The rights and wrongs of it all!

So it's been decided that there will be no guarantee of rights for EU citizens living in the UK. Here's an interesting article from the New Statesman on that topic.

And here is another quote from Forum for EU Citizens, showing that some people are taking it calmly:

"So, my few thoughts to all the negativity here...

No one has said we have no rights.

No one has said we have to leave.

No one actually expected the vote to show a different result, right guys? Admit it: we knew it would come to this.

No one can expect the UK to focus on the EU citizens before solving all the other problems the referendum has caused. Of course they can't promise us anything, not before the negotiations actually start.

Come on guys - I know it's scary, but for fucks sake (sorry, Irish partners bad influence) pull yourself together and stop whining. This is so counterproductive! We are all in the same boat - and you all are talking it to the ground. In any vote, in any
discussion they are talking about us. We are not ignored, nor 'forgotten'.

And they simply can't kick us out of the UK, as we are contributing too much - and they know it!

So you all take a deep breath - and try not to take this bill personal, because it's not.

Keep calm and carry on! Because giving up is not an option."

However, my Italian class has been cancelled today because our teacher is unwell. Has she been sickened by the vote from the House of Lords? I wonder!

I also wonder where all of his will end! A friend of mine pointed out that rather a lot of people are retweeting something a certain David Cameron posted in 2015:

"Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice - stability and strong government with me, or chaos with Ed Miliband."

Well, we know where at got us, don't we. Oh, to be able to rewind ourselves to 2015 and do it all differently.

Someone who might agree with that last statement is Nick Clegg, someone I used to like and respect before he made the mistake of getting into bed with the Tories. However, he did speak movingly and sensibly in the debate on the rights of EU citizens. Here's a link to that.

On to other matters.

We have recently had quite lengthy email correspondence with a friend of ours about things grammatical and what should and should not be acceptable as good English. And then I came across this article about different kinds of English around the world.   It starts off talking about the government being urged to create opportunites for people in Britain to learn languages like Polish, Urdu and Punjabi, in the interests of social cohesion, rather than just insisting that everyone living here should learn English. "There is interest and joy'" the writer tell us, "to be had not only in learning the languages of other cultures, but also in appreciating the effect they might have had on English."

I agree with all of that. I can appreciate the charm of, for example, Irish English. And I accept that language constantly evolves and changes. And yet my linguist's ear is still offended when I hear local youngsters (and the not so young as well, for that matter), native English speakers all their lives, say such things as the following:

 I seen it. (Often said by football pundits as well!)
They done it yesterday.
He's broke his leg.
I've ate it already.

 Such things are simply wrong!