Scotland eyes "common sense" legislation

[HunterGatherer]

I'm 3rd generation (half) English-American, no Scots blood though, and I almost can't stand the idea of it.

The fact that England once had a very proud heritage, and that it occassionally produces great men and women like Churchill (half American BTW) and Thatcher, is my only solace.

Speaking of gene pools, I think we yanks may have drained Great Britain's. That would go a long way to explain its current plight.

 

[Iain]

HunterGatherer,

What I would say is - yes Thatcher would have stood out at almost any time in almost any country as a great leader. There are few of those, ever, like or loathe their politics you have to admire them. Churchill was almost a washed-up joke until his moment came, and he answered it superbly, few could better him.

Men and women like Churchill come to pre-eminence at times of crisis, and those times that the world sits up and notices are times like the days when Britain stood alone against Germany until our friends could come to our aid. Britain isn't that pre-eminent world power any more, our politicians don't stand out the way they did when we had an Empire or when we were slogging through vicious battles on our blood-soaked continent.

It's the turn of the US to produce those great leaders (not saying they haven't) as for the time at least, Britain's star is not in the ascendance. There are many of us who would like to change our path.

note - we also produce great soldiers. And for a classic example of the greatness of the British gene-pool, see the link in my sig.

massive thread veer. Sorry.

 

[pax]

Ooh, ooh, if we're doing country insults, can I play?

"The British are made up of four races:
- The Welsh, who pray on their knees and their neighbors;
- The Scots, who keep the Sabbath and anything else they can lay their hands on;
- The Irish, who don't know what they want but are willing to die for it;
- And the English, who consider themselves a race of self-made men, thereby relieving the Almighty of a dreadful responsibility." – George Bernard Shaw

'We were by no means pleased with our inn at Bristol. "Let us see now, (said I), how we should describe it." Johnson was ready with his raillery. "Describe it, sir? Why, it was so bad that Boswell wished to be in Scotland!"' -- Boswell, _Life of Johnson_



What? The thread topic? MadMike wrote a beautiful letter.

pax (of Welsh, Irish, German, Jewish, and probably English descent)

All languages carry in them a portrait of their users and the idioms of every language say over and over again, 'He is a stranger and therefore a barbarian.' ... It is the only joke that God ever repeats, because its humor never grows stale. -- Robert A. Heinlein

 

[madmike]

My father is Scottish and my mother English. They got married, so I'm Scottish.


Ah yes, the English. A self-made race. Now you see the horrors of unskilled Labour at work.

And it just occurred to me, the OFFICIAL British Gov't advice about defending against weapons is "take a self defense course to give you more confidence." :banghead:

Perhaps we should suggest that to the police.

 

[P95Carry]

Could be bad news for Scottish carpenters soon ... working with nasty pointy things like screwdrivers, chisels, saws .... all wicked things .... guess the carpenter's axe will be first to go ..

This whole approach to regulation is so absurd .. has to be based on vote catching ... because logic is sadly missing. Please the sheeple ..... and win votes.

 

[m.i.sanders]

This can't be for real. Seriously, what are they going to do about all kitchen knives, the utility knives, grandpa's pocket knife? Have a knife buyback program? Conduct raids? Are they going to create some sort of knife registration program to track steak knives?


:banghead:

 

[Atticus]

"Ye all have yer kilts in a wad laddies, the true Scott is always well armed with his 3-wood or niblick! And the possession of gwalf clubs is a birthright from the times of Old Tom...We don't need no stinkin knives or guns or brains..."

Works well for the Kennedy clan as well.

 

[Stand_Watie]

The English, the English, the English are best:
I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest!
The rottenest bits of these islands of ours,
We've left in the hands of three unfriendly powers,
Examine the Irishman, Welshman or Scot,
you'll find he's a stinker or not.

The Scotsman is mean, as we 're all well aware,
And bony and blotchy and covered with hair,
He eats salted porridge, he works all the day,
And he hasn't got bishops to show him the way.

The English; the English, the English are best:
I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest!

The Irishman, now, our contempt is beneath,
He sleeps in his boots and he lies in his teeth,
He blows up policemen (or so I have heard),
And blames it on Cromwell and William the Third.

The English are noble, the English are nice,
And worth any other at double the price!

The Welshman's dishonest, he cheats when he can,
And little and dark, more like monkey than man,
He works underground with a lamp in his hat,
And he sings far too loud, far too often, and
FLA-A-A-T....




p.s. notice Texas isn't compared because it would have blown them all out of the water

 

[Airedale1]

Even though...........

..............I use it as my signature here and on other forums, in this case and as always it bears repeating, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin

Sadly, we do get the government we deserve.:banghead:

 

[Gordon Fink]

They ought to just cut to the chase and outlaw opposable thumbs.

~G. Fink

 

[FNFiveSeven]

Reminds me of braveheart

"The English won't let us train with swords, so we train with rocks instead."

Ha ha ha, seems that the proud Scots don't even need the English to opress them anymore, they do it to themselves!

 

[Pawcatch]

Another search on the internet reveals that they are basically just talking about enforcing existing knife carry laws in the UK.
www.scotland.gov.uk/pages/news/2003/11/SEJD364.aspx
It's already illegal to carry a knife in the UK without good reason.
They're talking about tougher enforcement of existing laws.

The banning of selling knives over the counter sounds similar to what Sweden did recently.In Sweden,all knives now are sold from behind the counter,not in the isles.

All this is stupid,but not as extreme as previously thought.

 

[natedog]

What would Churchill do?

 

[madmike]

I'm trying to figure out what selling behind the counter accomplishes. They mandate that in Chicago, so it must be a good idea.

Will the merchants be deputized and required to scrutinize purchasers and harass them about their motives? Require signatures, as some places do for kitchen knives?

I always thought, "That's COOOL!" was a great reason to buy something.

Like a 6.8mm upper for an AR. Who cares if I need it? It's nifty.