Matt, don’t feel badly about that. It is the same way here. Some have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, while others have breakfast, dinner, and supper. Luckily, my family has always been a breakfast, lunch, and supper group 
Ha, you showed up at just the right time, Brit Man! I’ve got a few questions for you…
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Does American speech sound bad to the average Brit? I read somewhere about an American tourist in England overhearing a Londoner remark on the tourist’s “dreadful accent”.
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A friend told me that the whole time she was in England, she never saw any overweight people. Are you guys in overall better shape than us?
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All those jokes about “English teeth”…are they really that bad? (The teeth, I mean!)
Who are the Welch, ethnically, culturally, and politically? Do they have an identity unto themselves apart from having names chock full of L’s? Somehow it seems as if, comparted to the Scottish and the Irish, the Welch are less defined, more blended in. Is this correct?
::trying to visualize a fervent Welch separaratist movement::
The Welsh are from Wales, Dude. As in ‘Prince of’. Maybe our expert can tell us how Wales came to be part of Great Britain.
I’m sure AHunter realizes the Welsh people are from Wales. I think what he is asking is how distinctive Welsh culture is in the UK. Do Welsh people have a stereotypical image like Texans or are they just people from a certain locality like Pennsylvanians? And which is more correct; Welch or Welsh?
Judging by the number of sites I found with a yahoo search of “Doctrine of Parliamentary Sovereignty”, I should be able to find my way. Thanks.
I would like to know your opinion of the Clinton Impeachment trial. I would also be interested in any non-American viewpoint. Would you mind if others replied as well?
You can blame those stormin’ Normans for that 1, carnivorousplant, and for Ireland and Scotland as well.
Well, 2sense’s question isn’t really for me, but I’ll answer it anyway:
…
Just kidding.
Wales was joined with England a really long time ago. Like, before my dad had finished school. The seventh century A.D. rings a bell. I think some Saxons beat down the poor Celts who lived there, in more or less the same way that the Saxons always seemed to beat the Celts. I don’t know if there is/was a word for “Britain minus Scotland”, i.e. England and Wales alone - most of those dastardly Saxons were quite content to ignore Welsh (and Cornish and Manx?) identities and call it all England. And it even worked, in the case of Cornwall.
One question I often ask, just for the sake of formality: what is England? Not where or who or whence, just what. Wales is a Principality; N.I. is a Province; England …? Can’t be a Kingdom, cause there’s only one of those and it’s United. It’s not really a political division either; there is no peculiarly English government. So I just sight and call it a “historical kingdom”, like Aragon or Munster or whatever.
Mmmm … munster, on some good cobblestone bread.
Terry Jones described the difference between English speech and Welsh speech in the “Life of Python” documentary. He said English sentences end on a low tone - firm and commanding and certain; Welsh sentences end on a high note - excited and pleading. Made for funny arguments between high-note Jones and low-note Cleese (with Chapman mostly puffing his pipe demanding an end to all the silliness).
sorry Matt…
… but I’m up early, and bored, so I’m going to tackle the Welsh Question.
First of all - it’s definitely “Welsh” not “Welch”.
Wales is, politically, more integrated with England than Scotland is (or for that matter Ireland, which is of course a completely independent country). Wales was not a united country at all, but a group of principalities when King Edward took it over in the 13th century. So, unlike Scotland, Wales does not issue its own currency, or have its own legal and educational systems; its Assembly has less power than Scotland’s Parliament; etc. And yes, Plaid Cymru (the Welsh nationalist party) is far less fervently separatist than its counterpart in Scotland.
However, it would be a monumental mistake to conclude from this that there is not a strong Welsh national identity. The Welsh often consider themselves the original inhabitants of the island (which isn’t strictly true, although they were certainly there well before the English). Referring to a Welsh person as “English” will bring you a quick and firm correction. Their national football and rugby teams, although not very good, are well supported and are inevitably accompanied by hoards of flag-waving fans whenever they travel. Welsh is also the healthiest of all the Celtic languages.
And yes, they do have a “stereotypical image like Texans” … it has to do with sheep. I’ll leave it at that
Context. You can say “a cup of tea” to refer to the drink if you need to distinguish. There are other subtle distinctors: “I’ve just had tea” or “I’ve just had my tea” always means the meal; “I’ve just had a tea” or “I’ve just had a cup of tea” always means the drink.
I would say that most British TV programmes are about “ordinary” people—certainly all the soaps and most sitcoms are.
This is also a class thing: Breakfast, lunch, dinner = middle class; breakfast, dinner tea = working class.
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Not as a general rule. My guess is that the accents which sound bad to Americans also sound bad to us.
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That’s the impression I get, but I don’t believe that she never saw an overweight person, unless her criteria for what constitutes “overweight” are very different from mine (there’s all those American tourists, for a start :)).
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The teeth are not that bad, but we don’t do the same aggressive orthodontic work on children that you do. Braces, etc. tend only to be used for real problem cases, they are not used routinely to give everyone perfectly straight teeth.
There is a militant Welsh separatist movement, the Sons of Owen Glyndwr. They burn down holiday cottages belonging to English people from time-to-time. There is also a Welsh nationalist party, Plaid Cymru, which has about three seats in Parliament.
The Welsh have their own language (imaginatively called “Welsh”), which is spoken as a first language by about 5 % of the Welsh population and contains all the leftover Ls and Ps from other languages. It is also protected by law, so road signs, etc. have to be bilingual and a certain proportion of Welsh TV broadcasts have to be in Welsh.
The Welsh administrative and legal system is the same as the English one, whereas Scotland and Northern Ireland have different systems.
Welsh. “Welch” is obsolete, but is still used in a limited number of cases such as the name of Robert Graves’s old Regiment, the Royal Welch Fusiliers.
Why the hell is your Elections determined by media interest?
i.e. the 1998 (?) backing of the Labour party by the Sun that had for so long been Tory, (even though they wouldnt admit it?)
I don’t think that this is any more the case in the UK than elsewhere. The media is the conduit by which information about politics reaches the general public, and the way in which stories are presented in the newspapers colours people’s impression of them.
The Sun famously insisted that its backing of Major in the 1992 general election was a decisive factor in his winning it (“It’s the Sun Wot Won It”), but I don’t think there is much evidence to support this contention.
However, we do have a serious problem with concentration of media ownership, partly at least because of the dominance of national media over local media in this country compared to others. IMHO Rupert Murdoch has far too much power and influence, controlling the two largest circulation newspapers (The Sun and the News of the World), what was once the most respectable broadsheet (The Times), and the main subscription TV broadcaster (BSkyB). Interesting to see how many pieces are carried in The Sun slagging off the BBC and the licence fee and promoting sporting events on Sky.
TomH,
true, The Suns claims cannot be proven, but you have to admit that without the “ordinary peoples” vote, influenced in part by The Suns “New Labour” campaign, Tony might not of had as large a majority in the end result.
and Rupert Murdoch? If your reading this, suck my left one.
I am sure that The Sun’s support for newLabour™ did have some effect on the outcome of the 1997 general election, but I don’t believe that large numbers of people woke up on 1 May and decided to vote Labour because the newspaper told them to.
There is also a question of cause and effect—the Labour party policies which were designed to appeal to the mass of voters also appealed to Rupert Murdoch. God knows, I don’t see them appealing to anybody else but a billionnaire tax exile.
I didnt see it as a case of them waking up on may the first and voting Labour (even if it was Mayday 
) but rather as a concerted effort in the weeks leading up to the election to sway the Middle ground and the proverbial “Man in the Pub”, if you see what you mean.
Rupert Murdoch, saw how NewLabour! would benefit him, preaced its virtues through the tabloid and the broadsheet and came out for the better, much like it did in the run up to the 1992 elections, only for that it exhonorated the Tories.
[Moderator Hat: ON]
FYI – If I had seen this thread when it first began, it would have been moved to MPSIMS by now. However, since it has more recently had discussion of British politics, I’ll let it stay for now. If it goes back to the way it was, it will be moved.
David B, SDMB Great Debates Moderator
[Moderator Hat: OFF…for now]
If it helps, I’ll address 2sense’s comments about the rule of law.
We certainly do have government under the rule of law. The great British constitutional theorist A V Dicey saw it as a central feature of the British Constitution.
The powers exercised by politicians and officials must be based on authority conferred by law and the legal system in this country meets the usual standards of justice, both substantive and procedural. Basically, the Government has to obey the law, and the process for making and enforcing the law is just and open.
What we do not have is a codified Constitution.
DavidB - no worries. Move it if you need to; I only opened it here as this is where all the other “Ask…” threads were.
As for the questions…well, TomH and others have answered them all better than I would have, I think, so I’ll put my feet up and enjoy a cold beer at the end of a long week.
Re: the media and elections. I remember seeing statistics on the influence of the media on the 1992 election, and the conclusions were very non-committal. Basically, there isn’t enough concrete evidence to support an answer. I like Tom’s theory that the papers were merely reflecting (albeit exaggerating at the same time) the mass of tabloid readers’ opinions.
Whatever happend to the guy who played “Baldrick” on the various “Blackadder” series? I have yet to find any info. Do you know if there were plans to make a fifth “Blackadder” show? Is it true that most British shows have a shorter run (e.g. “The Young Ones” - 12 eps) because the writers have a sense of knowing when to quit? I mean, I’m a big MAS*H fan, but 256 episodes was a bit much. Also, is/was Felicity Kendal really worshipped as much as “The Young Ones” would have me believe?