British Identity

[Zinoviev Letter]

To be fair though, the Nazis did kind of save much of Europe from the Jewish-Bolshevik menace. I mean, the tens of thousands of Poles, Hungarians, etc, murdered after the war pales in comparison to what people like Yagoda and Kaganovich accomplished during the thirties.

The what menace?

Is this some kind of tasteless joke or are you really defending the Nazis and spewing anti-semitism on a cycling board?

 

[SpannerBender]

On behalf of a friend: do P&O have a Cycling Federation? I believe he was born in International Waters!

 

[Boeing]

Thank god they at least got the right skin colour!

what on earth does this have to do with anything

so this is now a racism thread?

 

[taiwan]

Worst thread ever.

 

[bobbins]

Dario Cioni - Born in Reading..
Max Sciandri - Bord in Derby..
Phil Anderson - Born in London..


Not sure what my point is there

Was Max reading this thread?

 

[ultimobici]

Was Max reading this thread?

LOL, Good one!

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Poland

Chopin - French
Curie - French
Mickiewicz- Lithuanian
Pilsudski - Lithuanian
The Hitch - British
Our Kings from 1570- 1796 French, Sweedish and German


And yet we are the most ethnically homogeonous state in europe.

So what you're saying is everyone leaves, but nobody comes? Must be lovely there.

I jest - Poles are amongst my favourite immigrants - hard workers, low crime stats, good solid church goers.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

To be fair, Mickiewicz and Piłsudski come from a time when Poland didn't exist as a political entity, and at the time of Piłsudski's death his homeland was part of Poland. Unlike Britain, which is of course an island which has colonial history, hence the British people born all over the place, central and eastern Europe has seen borders jump and shift around all over the place. Many places have been parts of several countries in short periods of time, and several different nationalities make their homes there. Immanuel Kant's hometown may now be in Russia, but he was German; Adam Mickiewicz's hometown may now be in Belarus, but he was a Pole.

It really depends on how you want to look at things. Jus soli says Mickiewicz is Russian (that's who 'owned' Zavosse when he was born), but Jus sanguinis says he's Polish or Polish-Lithuanian.

 

[thehog]

So what you're saying is everyone leaves, but nobody comes? Must be lovely there.

I jest - Poles are amongst my favourite immigrants - hard workers, low crime stats, good solid church goers.

You forgot - Good looking women....

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

How hard can be build a cycling identity if you're british?

Wiggins: from Belgium
Froome: from Kenya
Daniel Martin: yes! Birmingham, no wait, he rides for Ireland.
Jeremy Hunt: Brit... no, Canada
Peter Kennaugh & Cavendish: Isle of Man (a self-governing British Crown Dependency)
David Millar: this one is from... Malta

do you know another examples?

geraint thomas is from wales

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

geraint thomas is from wales

Added to your utter inability to seperate your own dream world of Colombian cycling from the reality of a British leader on a British team in the Sky GC riders thread, this gem really does make me worry for you.

 

[hrotha]

Added to your utter inability to seperate your own dream world of Colombian cycling from the reality of a British leader on a British team in the Sky GC riders thread, this gem really does make me worry for you.

Maybe he means that Thomas is from Wales and therefore Welsh, a Walloon, a foreigner, and not a true citizen of the United Kingdom, even if he's more British than the English.

It's complicated. And only Libertine will understand.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Maybe he means that Thomas is from Wales and therefore Welsh, a Walloon, a foreigner, and not a true citizen of the United Kingdom, even if he's more British than the English.

It's complicated. And only Libertine will understand.

this indeed

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Maybe he means that Thomas is from Wales and therefore Welsh, a Walloon, a foreigner, and not a true citizen of the United Kingdom, even if he's more British than the English.

It's complicated. And only Libertine will understand.

That's an argument with the cogency of 'rumf munf glumf.'

Wales is part of Britain. To put forward a Welsh person as an example of someone who isn't British, and then row back on that sort of equivocating nonsense after getting caught out is a little embarassing on his part, but fair dos for trying on his behalf.

 

[djlovesyou]

Perhaps a little bit too complicated.

 

[gingerwallaceafro]

Dario Cioni - Born in Reading..
Max Sciandri - Bord in Derby..
Phil Anderson - Born in London..


Not sure what my point is there

I've tried to resist the temptation to not dive in to an irrelevant debate concerning where one is from etc.. but being from Nottingham I have to concur that most people are bor(e)d in Derby..

 

[hrotha]

this indeed

I very much doubt this is what you meant. Because it's silly.

Actually, scratch that.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Sky do have two riders from Wälschland, at least.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

what the **** are you guys so hot about. the topic starter is clearly joking and just throwing in names of riders not born in england

 

[The Hitch]

Belgium:

Our "kings" from 1396 - 2011: French, Austrian/Germanic, Spanish mixed with Austrians, Spanish, Austrian, French again, Dutch and then finally... German.

Ps: you forgot a Polish Tour winner who rode for France
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Walkowiak

I dont rate athletes in the same catergory as life saving scientists, poets, independence heroes, royalty and myself

But our kings really were foreign. It wasnt that they were of mixed herritage. THey were chosen because they were foreign and not all bothered to learn the language. The French one ditched the throne after like 9 months and run off back to France.

Even by French standards thats a pretty easy surrender (of the throne).

 

[Boeing]

and I was hoping this was going to be a thread about British teeth

 

[gingerwallaceafro]

That last line was too tempting to resist... This thread had degenerative mush written over it from the start..

 

[ferryman]

Maybe he means that Thomas is from Wales and therefore Welsh, a Walloon, a foreigner, and not a true citizen of the United Kingdom, even if he's more British than the English.

It's complicated. And only Libertine will understand.

Oh I understand

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

what on earth does this have to do with anything

so this is now a racism thread?

Well, why would the birth place, or where your parents come from and so on be so important? How's that far away from the question why your so called "blood" would be important?

Just to be clear, I don't think any of this is important. I think the first imporant thing is that you are a person ([human], but that sounds so far away from any other possibly intellegent being not of human biological sort).

The kind of question of the thread itself in my opinion isn't that far away from the viewpoint of strong nationalists/racists.
If "oh you are not born as British/German/Russian/Togolese" or "oh youre parents aren't xyz, so how can you be xyz?" are important, it's just a small step to say "I am XYZ. Being XYZ is the best there is: You are neither born in XYZ nor are your parents XYZ, so you are of less worth than I am, since I am XYZ."

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

it's an obvious joke topic by teh topic creator. everyone who read wiggins from belgium with a pair of brains could understand that.