Its good to hear you’re okay. I got home from work and turned on the radio, and its sounds horrific. Those poor people.
Figured you’d be safe Scherps (Turnhout is not Brussels) but glad to hear you’re ok nonetheless. We are an international community here which brings events like these closer to home. We really are all Belgians today.
Right, i earned two badges “contributor” and “member”. I feel like blessed. But “member”. It’s “for participating over a period of weeks to truly join our community.” Jeez, i’ve been participating here for aaaaaaages. And that damn AI doesn’t know. 
(I know, new forum etc)
“Member” is actually a trust level, which will allow you to do more things, and it required you to do a certain amount of things in the forum before being granted. “Contributor” is one I just set up manually to award to everyone (by hand) who contributes to the SWDb. It requires that user to be part of the group of the same name. I will try to make this group/badge as accurate as possible over the next few days.
sure, i understand 
No more Union Jack in the near future?
It’s dark days here currently with an ageing middle England population feeling nostalgic for simpler times and condemning the next generation to a future where they will not only be out of Europe but in all likelihood without a United Kingdom too. Sadly, those who voted for it will largely not be those who have to live with it.
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On the upside, a crazy alternate future will see Ireland re-unite and join the EU, and Scotland break off and join it as well, with a new-found Kingdom of England and Wales (aka KEW) applying for EU membership
I’m not going to get too political on here - one of the SWDB forums’ greatest strengths IMHO is its steadfast apolitical approach; I’ve seen other interest-specific forums rip themselves to unnecessary bits once everyone decides to talk politics - but,having voted REMAIN and having been somewhat choked this morning to find we’re making such a seismic change on a majority of less than 2 million people, I’m going to try to embrace it as far as I can from hereon in. What’s done is done, and now we’re at this stage I don’t want to have been proved right in my beliefs, because if I was right, if REMAIN were right, then I’m fcked, my son is fcked, and so on and so forth. I want to be proved conclusively wrong now.
My own mother (77 yrs): “We can’t keep having foreigners, every colour under the sun, nicking all the houses.”
A client of my wife’s (my wife works for Age UK): “We didn’t beat the Krauts in two world wars just so they can tell me what shape my bananas should be.”
Foreigners, Germans, and bananas. Jesus Christ. I’m sure a huge percentage of the UK population don’t truly know what they’ve voted for (on both sides of the argument in fairness). The naked racism displayed by my own family members has been… well look, different generation and all that, but it’s been upsetting all the same.
I’ve always been fine defining myself as English OR British OR European (or even French, thanks to a Gallic influence five or six generations back in the family tree; I listen to Serge Gainsbourg and everything!). Made no odds. Conversely though, today’s events have left me feeling far more European than ever before, and a damn sight less English. 
I’m going to learn German as some weird form of solo Brexit protest. Achtung, baby! (I was going to register my dissatisfaction by withdrawing my support for England at the Euros but I already want France or Croatia to win anyway as it is 
)
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These are dangerous times we are living, but to be quite honest I’m afraid that a referendum about an EC exit in a few countries could have the same result as in the UK.
I remember when I was young or younger, I was pretty much a nationalist against any kind of organization from outside the country, but then I travelled, seen what war could do, and seen it among our European borders. I travelled more and made business in several points of Europe had meetings and trainings with people from Greece to Finland, and that made me change my view of things about the European issues. More than ever I remembered how I’ve first learn English, just to understand the stories told by those old people from England living in Algarve, found it strange how they like the place so much to live there, as I took it for granted because it was my country.
Now saying this I’m totally pessimist about the future our future, I sense the perfect storm is coming, everyone is counting their rifles and in European terms only organize and unite we had the strength to deal with that storm, but all see is everyone forgetting from where we have come from.
There were in the past several attempts to unite the European territories, from the Roman Empire, Napoleon to Hitler, and it’s funny that every right wing party in Europe want to dismantle the EC, but at the same time reflect those same ideas from the past.
Well the European project is not perfect, I have the feeling that for Brussels it’s better or easier to accept countries that become some proto fascist’s states than an economical deficit, but in a world that has becoming divided in blocks, the isolation and disunity is not the answer. The EC is not perfect the prosperity we all awaited wasn’t arrived, but with so much pressure among our borders it’s the only solution I see.
I don’t know, I do believe in democracy, and even if we can see it now, maybe in the end something good can came out of these decision by the British.
Well put, LC. And sums up my feelings pretty well at the moment. Although I’ve always thought of myself as much a Londoner as an Englishman and at least my city does seem to be exhibiting a little less sabre rattling xenophobia than other parts of the country. A younger, better educated and more multi-cultural population will do that for you I guess. Anyway, as you so rightly say, it is done now and all we can do is try and ensure that our withdrawal from the union is as amicable and non divisive as possible.
As an act of protest however I intend to watch a bunch of European films over the weekend. That’ll show 'em!
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I’m in the minority of young people who supported Leave but I’m not going to dwell on this issue too much. I agree with last.caress about trying to keep politics out of the forum. The database is a nice escape for me. However, I just want to say that the EU and Europe are not synonymous in my book. We have always been part of Europe.
Out on the town this evening? Keep it “Spag” all the way with this cheeky little number.
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I’d like to wish all of my United Kingdom brethren a very happy “Graciously Allowed Those Irksome Colonies to Stand on Their Own Two Feet” Day. You’re welcome, America! 
Today is my third wedding anniversary. My wife is my soul-mate and my best friend. She gave me a life worth living again, and my only regret is that I didn’t marry her twenty years ago. Of course, she’d have only been fourteen at that point so that probably wouldn’t have worked out at all well, but you know what I mean. I love her, basically.
That’s all. As you were, gentleman.
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Congrats LCAress
I have problems with special dates keep forgeting, and my wife even remembers the day we started dating
Feeling peckish? Tuck into this tenuously-themed beauty:
The last caress will not be the last, it seems …
Completely off of the subject (although this is the Talk Whatever thread, so…): I adopt the userid “last.caress” or some variant thereof everywhere I go throughout the internet. Always have done. One time, I registered with a forum - I forget exactly what it was for, I think it was a WWE/wrestling forum - and I hadn’t been there an hour before some guy messaged me privately, saying that he could tell by the userid that I was a romantic and possibly hurt soul, and he started spilling his guts about his long-term relationship and how it had just gone tits-up, and how he’d been casually entertaining vague notions of suicide, and so on. I took it as diplomatically as I could and I tried had to empathize and say something based on my own experiences that might be of small comfort, as much as one total stranger can offer another over the anonymity of a private forum message.
I didn’t have the heart to explain to him that Last Caress is a moderately well-known and dreadfully caustic punk anthem by The Misfits.
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