Screwfix rubbish

[kendor]

There will never be a united europe let alone world as long as individuals still adhere to patriotism so much such as picked up in adam's post above, There has to come a time when we all forget what happened in the past, think of the future, and work together before it is too late! the worlds resources will not last forever and when they run out will we still defend our countries so vigourously or will we want to invade and exploit another place?
if we could forget our differences and lose this sovereignty issue then we could all be working together.
Until the patriots die off this will never happen.
So much for the brotherhood of man (never did like their records )

 

[Diyisfun]

Any way as far as screwfix goes, If you are out of stock or cannot deliver, It is not that difficult to show 'out of stock' &/or to show current delivery times.

I and many others want to browse/plan. I think if the screwfix, Argos & B+Q sites could be as one.
What would we be complaining of then.
Oh I know EEC.

 

[AdamW]

There will never be a united europe let alone world as long as individuals still adhere to patriotism so much such as picked up in adam's post above,

Yes, exactly. I am all in favour of a united world. I feel this would solve a lot of problems (although it would generate a whole lot more at the same time).

Thing is, what I was saying was NOT patriotism, if anything it was mildly xenophobic. There is a difference. However, in truth I was being neither.

My point is, much as I love France and the French people (note the amount of time I have spent there, and plan to spend there), I feel that in matters such as EU policy their government should bend to our will, as it has been shown time and time again that when we bend to theirs, we get screwed.

I also believe that culture is an area that no-one should try and force change upon. It will evolve how it evolves. Trying to change ours into a continental culture makes as much sense as if Chirac tried to pass a law forcing the serving of roast beef and yorkshire pudding at 1pm on a Sunday in every house and restaurant in France! The reason we have a binge drinking problem is down to the way they suddenly started allowing bars to open up hither and thither all over the UK. It has been proven that this doesn't work.

 

[pipme]

Interesting slant on lunatic booze licensing and soon to be gambling etc etc :-
http://www.ias.org.uk/publications/alert/04issue2/alert0402_index.html

A bit like channeling rainwater into gully and drain .... replace rainwater by money, roofs by drink and gambling joints, gully by overflowing profit avenues and unfortunately drains by revenue income.

 

[kendor]

Part of being "united" is to accept others ways of doing things, in so far as getting screwed is concerned, when completely in place the same rules /laws should apply to one and all with no advantages/disadvantages to one section.
To achieve this of course will take time but it will take an eternity if we don't stop arguing and try to work together.
I suppose while we still have heads of state then segregation will still exist, how's the saying go "too many chiefs".

 

[AdamW]

I have no problem with slightly different laws in different parts of a United Europe. It works in the US. What is legal in California may not be in Kentucky... in fact Arny passed a law in California a few weeks ago making it illegal to "interfere" with corpses, whereas it has been illegal in the rest of the US for donkey's years.

The problem I see is incompatible legal systems. Now, when they wrote the American Constitution over 200 years ago, they decided on things such as language and law. German was the second choice for a national language for the US, and English didn't win by all that much! However, that was a colony. in the EU we have the countries those languages originated in, people are a lot more protective. Giving up your native tongue is giving up part of your culture and heritage. Now, English is the international language, so it would make sense that this would become the European official language. But can you imagine the uproar?

What about legal system? If you look at the large influential nations of the world, they have legal systems based on English law (seriously, they do). So the logical choice, in order to aid compatibility with the rest of the world, would be English law. However this has several major differences with French law. I doubt very much that the whole French judiciary would say "Yes, OK. Who cares about our 40 years of experience in French law, let's totally change!". Would you?

Whilst a single currency helps, you are not united until you have a common language and a common legal system. But I can't see either of these happening any time soon. The last time someone successfully united Europe was about 2000 years ago, and was achieved through conquest, not conference. Which demonstrates just how difficult it is to get people to change their language and law.

 

[AdamW]

I suppose while we still have heads of state then segregation will still exist, how's the saying go "too many chiefs".

There's another problem. I for one would not do away with royalty, yet it is totally contrary to the ideals of the republics.

However, seeing as the royal families are all related, perhaps we could switch back to the days of the Hapsburg Empire?

So, I suppose we would have to do away with our individual prime ministers and presidents. What would we replace this with? Well, the logical model would be the US. So, we would have a President of Europe, who would be the overseer of half a billion people, along with the resources at Europe's disposal.

However, you would need some kind of governance of the individual states. A governor for each. So, we would have elections, and vote in our governor, who would be our "head of the state" and would be in charge of the UK... Hmmm... does this sound at all similar to anything currently in place?

 

[kendor]

the root of what i was saying was mentioned when you spoke about giving up one's culture and heritage, this is a concept from the past in the future all the cultures and the like should be merged so we can all benefit from the mix, The "melting pot" as sung about a while back.
Just think how we could advance as a species if we clubbed together all our knowledge/experience/expertise.
once we could share in a common good for mankind then wars and famine could become a thing of the past.
It may seem like looking at the world through a crystal ball but small steps taken today could lead to a united mankind one day it's the apathetic attitude of some that "it'll never happen" that does just that and stops it happening, but first we need to stop the exploitation that goes on, to win round peoples beliefs.

 

[pipme]

Y'all forgetting Religion ? ...... United ? You are of course joking.
Man desires power and must grasp that by word, deed or thought it is inherent, indelible a fact of life.
You see it here, there, everywhere !! Contain it ? maybe. Control it ? never.

 

[kendor]

I was waiting for someone to pick up on religion, yes it seems to be one if not THE root of all evil in an ironic sort of way but lets not forget it is the bad interpretation of the "good books" that lead man towards the wrong ways of doing things otherwise they seem a good way to go about leading your life in harmony, if a little outdated these days, What we need is for some clever so and so to rewrite them bringing the rules up to date so more people could relate to them.
Why does man crave greed so? because he's had a taste of it and now wants more! He can still change things if he teaches his young to be different.
If we are brought up to share then without any outside influence trying to change oneself that person should grow up still caring
Look at the monks in tibet they isolate themselves from the outside world in order to continue their teachings, waiting until the day when they can merge with their fellows.

 

[pipme]

Teach your young to abhor their peers ? What will you create then ? I do not think they would thank you for that !!
Power and manipulation --- sort that and .... then what ?
What is this K ? Mid life crises ? ( oh yeah, what makes you think you ain't at least halfway, if not more, there ? )
Taken the 'edge' out of this lot haven't we ?
Happy days !

 

[david and julie]

The problem then is you would only get the clever so and so's interpretation and people may disagree again. Unless of course you imposed a view, which would be even worse as you then get terrorists fighting for a cause.

I don't buy the melting pot theory either, not because I think it wrong or that I disagree with your sincere hopes. We have been told for years to welcome cultural change, to respect our brothers and sisters, to enjoy the cultural diversities. Put the world in a melting pot and we all come out the same. Lovely, sounds like a load of clones to me.

We obviously need to have policies in place to help the poor or hungry, we need to stop needless wars and deaths. Where the only winners are the arm makers(many in Europe). Europe or not, most of us want to live in peace with our fellow man. The countries of Europe are allready members of international organisations with these aims andobjectives. We don't need more talking head suits.

How does being in the EC help these ideals? It is just another costly layer of administration. It actually takes money which could go to the needy and gives it to the greedy. Smaller units are always more flexible and can more easily adapt to changing cicumstances.

Europe is also bad for the environment. Big business encourages the building of huge centralised factories(with EC grants) to supply us with our goods. Certain parts tend to build certain products, such as white goods in Italy.Cars in Spain etc. These manufacturers then send these products thousands of miles overland or sea to the consumer.

Go to the likes of Dover, Felistowe or Hull and have a look at the sheer ammount of goods going back and to. The one thing they have in common is the burning of fossil fuel and polluting of the environment. Most of these products could be built and used in the country of origin.

These self same Industrialists who have promoted EC over the years are also seeing the light now. Due to over-regulation and cost they are moving to China and India in their droves.

I know I may come over as a xenophobe or nationalist but that is not the case. On economic grounds alone we need to stand back (all the EC members) and take a long hard view about what we all want. We are letting a group over power hungry and career minded politicians rob us blind.

 

[danman]

Right lets see if I've got this right, we should stay in the EU if they all speak english, follow our system of justice and adopt the Queen.

If this fails, we become monks in Tibet for a few years, then come out and spread the word.

Or we really do become a melting pot, we all leave our present partners, find somebody of a different colour, religon etc., breed like mad so that everyone will be the same, in a couple of generations.

Then and only then there is a slight chance that,































Screwfix will deliver the next day.

 

[david and julie]

Nice one!

 

[kendor]

What's Screwfix got to do with Europe?