John CleeseVerified account

Some years ago I said something a bit ignorant and dog-whistly. I hang out with people who are also a bit ignorant and dog-whistly. So it must be correct... Whilst I'm at it, here's another example of confirmation bias for you.

michael palin hasn't ruined something yet has he do we still have michael

Michael Palin's still cool, just traveling the world looking at animals, not even complaining about how foreign he finds e.g. puffins.

@JohnCleese has done works that will be remembered in years to come. I have no idea who you are but can assure you that you will not be remembered for anything

lol

We’ll always remember Webby, the many classics of old CWebb1905.

My point still stands. If you didnt have this remoaner role to play you’d be irrelevant. @JohnCleese is allowed an opinion whether you agree with it or not. Thats called free speech

"you'd be irrelevant" says webby to man with bafta award and photograph on front of national newspaper

I mean, it’s as English a city as New York is an American city, or San Francisco or Los Angeles or really *any* large international city. There are huge numbers of people (of many backgrounds, but mostly white Anglo-Saxon) who were born and have lived in London all their lives...

... and a large population of people who have come to live in London either temporarily or to stay from Europe, America, India and other places. I don’t really see this as a problem.

As to your point about where people voted to stay in the EU, Northern Ireland voted Remain for obvious reasons. Scotland voted 62% to remain and is hardly the most ethnically or nationality diverse part of the UK.

Wales, which has very little immigration *at all* from other countries, still voted 47% to remain, so its hardly just foreigners voting for these things.

And England as a whole still had 47% of people voting for remain. It seems to me that yes, areas with more diversity of background did tend to vote more for Remain (although Scotland and NI voted for it even without that diversity)...

... but that since none of these places are even close to 50% non-native British, what we’re seeing is British people who are exposed to migrants from other countries far more than rural areas *generally seeming to think it’s a good and positive thing*.

It’s hard to know exactly what you were getting at, but if it was that foreigners are the ones voting to remain, I think that’s clearly untrue.

What’s an “English” city, then, sir? A place in England welcoming people from all over the world, particularly the commonwealth? A place where the vast majority speak English as a first language? A place where England’s govt and traditions are enshrined? Or...just a white place?

eh? where the frack did THAT one come from?

I’m just wondering what the implication is here. Rather than speaking in innuendo, he could say “I once observed that the cosmopolitan nature of London had transformed it into an internationalist or even ‘European’ place, which explains why it overwhelmingly voted remain”

However, he didn’t say that, did he? I’ve immense respect for Mr. Cleese, but he must know that trading in the ponderous rhetoric employed by the Farages of the world harkens back to euphemistic times when “coolie” and “darkie” were synonyms for “not smart” or “not English”

When the whole world becomes one big, sticky, messy amalgamation of all the countries - when Italy is no longer Italian and England is no longer English - what a sad day that will be.

Cultures come and go all the time, and countries change their dynamics often. So no, not really. They'll exist in some form, because trying to resist any change at all would only assure they'd no longer exist.

I mean, yes, cultures do come and go. But there’s something beautiful about trying to preserve what is uniquely you. If it’s unhealthy or harmful in any way that’s different. But when a country loses its identity because such a huge portion of its population is foreign...

You can't have a history of being spreading influence internationally and then complain about foreigners. Foreigners will bring their own cultures and bits and pieces of that become part of a new identity, the important thing is respecting human rights and democratic rule of law.