Welcome back, Chris. Go easy on the sun till your body remembers its French. 😉

We have many unemployed people in the UK and many trapped in low paying jobs by uncontrolled immigration.

we have 5% unemployment so who are you intending to do the crap jobs? We need refuse collectors and care workers as much as we need bankers if not more so. We need farm labourers and we need brain surgeons.

So where do you intend to get the workers from?

as for the numbers Switzerland is currently 25% immigrants, and don’t even look at Singapore or Dubai!

Just the publication of all this pro-EU information that demonstrates that remain’s campaign was lies and false issues

& the Leave campaign, on the other hand, was the very embodiment of truth & honesty??

Thanks . already got a tan . and a temping job for now , and a permanent job offer in July .

Why are the Irish leaving too?

Interesting question there, official language of Éire is Gaelige not English, so even though English is more widely used and spoken….

Why are the Irish leaving too?

Ireland have notified previously that their official language is (Irish) Gaelic.

Not that it’ll make much difference, AFAIK, EU stuff hasn’t been translated into Gaelic as the language would need a whole raft of new words to accommodate legislation (especially technical documents). The Irish simply said they’d be happy enough to read it all in English.

English is also an official language of Ireland (although Irish is the national language and the first official language). English won’t be dropped as it is the preferred second language of everyone.

1) The Government will set the agenda in responce to business

Says it all really. Business is the only important thing to some people.

1) The Government will set the agenda in responce to business

So that is Brexit scrapped then as that seems to be the general opinion of most businesses.

1) The Government will set the agenda in responce to business amd service need

More clamouring for state control. Some people just love increasing beurocracy.

English is also an official language of Ireland

Ireland has previously notified that its official language is (Irish) Gaelic.

Of course English won’t be dropped.

You obviously don’t want to come over, so don#t bother, I am sure we will survive.

I don’t, but some people I’d like to see are less fit to travel a thousand kms than me.

If I go along the airport taxi rank to find a taxi that replies “remain” to “leave or remain?” how many do you think I’ll have to ask? And will I end up on the bus?

Interestingly the London cabbies (a watchword for liberal tolerance) I spoke to prior to the vote were split 50:50 – strangely often for equally xenophobic reasons.

I’d like to see English dropped as one of the three procedural languages once its no longer one of the official languages. It would after all be bizarre to give English a higher status than any of the languages of (edit) 25.

Edit: 50:50 – taxis will be include in my travel plans then. Anyone know about bus and train drivers?

A friend of a friend works for the EU and one of his projects was replacing English. His report was apparently recently dusted off….

It would after all be bizarre to give English a higher status than any of the languages of the 27.

Why it is preferred second language of pretty much every country (other than Russian in the Baltic states). When I worked advising European companies in the Netherlands, English was the de facto business language, dealings between companies were pretty much universally in English.

I imagine dropping it will be a thorny issue for the Irish who would have a veto, as I would be surprised if all their civil servants and politicians can speak Irish. (No doubt it is higher than the population at large but I would be surprised if it is 100%)

I imagine dropping it will be a thorny issue for the Irish who would have a veto, as I would be surprised if all their civil servants and politicians can speak Irish.

Ireland has previously notified that its official language is (Irish) Gaelic.

It is (the last time I checked) the only official language of the EU into which EU documentation has not been translated, as it simply doesn’t have the vocabulary for modern technical terms and/or legalese.

Of course English won’t be dropped – it is the lingua franca of the workers in the various institutions, let alone the world in general. And it would continue to be so, even if it was “dropped”.

We have the USA to thank for this convenience rather than the UK.

Treaties are translated into Irish, but other matters won’t be, although this will change in 2022 when it is to be fully adopted. Translators are being recruited now apparently. Whilst Ireland notified Irish, they knew at the time English would also be an official language because of the UK joining. If the UK hadn’t joined, would the same decision have been made? I guess it would be the same reasons that it is the first language and if it had no doubt that would have boosted the importance of the language.

I appreciate it is a compulsory subject but how many people in government are truly proficient do you imagine?

We have the USA to thank for this (in)convenience rather than the UK.

Unfortunately attempts at a logical, supremely regular international language failed to gain support. English is a right royal pain in the arse to learn.

I appreciate it is a compulsory subject but how many people in government are truly proficient do you imagine?

Indeed, you make a good point. Everybody knows a little bit. But all business of government is conducted through English. I used to be fluent (thanks to a fluent mother and sister – both went to fully Irish speaking secondary schools so we would go for weeks speaking only Gaelic at home coming up to exam time). It once used to be compulsory to have achieved a certain level at Leaving Certificate to gain entry to university (no matter what degree) but I think even that’s been relaxed. If you answer an exam paper in Gaelic, you get extra marks (10% of your achieved score) – at least you did in my day, but not sure what applies now.

Curiously, it’s regained popularity slightly in the form of Gaelscoils (literally: School of Irish) [pronounced Gwale-skull] where the middle classes have found a way to exclude working class children (traditionally no interest in Gaelic) – a kind of Irish version of Free Schools. 🙂

It’s useless as a modern language, but it’s no bad thing to have kids learning two languages from childhood anyway. There’s some fantastic literature in Gaelic but then again, if we hadn’t had English forced upon us, the rest of the world may never have had Joyce, Yeats, Heaney or Shaw.

I imagine, as you say, that Ireland would push to prevent any dropping of English as an official language of the EU. It would be disastrous for them.

I think the plan I referred to earlier was to create a “Euro-English” dialect that was better suited to the needs of the EU.

Beyond that I don’t know anything about it. But you could imagine that as a starting point, lots of more obscure words could just be dropped, which would make life a lot easier to start with. Words like “inch” and “gallon” for example.

“Euro-English” dialect

It has existed for years in practice, my attempts at rephrasing letters when I was in the Netherlands fell on stony ground as “it wasn’t English as it is used in Europe” – put me right in my place.

I think the plan I referred to earlier was to create a “Euro-English” dialect that was better suited to the needs of the EU.

Genius! Create a version of English with regular verbs, second-language-speaker-friendly vocabulary, nothing specifically British and inundate the Anglo-Saxon world with it via films, culture and media. The ultimate raising of a single digit. 😀

Edit: I tried to explain to a Swiss company with English as its official language that the “key account” was the customer and the “key account manager” was the person looking after the “key accounts”. They persisted with “key account” as the job title. I worked out that if I translated word for word in to German and it made sense it was best left alone no matter how clumsy it sounded.

I think you will find the key account is where they deposit their illicit earnings.

Here’s another question for you: My wife’s family are essentially trapped inside the USA. They cannot leave for more than a holiday, unless they get really lucky. Is that a good thing, do you think?

This is what the Brexiteers wish to impose upon us and our kids, as the price for their “control”.

We get England, Wales, and presumably (please correct me if I’m wrong) Ireland as the UK has a common travel arrangement with Ireland. And on the assumption Wangland is perceived as “the UK” so the agreement stands – not an easy case to make.

Side question – presumably the easiest route to EU residence for an English or Welsh person is to move to Ireland, is that right?

(Yes it looks like it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Travel_Area#British_citizens_in_Ireland)

oldnpastit – Member
A friend of a friend works for the EU and one of his projects was replacing English. His report was apparently recently dusted off….

Good example of our waning relevance, cheers Brexshit

Ssshhhhh! Don’t tell the brexies

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/british-government-realises-brexit-is-a-mistake-official-says-1.3048046

Mr Callinan also highlighted the existence of internal divisions on the British side just weeks out from the start of formal withdrawal negotiations with the EU, saying it was clear there was “no single, settled position” on Brexit in London.
“Even within the British government, there are very different views,” he said.

Well that shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to many.

The British government is slowly realising Brexit is “an act of great self-harm” and that upcoming EU-UK negotiations must seek to limit the damage, the State’s top Brexit official has said.

Or alternatively, don’t do it!

Crikey, I hope Callinan wasn’t wearing a woolly jumper eh jambalaya?

I notice on that Irish Times pages Deloittes are right in there touting for business on the back of Brexit. So it’s an opportunity for exactly the sort of people I imagined it would be.

Siracha sauce has gone up by 25p, I blame this on the fact that the pound had dropped so much against the $.

We are so much better off having regained our sovereignty 🙄

Talking of the Irish Times…

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/british-government-realises-brexit-is-a-mistake-official-says-1.3048046?mode=amp

This was an interesting article too – from a unionist pondering the conundrum in front of unionism.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/brexit-challenges-the-identity-of-ulster-unionism-1.3047791?mode=amp

So it’s an opportunity for exactly the sort of people I imagined it would be.

Jambalaya and his ilk no doubt.

Same type who think the below is good business no doubt.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-39592454

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/brexit-challenges-the-identity-of-ulster-unionism-1.3047791?mode=amp

or do you support the union (outside the EU, possibly diminished by the departure of Scotland, and with the rise of a new form of English nationalism which will have no interest in the Celtic fringes)

Oooff!

Says it all really. Business is the only important thing to some people.

We where discussing the need for immigrant employees

No, you were.

We where discussing the need for immigrant employees

Well, you were, obviously – that’s sort of the point.

The questions asked, that you “answered”, were…

1) How do we define necessary?

2) Issuing visas based on existing demand excludes people who might come here to actually start businesses, doesn’t it? Many EU migrants have done just that, and their successful economic activity creates growth. We’d lose that contribution.

3) Would visas be tied to jobs? So if the job ends you have to go home? People cannot build a life on those terms so you will lose a lot of skills and workers as they head elsewhere to settle. This will be economically damaging don’t you think?

“Employees”, especially those that will get through new beurocratic hoops, are but a subset of the people that currently move countries and contribute to the place they move to. People need not be a government sanctioned asset of a large company to be welcome here. Not yet, anyway. The visa scheme you so love might be good for large multinational companies looking to bring in a few key staff for short projects, but would keep away the people this country really needs, including, importantly, young families.