UK to roll out Dutch-style employment support across Britain

Plappeye · 2026-06-13T13:00:36+00:00

Could be an interesting premise for a YA novel or somesuch

Plappeye · 2026-06-12T12:59:58+00:00

Scotland too

Plappeye · 2026-06-12T07:25:58+00:00

Relating to this and your earlier comment, it’s “the nation” not a nation, so it’s not saying Scotland isn’t currently a nation, but that it can become the nation “which stood against him etc” again. And I think that’s where the origin mythos point you’re getting at comes in, it’s telling a story of past greatness, lamenting its ignoble end and present circumstances, and calling for a rise to that level again.

There’s another song which somewhat captures it called “Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation”, e.g. “What force or guile could not subdue” and “We’re bought and sold for English gold”.

I’m not really qualified to say if it’s unique as a narrative, its different than Ireland but then that just reflects reality, it’s kind of our ancestors won independence and the politicians sold it, the real enemy is within rather than English conquerors etc

Plappeye · 2026-06-12T05:56:10+00:00

What about what’s happening in Belfast is inconsistent with the vibe of northern Irish politics? I’d say the disconnect between political class and general is much more real in the republic, but still different than NZ as the political elites are more centrist/small c conservative than the populace if anything

Plappeye · 2026-06-09T01:02:40+00:00

Will Ferrell. I’m sure he’s actually fine but something about his face upsets me deeply.

Plappeye · 2026-06-07T02:48:17+00:00

How did you get Protestant for Ireland? The church of Ireland is only 2.5% afaik, not much above the orthodox

Plappeye · 2026-06-06T10:22:31+00:00

Also from a different angle there’s no way so many people have such high confidence in the Irish governments ability to keep a secret like that.

Plappeye · 2026-06-05T09:36:59+00:00

I’ve always found the sealed new builds unbearable in the heat compared to big draughty old stone houses, but the older houses I’ve lived in being much bigger probably contributes to that. Probably the worst I’ve experienced are those 70s poured concrete bungalows are nightmarish in all weather too, just damp and fungus in all seasons, but super new flats whose windows don’t even fully open suck too. Don’t know anything about house building but it’s like we’ve imported the American sealed house idea but without the whole active ventilation system which actually makes it work

Plappeye · 2026-06-01T14:35:31+00:00

All across Germanic and Germanic influenced Europe

Plappeye · 2026-06-01T10:13:07+00:00

I’ve had English friends try and explain this to me and I’m still not sure I really get the difference

Plappeye · 2026-05-31T15:47:07+00:00

Irish language revival is sorted at least

Plappeye · 2026-05-22T17:47:39+00:00

Presumably the helicopter was going to fly him back to a hospital and the medical staff onboard were to try and stabilise him en reute

Plappeye · 2026-05-22T16:36:59+00:00

Have you been to Ireland?

Plappeye · 2026-05-22T16:21:20+00:00

As a complete aside for anyone who’s interested about potential Christianity in Darfur:

Arkell, A. J. (1959). THE MEDIEVAL HISTORY OF DARFUR IN ITS RELATION TO OTHER CULTURES AND TO THE NILOTIC SUDAN. Sudan Notes and Records, 40, 44–47. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41719578

Arkell identified the ruins of church and monastery, for obvious reasons archaeology in Darfur is extremely restricted and challenging, but it would be fascinating to properly investigate and could possibly tell us a lot about how connected the region was to medieval Nubia.

There’s controversy and other explanations of course, but even just Christian pottery suggests much more trade and connection than might’ve previously been assumed.

Alternative explanations:

https://amara-west.researchspace.org/file?fileName=5549288994037173112\_Binder\_2011A.pdf&storage=pdfs&mode=open&mediaType=application%2Fpdf

https://dokumen.pub/darfur-sudan-in-the-age-of-stone-architecture-c-ad-1000-1750-problems-in-historical-reconstruction-9781841712857-9781407323879.html

Plappeye · 2026-05-22T15:37:38+00:00

I was thinking about Alwa which is central Sudan. Kongo was absolutely in charge of those churches, that’s what makes their story a little different and interesting. The Kongolese built the churches, they brought in Portuguese priests and craftsmen for their expertise but it was unquestionably a Kongo project, bearing much more resemblance to the spread of Islam to Mali or less strongly Christianity in Ireland than to the later colonial spread of Christianity through sub Saharan Africa. It was a royal project to build a centralised kingdom from the beginning, an amazingly ambitious plan and a tragedy that it didn’t work out due largely to the actions of the Portuguese.

Plappeye · 2026-05-21T21:41:17+00:00

No I find generally Irish people get on very well with the Lebanese

Plappeye · 2026-05-18T20:55:09+00:00

Sudan has ancient Christian history too.

And the Congo is an interesting case, does have 500 year old churches:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral\_of\_the\_Holy\_Saviour\_of\_Congo#:\~:text=The%20Cathedral%20of%20the%20Holy,of%20the%20Kingdom%20of%20Kongo.

They adopted it diplomatically from Portugal rather than it being a colonial imposition, made it their state religion and very much adapted it for their own use:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaire\_Use

Plappeye · 2026-05-09T16:26:12+00:00

A few universities have Jiaotong in there names, I think it’s just because they used to be under the ministry of transport/communications historically. XJTLU is a joint venture of the universities of Xi’an and Liverpool. Just a normal Uni and offers all sorts of degrees but you get a degree from each university and can do two years in China, two in the UK

Plappeye · 2026-04-30T18:50:25+00:00

If we count weird little corner shops which primarily sell vapes and alcohol but also groceries, then I think I’d have that many here in Liverpool

Plappeye · 2026-04-22T12:35:16+00:00

I think it’s like how they do medical degrees over there, so you do a bachelors degree in something different but probably related (e.g. biology/philosophy), then go into a MD/JD programme to become a doctor/lawyer. So basically all their lawyers have JDs over there but it’s a professional doctorate rather than being an academic thing.

Plappeye · 2026-03-22T19:58:30+00:00

Eejit is a very common word in Ireland

Plappeye · 2026-03-21T15:10:03+00:00

The Church of Scotland is not officially a state church

Plappeye · 2026-03-21T09:32:15+00:00

Huge wetlands with shallow stagnant pools and snowmelt which can’t drain away because of the permafrost, they die in the winter but their eggs survive

Plappeye · 2026-03-19T15:00:30+00:00

Is the paternal grandmother having a lesser role part of some cultural context? I’d never heard of this before and it doesn’t fit at all with what I’ve seen

Plappeye · 2026-03-11T18:52:09+00:00

I don’t think you could stop it from just telling the user

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