Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[HVC]

Uk Canada free trade talks put on hold by the Brit side.

Apparently they broke down over cheese.

Did you lot refuse to admit the superiority of cheddar?! 

We're more of a Gouda nation. 

*edit* I actually checked, out of curiosity. More popular cheese in Canada is indeed cheddar. Advertising has lied to me again!

[Josquius]

The Rwanda idiocy keeps getting better

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/27/revealed-uk-granted-asylum-to-rwandan-refugees-while-arguing-country-was-safe?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Government : Rwanda is safe!
At the same time, the home office: we hereby grant asylum to 4 refugees from Rwanda due to the well founded fears of that nations regime.

[Zanza]

How did they pick Rwanda in the first place? Why not the Falklands or some other remote remainder of the colonial empire?

[Jacob]

How did they pick Rwanda in the first place? Why not the Falklands or some other remote remainder of the colonial empire?

IIRC Denmark pioneered the "put asylum seekers in camps in Rwanda" thing (didn't work out), but I'm guessing they did some preliminary work with the Rwandan government that made it easier to piggyback on than starting the process somewhere else. I'd imagine there'd be a risk of pushback from the residents of the Falklands as well, which could be inconvenient.

[Josquius]

How did they pick Rwanda in the first place? Why not the Falklands or some other remote remainder of the colonial empire?

A purpose built village on a Scottish island honestly wouldnt be a terrible idea IMO.
Nice enough place, and keeps them somewhere they can't just jump over the fence and go off the radar so to speak - controlling people's fear of this being the main factor rather than it itself.

But I think they tried a few places and Rwanda was quite far down the list until it said yes. I remember Albania was one being seriously looked at originally - which wouldn't have been quite so insane as flying them halfway around the world.

[Sheilbh]

IIRC Denmark pioneered the "put asylum seekers in camps in Rwanda" thing (didn't work out), but I'm guessing they did some preliminary work with the Rwandan government that made it easier to piggyback on than starting the process somewhere else. I'd imagine there'd be a risk of pushback from the residents of the Falklands as well, which could be inconvenient.

I don't think the Falklands government would be particularly keen either - especially as their economy is booming.

I think you're probably right that the government is picking up on preliminary work by the Danish government. Similarly the UK government initially looked at Albania, who have now done a deal to resettle asylum seekers from Italy.

There's a long-read to be done on the Tory Party and Rwanda though. When Cameron became leader there used to be an annual trip for MPs and activists to do volunteer work in Rwanda both as a development success story and to show Tory commitment to international development (and how much they'd changed). Through to this.

That was part of a wider narrative at that time of Rwanda's extraordinary recovery since the genocide - which now looks rather different given Kagame's authoritarianism and Rwanda's role in the DRC conflict.

[Admiral Yi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWj4LTGk5J4

Apparently Poms pronounce oregano as oreGAno

[Josquius]

Yes. As that's how it's spelled. Theres an A in it.

And is it considered a dodgy sign to have done volunteer work in Rwanda now?

[HVC]

Yes. As that's how it's spelled. Theres an A in it.

We pronounce the A too so much so we do it twice

[HVC]

[Josquius]

Yes. As that's how it's spelled. Theres an A in it.

We pronounce the A too so much so we do it twice

Oreg-no?

[Razgovory]

That's how Marge Simpson pronounces it

[Jacob]

Yes. As that's how it's spelled. Theres an A in it.

We pronounce the A too so much so we do it twice

Oreg-no?

North Americans tend to put the emphasis on the first syllable - o-REH-gano, whereas Brits tend to put it on the third - o-re-GAH-no. Both pronounce the "A" sound.

[Syt]

North Americans tend to put the emphasis on the first syllable - OH-regano, whereas Brits tend to put it on the third - o-re-GAH-no. Both pronounce the "A" sound.

Meanwhile, in my German family we put the emphasis on the second syllable. o-REH-gano.

Anyone put emphasis on the final syllable? Then we have all four possibilities played through.

(Side note - a uni professor once flew off on a rant about someone saying paPYrus, i.e. the accepted German way, when the correct old Greek(?) pronunciation is PApyrus. nb: the py is pronounced close to "pee" in German )

[Jacob]

North Americans tend to put the emphasis on the first syllable - OH-regano, whereas Brits tend to put it on the third - o-re-GAH-no. Both pronounce the "A" sound.

Meanwhile, in my German family we put the emphasis on the second syllable. o-REH-gano.

Anyone put emphasis on the final syllable? Then we have all four possibilities played through.

(Side note - a uni professor once flew off on a rant about someone saying paPYrus, i.e. the accepted German way, when the correct old Greek(?) pronunciation is PApyrus. nb: the py is pronounced close to "pee" in German )

That's actually what North Americans do too (I've edited my original post to reflect that  ). Perhaps that's the result of German influence in the Americas?