Belgium's not a country? We'll see in the World Cup, Verhofstadt tells Farage
euronews.com/2018/05/03/belgium-s-not-a-count...
euronews.comPosted May 4, 2018, 11:55 AM UTC
120129
euronews.comIs Farage actively trying to get everyone to hate him?
50
Just Belgians.
8
He could come in France, we have an extended experience at mocking the Belgians ;) /s (Not that I'm seriously suggesting that I would genuinely want him to come here, we don't want that foul stench to spread here too).
5
J'ai vu une affiche frexit a rennes l'autre jour..
Y'a des cons partout
3
Libre à eux de vouloir quitter l'Europe, je pense pas que ça fasse de eux des cons, perso je suis dans une optique : Ok l'Europe, mais pas celle-là. Cependant je n'ai que du mépris pour Farage et son comportement pendant et après.
3
careful what you wish for. IIRC he is separated and seeing a French waitress in Brussels. Next thing you know he might have children with her and get a French passport Y_Y
2
He already has a German passport. Maybe after he realises that Irexit has no chance he'll try Dexit
1
HON HON FREXIT
1
Oh, no, I am sure he doesn't need to try hard. It's a natural talent of his. /s
3
Trolling is really effective in getting the desired spotlight and audience.
1
[removed]
0†
Seriously, such a good comeback is possible about the UK not being a real country either, but Verhofstadt decides to drag in a "yes, but we're better at football" argument? Come on!
And if England beats us, Farage's face will reach maximum smugness.
17
The UK is, it's England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland that aren't
3
I'd say a lot of people in Scotland would beg to differ. Mr. Farage argues that the UK is one nation, yet the UK faces more potent separatist movements than Belgium.
5
Farage is stirring shit, sure, but it's silly to suggest that Scotland is more a country than the UK. Only one has a sovereign parliament. Only one has to power to collect taxes. Only one has a foreign embacy, foreign relations, a seat on the UN security council etc.
2
I'm not saying Scotland is more of a country than the UK, I'm saying that it's silly to say that Belgium is less of a country than the UK.
3
Actually, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are all countries in their own right too.
4
Define "country". Is Kosovo a country? How about Israel, Palestine, North Cyprus? When does a geographic entity become a country? When everyone else recognises it as a country. Legitimacy is derived from how others perceive you. England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have no representation on the world stage. No one goes to the Welsh embassy, Scotland doesn't hold a seat on the UN security council, England doesn't send athletes to the Olympics. Because the rest of the world only cares with dealing with the person in charge, which is the UK.
What, substantively, makes England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland more than counties? Why are these historic entities granted any more legitimacy than Wessex, or Mercia, or Northumbria? Would you even consider yourself "English" if not for the existence of the England football team?
4
Why do we have to do a bunch of research for you? Just look it up:
A country may be an independent sovereign state or one that is occupied by another state, as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division, or a geographic region associated with sets of previously independent or differently associated people with distinct political characteristics.
Fairly obviously the countries within the UK meet this definition.
Words are what people use in real life, not immutable logic definitions. The whole argument is moronic.
2
tldr
1
Don't worry, there is almost no chance of England beating Belgium.
1
These days, both of them are performers and social-media celebrities more-so than substantive politicians.
Edit: Verhofstadt being the more redeemable of the two.
8
TIL the Netherlands is not a country.
8
Why? Because we have Frisians who all speak Dutch as well? You can't look at Friesland the same way he talks about Belgium. I agree with Farage here. Belgium is an abomination. Flanders should join with us and Wallonia should do whatever it wants.
-6
Are Frisians not Dutch?
2
Not ethnically.
2
Many Northern Dutch are former Frisians who switched to the Dutch language permanently, especially in North Holland and Groningen.
2
We're not in the World Cup mate.
2
Yikes, people care about watching other people kick a ball?
-3
Billions do yes.
1
I think he said that Belgium isn't a nation, not that Belgium isn't a country (I don't think anyone would dispute that).
And if you think about it, Belgium isn't a nation in the ethnic sense because it consists of two separate nations, Flemish and Walloon.
Belgian is like the equivalent of British as in, there are multiple nations under the British label just like in the case of Belgium. Now that I think about Farage may have accidentally shot himself in the foot by this remark.
8
Just saying but 'Walloon' and 'Flemish', as well as Flanders and Wallonia, are post-Belgium constructs. If Belgium isn't a nation in the ethnic sense then neither is Wallonia or Flanders.
2†
Yes but the uk is more of a nation then Belgium. The british have a United language culture and identity the uk +irland have a common civilization
Wallons are basicly French and the Flemish are basically Dutch they have nothing in common and their state is an unnatural externaly imposed alien construct
Think of the uk as mega Yugoslavia and belgum as a micro hustro-Hungarian empire
-2
You look like you know what you're talking about.
1
Very nationalist words from Verhofstadt.
6
Everytime that twat opens his mouth I wish someone would put a football in his mouth. He is a national embarrassment.
5
That guy fits an entire football field in his mouth.
3
Of course, they'll rally around a shared disdain for Roberto Martinez and a shared loss at getting knocked out prematurely because of him.
4
I'm pretty sure the world cup was canceled this year?
3†
For murica, yes.
17
Some random soccerphile in America just aged a couple of years.
3
It's ok, we'll win the World Series.
8
Toronto confirmed 2018 World Series champs.
2
Fuck.
2
I'm sure this totally isn't going to backfire.
3
Have you seen England play
1
I live in Flanders and the only time Belgium is mentioned here is indeed during sports, everything else is segregated. Verhofstadt is pulling a joke on himself
2
[deleted]
1
Thats clearly not what he meant lol
1
RemindMe! June 28th, 2018
1
Friends please , don’t fight just because Farage is full of shit and Verhurofstaiskdte (seriously, did his name have a stroke?) - sorry belgs - tried to level with him.
0†
Ver-hof-stadt it's not that difficult haha
3
Thanks for the sportsmanship:)
2
Where are you from, It might explain to me why you find his name difficult?
1
And brits went with this guy and voted "yes" for Brexit. This is what surprises me the most. How can a large mass of people commit such stupid actions, not thinking by themselves.
-1†
"How can a large mass of people commit such stupid actions, not thinking by themselves." You are basically telling people to not think by themselves but to think like you do.
5
We are a case study on the hypothesis of "tell someone a lie enough times and they will believe it". On a nationwide scale.
Some of us did not vote for this.
3
Almost most of us didn't vote for this.
1
Well, England isn't a real country and they are in the World Cup.
England gets to participate apart from "The UK"?
All these terms are goddamn meaningless.
Huh? England is a country, as is wales and scotland, just they joined into a single union due to the personal union between them under the queen, and as such are still a singular state (like a centralized federation, if you would.)
Ok so if we are being honest the Scotland being a country thing is not really true by a modern understanding of it.
However at the time of the union being formed while the union removed our parliament in favour of one notionally new and for the whole UK it didn't undermine the nationhood of the different countries, we kept our legal system, we'v even kept national control of moss of the running of the country for the entirety of the union except for a brief stint in the early 19th century.
311 years almost to the day later in an international context it doesn't seem that way anymore, what is considered a country has changed massively and to most we are not it.
That doesn't change the fact though that domestically the perception of us being a country in our own right has never faltered.
The UK is basically a proto-EU a different understanding of the rights of its members and structure sure, but if it endures, and I have no doubt that it will, don't be surprised if at some-point the member states of today who consider themselves a country suddenly find that that definition has went past them without their noticing.
TL;DR definitions changed and we weren't in a position to change with them.
Wow TIL the EU invades and colonises other countries to get them to join :P
You know what I mean though.
You mean, the american definition. It is defined differently in british english and always has been. In British English, it refers to a region inhabited by a nation, and since England, Wales and Scotland are seperate nations (though linked under the unifying British nation, eg. like Austrian and "German").
Not quite; there was a personal union between England (including Wales) and Scotland when the Stuarts of Scotland inherited the English throne at the start of the 1600s. Just over a hundred years later, the Act of Union merged the two parliaments and a political union combined the two into one country. It's more than just a shared head of state (which it was back in the 1600s).
A more modern example of a personal union would be the UK and Australia or Canada.
"Country" is not synonymous with "state", only in American English is this true which people have naturally taken up due to americas political dominance. In British English, country just refers to a region in which a nation enhabits. It can also just refer to a defined region, or rural areas. It can also be used instead of "state" when applied to a nation state, as the terms in that case indicate the same place, hence why the terms merged in american english.
Do you have any link to a dictionary that defines it that way? The two dictionaries I would've thought is the most authorative(spelling?) from Cambridge and Oxford doesn't seem to me to say that, though I'm no native.
Oh yeah, they're totally countries. But they're bound together by much more than just a personal union.
Ok. I'm aware those are the words that British people learn to regurgitate. The question is whether it bears any resemblance to reality. England doesn't have many of the essential characteristic of a real country. It doesn't even have its own government. That's a really minimal requirement for being a country.
Not at all. You, like most people who learnt american english, believe a "country" is synonymous with a state. In British english, it isn't: A country is just a region in which a nation enhabits. Its not some kind of propaganda, its literally how its defined in OUR language, ENGLISH, which WE invented.
The United Kingdom is a country. Anything below that is just internal subdivisions, which you can call whatever you want. Russia keeps it real, calling them federal subjects.
Except Abkhazia and South Ossetia are both independent sovereign states by their own definition.
Countries are regions held by individual nations. England, wales, scotland and ireland are each their own nations with their own territories. The united kingdom is a state with several major ethnicities, that is also a country of the "british" national group. Countries within countries, if you would.
From wiki: A country is a region that is identified as a distinct national entity in political geography. A country may be an independent sovereign state or one that is occupied by another state, as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division, or a geographic region associated with sets of previously independent or differently associated people with distinct political characteristics.
Is Northern Ireland a country?
I would say Ireland is a country, though you could consider Ulster a country due to its national seperation from the rest of Ireland. Usually its just refered to as a province.
But Northern Ireland is only two thirds of Ulster.
Okay. I’d agree Ireland is a country (but I’m Irish so biased). I was thinking about a comment on r/ukpol re Scots independence vs. Irish border issues.
Technically, Wales is classed as a "principality".
Photo here: http://footballplayerpro.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/belgium-national-football-team.jpg
Only about 60% of the Belgium National Team even looks European lets alone Belgian. I doubt the English team looks any more European.
You realize that Belgians can be of any race or ethnicity right?
Yes it is.
Yes it isn't.
It's a country just not a sovereign one.
It's a country because it calls itself one and others don't want to piss it off.
These political terms are goddamn meaningless.
I'm gonna stalk you and upvote you everywhere just for that username.
hahaha brilliant. i will tag you when i'm down and out
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shitposting
Is there an English army, an English foreign policy, even an English legislature?
None of them are needed for a country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England
By that standard, Massachusetts would be a country. We are talking real countries here not pretend countries.