Brexit is Brilliant (or is it?)

[knownunknown]

You've obviously never met any of the Little Englander expats, otherwise you'd know they're 100% true to the stereotype.

Stereotyping is ok… when it’s the English?

[knownunknown]

SNIP

Users that get banned for innocuous comments are fairly common over there as are moderators that can’t stay on topic without making everything personal. Supposed impartial arbiters that abuse people they disagree with is scummy. People that really should know better.

[isha]

Really is horrible. So unnecessary.
Buy a proper punch bag for the days when/if one wakes up feeling mean.

[CelticRambler]

Stereotyping is ok… when it’s the English?

I'm quite happy to stereotype the Irish or the French, if or when they behave en masse according to those stereotypes; but for the most part (other than the Irish being a bit too fond of the drink, and the French being a bit too fond of misguided protesting) they don't conform to more than a fraction of what's said about them.

The Little Englander Ex-pats, though, are exactly as described - still "living the dream" in France, but struggle to speak more than half a dozen words of French, go back to England for all their hospital appointments, order their shopping from Tesco or Waitrose, drive an English-reg right-hand-drive car (untaxed, usually with no MOT either) and get all their news from English-language - mostly England-based - news media.

[knownunknown]

I'm quite happy to stereotype the Irish or the French, if or when they behave en masse according to those stereotypes; but for the most part (other than the Irish being a bit too fond of the drink, and the French being a bit too fond of misguided protesting) they don't conform to more than a fraction of what's said about them.

The Little Englander Ex-pats, though, are exactly as described - still "living the dream" in France, but struggle to speak more than half a dozen words of French, go back to England for all their hospital appointments, order their shopping from Tesco or Waitrose, drive an English-reg right-hand-drive car (untaxed, usually with no MOT either) and get all their news from English-language - mostly England-based - news media.

You could be right, certainly stereotypes can be funny and builds bonds when done in a lighthearted sort of way.

I was an expat abroad myself one time in Asia and many other Irish/English/Americans also went to the same bars, ordered from foreign restaurants(to the locals) and spoke a foreign language together and read the English versions of their newspapers. There it is almost impossible to be accepted as a local though. It’s easier particularly in the beginning when everything is so new. Could you be being a little harsh on these englanders? I don’t see how this is different from any expat community anywhere. The differences with integration seem to be which culture they’re moving from and to. Are the French particularly welcoming of the English?

[6456739]

Users that get banned for innocuous comments are fairly common over there as are moderators that can’t stay on topic without making everything personal. Supposed impartial arbiters that abuse people they disagree with is scummy. People that really should know better.

SNIP

[Guburnor]

SNIP

MOD NOTE: I have deleted your totally unacceptable post you replied to PlaneSpeaking's mildly provocative post - also deleted.

I've no idea of any history between you and other posters, but I can assure you that nobody has been posting vitriol about you for years here. If a poster makes personal attacks on you here, report them and you can be confident it will be dealt with.

[CelticRambler]

It’s easier particularly in the beginning when everything is so new. Could you be being a little harsh on these englanders? I don’t see how this is different from any expat community anywhere. The differences with integration seem to be which culture they’re moving from and to. Are the French particularly welcoming of the English?

Yes, as a rule they are. The Little Englanders I'm referring to are not recently arrived "ex-pats" who may be trying to find their feet. These are people who've been here for years, even decades, but when you meet them, you'd think they'd only just arrived on the last boat, so detached are they from what's going on in the country. In fact, they'll typically describe themselves too as "ex-pats" which is not accurate: they are regular settled immigrants like the rest of us. The "ex-pat" label is just another way of trying to say that they're somehow different to your common migrant.

There are plenty of normal British migrants here as well, and I'd have no complaints about them (nor find it easy to stereotype them) - but in contrast to those others, they're much harder to spot because, well, they blend in. At a dance on Sunday, I joined a conversation between one of my dance buddies and a girl he was chatting up. It was probably a good fifteen minutes into the chat before I realised she was English. She was taking time out from her French job in Paris to have a very French holiday in the middle of nowhere, and ended up sampling (and enjoying) an obscure French tradition, having been encouraged to do so by her French friend.

[6456739]

MOD NOTE: I have deleted your totally unacceptable post you replied to PlaneSpeaking's mildly provocative post - also deleted.

I've no idea of any history between you and other posters, but I can assure you that nobody has been posting vitriol about you for years here. If a poster makes personal attacks on you here, report them and you can be confident it will be dealt with.

This hasn't been the case in the past. Anyone abuses me and it's fine even though I do report it. I stand up for myself and I get this. Describing my being called a moron as "mildly provocative" proves your bias. Abuse is abuse.

I'll leave it there but I know full well that it's one rule for them and another for me.

[DeletedUser]

This hasn't been the case in the past. Anyone abuses me and it's fine even though I do report it. I stand up for myself and I get this. Describing my being called a moron as "mildly provocative" proves your bias. Abuse is abuse.

I'll leave it there but I know full well that it's one rule for them and another for me.

MOD NOTE: Drop it.

Fair point sorry!

[CelticRambler]

One of the YouTubers I follow (Anglo-French woman, owns a chateau about half an hour north of me) had an English guy come to visit last week (another chateau-owner), and great fuss was made of the English sausages and British black pudding he brought with him as a gift. He proudly bragged about the new British Grocery that's opened up in his département's main town, and how it's nice to be able to buy "real" British food.

I know the town (depressing hole of a place), and was curious to know how such a place could support a shop that could handle all the post-Brexit restrictions on meat and dairy imports.

Ahhhhh. Rashers from Clonakilty; Black pudding from Galway; Sausages from Dublin; Luxury butter from North Cork ... The only British stuff in the chilled products aisle is cheese, exported from a company in Somerset that spotted an opportunity and set up a dedicated facility where they can collect, store and batch-process orders for export.