Brits' poor knowledge of English flaws EU stats

[Maciamo]

BBC News : EU 'sexual history' quiz denied

The European Commission says it needs better quality data on how people live in order to improve policy making.

The Commission has come up with an extensive list of questions it wants all member states to ask in their next census to improve data on housing and population.

In addition to data on nationality, size of family, ethnicity, it also wants to find out about computer literacy, number of cars owned, cooking facilities and "durable consumer goods possessed by the household".

So far everything is well. But here comes the problem, the British "far-right", who should go back to primary school :

But the UK Independence Party said proposed questions about "consensual union" were too intrusive.
...
One proposed question asks the "date(s) of the beginning of consensual union(s) of women having ever been in a consensual union: (ii) first consensual union and (ii) current consensual union".

UKIP MEP Derek Clark said he was "appalled that the EU thinks it has the right to ask women such deeply personal questions and I defy anybody to give me a reason as to what use the answers will be".

"I'd be incredible interested to know how a green-fingered couple in possession of a wide screen TV who sleep together will help housing planning, but I've no doubt the EU will come up with some lunatic reason how it does."

Mr Clark added: "This report is both crackers and deeply offensive.
...
A spokesman for Eurostat, which provides the EU with statistics at European level, said: "This definition has absolutely nothing to do with asking women about their sexual behaviour.

"Consensual union is in fact another term for unmarried partnership.

It seems that those idiots confused "consensual" with "sensual" ! So they thought that a "consensual union" was just euphemism for "sexual relationship" ! It just means "cohabitation", i.e. living with a partner without being officially married. Consensual comes from "consensus", not from the French word "con" ("[email protected]") + "sensual", you sick bastards !

Here is why it is vital for Europe-wide statistics :

"Information on consensual unions may be needed in countries where statistics on marriages and on legal marital status do not provide sufficient information on the formation of partnerships.

"Consensual union, as well as information on dates/duration of marriage, is valuable for fertility statistics and extends the knowledge that can be derived from data on number of live-born children."

No wonder the UK Independence Party wants "out" from the EU. Who would want to share the title of "EU citizen" with imbeciles like that ? Why don't they just emigrate outside Europe and leave good the Brits here ?

[sorry did I overreact ? well, don't f*ck with my statistics !]

[Starship]

I think they should have included a question "How often do you have sex" in their census, then you could have got lies, damn lies and statistics.

[Vallicanus]

The British are in Europe but not of it.

[Maciamo]

The British are in Europe but not of it.

Would you mind explaining this ?

[Mycernius]

The British are in Europe but not of it.

Shouldn't that be the Scots are in the UK, but not of it?

[Vallicanus]

Would you mind explaining this ?

I mean that the British are geographically part of Europe but don't really identify with the French, Germans etc, to a great extent.

Similarly many Scots are Scottish first and British second.

[Maciamo]

I mean that the British are geographically part of Europe but don't really identify with the French, Germans etc, to a great extent.

Similarly many Scots are Scottish first and British second.

First of all you cannot speak for all the Brits - you are only one of them. If you want to quantify the feelings of the Brits towards the European Union or Europe in general, there are many extensive surveys. For instance, Eurobarometer has been monitoring the evolution of public opinion in Europe for the last 35 years.

Secondly, feeling more attached to one's region rather than country is a very European thing to do. A majority of Belgians will feel first Flemish or Walloon before Belgian. Most Germans feel first Bavarian, Saxon, Rhinelander, Hessian, etc. Few Spaniards will claim that they don't consider themselves first as Catalan, Basque, Galician, Andalusian or Castillan. Only small countries (pop. under 20 million, except for Belgium) identify with their country rather than region.

British people have a tendency to feel more uneasy about the EU than other Europeans because the UK is already a sort of superstate, and a former empire.

Genetically, British people are a European melting pot. Their origins lie in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Ireland and even as far as Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey and the Near East. DNA tests are unequivocal about this.

Linguistically, English is the perfect Western European language. It managed to blend admirably Gallo-Romance and Germanic languages, so as to be closely related to Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese (among others). That is why it is becoming the second language of choice for speakers of all these languages. English already is the lingua franca of Europe, and not because of US influence but because it is the most natural common language for Western Europeans.

So how can you say that Britain is not truly part of Europe, when it is in fact the best expression of Europeanness.