate has allowed this to happen.
They have their agenda, based mostly on the idea that pandering to the lowest common denominator
will lead to greatest sales, greatest profit.
This means preying on people's small-mindedness, nimbyisms and insecurities is the way they generally go.

Most people should be credited with more awareness and intelligence.
So what goes out to the world as the situation in this country is a slightly warped interpretation.

News / English vs. Polish hostility [323]


I wonder where you get this impression from.
Some parts of the British media like to stir things up.
The reality, I believe, nearly always, is far more mundane.
Occasionally, stories pop up that sell newspapers.

News / Poland torpedoes EU Day Against Death Penalty [71]

This is moving on from live or die to more specific points about how to deal with convicts.

Prisoners should be made to do something more constructive.
Partly so they don't have such an easy time, but also
those who have never done anything useful in their lives
may actually get something out of it - some sort of work ethic. You never know.

PD, My job involves digging holes in the rain, in the cold, in snow even.
I get covered in mud in the winter, sunburnt in summer (if I'm lucky)
I have to lift things heavier than the health & safety legislation would accept,
and I'm not paid very much!

I wouldn't wish this on convicts.
It's far too much fun!

News / English vs. Polish hostility [323]


No. It would not have been the fault of the Poles in Ireland if the Irish had found their presence particularly troublesome.
I assume you haven't read any of my posts in other threads.
Maybe I shouldn't have expected you to have done so.


Here is a statement that is not naming a specific country,
It is an example of a situation that has been the case with many countries.


Not specifically Polish people - any incoming group.

How, from this, can you think I am specifically blaming Poles, or even the incomers rather than the native population?

News / English vs. Polish hostility [323]


Stop being pathetic. What is your problem?

If a country has little or no experience of immigration,
it might not be a suprise if the indigenous population have a problem
with people different to themselves appearing on the scene.

News / English vs. Polish hostility [323]


Never met anyone who finds being a victim easier than thinking and doing positive?

News / English vs. Polish hostility [323]

If you migrate, you are a migrant.

Many species of bird migrate twice a year.
Migration does not mean settlement.

Immigrate - to migrate into a place
Emigrate - to migrate out of a place

Guest worker: I believe this is a term used in some European countries.
I didn't think the term has any official usage in the UK.

News / English vs. Polish hostility [323]

You could understand the situation in Ireland being difficult (which don't I believe it is)
because that is a country that for a long time until recently, only ever experienced emigration.

News / English vs. Polish hostility [323]

I have little knowledge of the situation in America.
However, if half the population votes, then half of the Latin 15% of the population is worth grabbing if you're trying to get elected.
A few speeches in Spanish, a couple of policies that supposedly appeal to them.
A 3% of the population group won't be singled out as a specific concern.

In the UK, therre are plenty of jobs that need filling.
Not everyone is prepared to take these jobs.
People come in to do them.
Some people like to play the victim.

Why have the English been singled out in the title of this thread?
What about Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish, Irish, other European nations with an influx of Polish migrants?

If anyone doesn't know the differences between terms such as English, British, the UK, I can explain!

News / English vs. Polish hostility [323]


Not on number alone. There are other factors. A long-established population would be expected to have either assimilated entirely into the general population, or at least to have found its feet economically. Sometimes, cultural factors either by the general population or by the minority groups, may hold back or even increase the rate of this development.

But there is a large difference in numbers. When a 'community' reaches a certain size, political parties or institutions find they need to 'reach out' to these communities...

News / English vs. Polish hostility [323]

Does the US have approximately:

14% Hispanic population
3% Polish population

Somebody correct me if these figures are wildly inaccurate.

You would expect the Latin population, based on sheer numbers, to be more prominent.

News / English vs. Polish hostility [323]

Freemasons? Jews?

I thought it was the Rotary club and Zoroastrians.

News / Poland torpedoes EU Day Against Death Penalty [71]

And conversely, some people argue the precise opposite.

News / Poland torpedoes EU Day Against Death Penalty [71]

In most countries, those who advocate the return of capital punishment, do so as a smokescreen to engage public debate in something other than the real problems with law and order, such as the much smaller crimes that go unpunished.

News / English vs. Polish hostility [323]

It is an issue in the UK, but from my sheltered little corner of the country, it is not a very big issue.
There are Polish workers over here. "So what?" is what I hear most people say.

It is more of an issue in towns with large numbers of immigrants (Poles included) and with larger groups of settled communities recently descended from immigrants. There the problem is more one of ghettoisation and the unwillingness of people of all backgrounds to form a cohesive community.

News / Poland torpedoes EU Day Against Death Penalty [71]


You don't need to tel me.

I mentioned the sensible use of resources to show Zgubiony's argument


to be misplaced, when in the US, death row prisoners languish for years.

In the less civilised countries that still practise capital punishment, the waiting time is much lower,
but justice is even more thin on the ground in such places.

News / Poland torpedoes EU Day Against Death Penalty [71]

Question:
In the US, how long does the average death row prisoner stay on death row?
A sensible use of resources?


did in South Africa too.

News / Poland torpedoes EU Day Against Death Penalty [71]


The administration of our prisons has no bearing on the principle at stake here.
Prisons in the UK are not run how they should be.
Tail wagging dog.

News / Poland torpedoes EU Day Against Death Penalty [71]


It is the administering of the punishment, and thus worth paying for.
Law and order cannot come cheap.

In China, the death sentence is normally carried out by shooting.
The families of the executed are then charged for the cost of the bullet.
I assume you are not advocating such acts, but to me it only works to underline the barbarism of capital punishment.

News / Poland torpedoes EU Day Against Death Penalty [71]


There can be no one rule for some, another for others.
Beyond reasonable doubt should be the only measure.

Also, if someone has committed such heinous crimes, do I want to give them the easy way out?
I can think of one or two very nasty people who are in prison in the UK, who will never be released.
Death would surely have been an easier option for them.