Brussels Paper: “Why We Hate the British”

From the desk of Paul Belien on Thu, 2005-09-01 15:11

The Left on the European continent consider Britain to be an American stooge and a Trojan horse within the European Union intent on undermining the welfare state. Their opposition to the “Anglo-Saxons” has developed into a genuine hatred of the British, as became apparent last Tuesday in a diatribe in the “left-liberal” Brussels Dutch-language newspaper De Morgen. Here is a translation from the article entitled “Waarom wij de Britten zo haten” (Why we hate the British so much):
“The Huns are back, and they speak English with a variety of invariably common accents. No other nation manages to spoil other people’s holidays so thoroughly as the British. They do that all through the summer everywhere the sun shines with their unique mixture of wantonness and arrogance, their pathetic addiction to drink, their bad taste, and actually just their ugliness and thickheaded presence. There, that is a relief.

“With melancholy we think back to the days when the Dutch were most in evidence, with their caravans, their noisy children and their legendary stinginess. Or the Germans, who once on holiday, seemed to forget who had lost the war. Our northern and eastern neighbours are discerning aesthetes compared with the born hooligans from the other side of the Channel.

“Luckily it is easy to recognise a Brit on holiday. A clean shaven head with a much too big and cheap pair of sunglasses; a sunburnt bull’s neck; a set of disgusting tattoos across his torso if it is not covered with a football shirt of Manchester United, Chelsea or Celtic Glasgow; a half liter of beer always on hand. The lady in the company divides her attention between the whining children and the curtain that she got mixed up with the tops in her wardrobe while packing. Anyone who has seen a British couple on holiday understands why the English papers are filled with dramatic stories about binge drinking, obesity and teen-age pregnancies.

“The trend of hooligan tourism is not new. The British have singlehandedly ruined the Spanish island Ibiza, in Greece they wrecked Faliraki and with all the British drinking and fighting Corfu is well on its way to disappearing into the sea like the mythical city of Atlantis. What is new is that the British who stay behind in and around London seem to be aware that something is wrong. The British quality papers run almost weekly stories on how their countrymen carry on in southern Europe. An Ibiza club owner is allowed to relate how the British destroyed the tourist industry with their drink and drugs abuse. There are reprints of front pages from Greek newspapers that show Brits licking whipped cream of the bosoms of their summer girlfriends on the beach.

“We need a solution. How about that the British tell the rest of the world in May or June which beach or island they intend to wreck this year so that we know where to keep away from? Are the Brits going to Majorca or Crete this year? Then we are off to Sicily or Cyprus. Then everybody will be happy.”
Following the publication of the anti-British article Rob Verreyken, a member of Parliament for the Vlaams Belang party, lodged a complaint against De Morgen with the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (CEOOR), a tax-funded government quango that under Belgian law has the competence to prosecute for discrimination and incitement to hatred.

Last year Belgium’s biggest party, the Vlaams Blok, was effectively banned by a Belgian court following prosecution by the CEOOR. The court ruled that the party was “racist” and as a consequence, according to article 3 of Belgium’s infamous Anti-Racism Act, everyone “belonging” to the party or “cooperating” with it (in whatever capacity, even without having committed criminal acts himself) is punishable with imprisonment for one month to one year. After being disbanded the Vlaams Blok politicians established a new party, the Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest).

To prove the “racism” of the Vlaams Blok the Belgian court quoted from 16 texts published by the party between 1996 and 2000. Though many of these texts were, as the judges acknowledged, not necessarily untrue (in fact some were official statistics on crime rates and social welfare expenditure), the court ruled that they had been published with “an intention to contribute to a campaign of hatred.” One of the texts, which dealt with the position of women in fundamentalist muslim societies, was written by a female Turkish-born VB member from Aalst who had herself been raised in such an environment. The court said the party published this story “not to inform the public about the position of women in the islamic world, but to depict [non-indigenous people] as unethical and barbarian.” Moreover, the court said, the VB always talked about Muslims in “generalising” terms.

The Belgian court did not clarify how one can be a criminal by telling people the truth, but that hardly mattered as the real reason why the party had to be banned was political. The Vlaams Blok was a curious alliance of Libertarians and Socialists, Conservative Catholics and anti-religious Secularists, pro-American Atlanticists and anti-American Europeanists, who agreed on only two topics: their opposition to multiculturalism and their struggle for the independence of Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern half of Belgium.

The banning of the Vlaams Blok was applauded by De Morgen, which apart from being a “left-liberal” paper also defends the unity of the Belgian state and opposes Flemish secessionism. According to Rob Verreycken the language used by De Morgen to describe the British is more generalising than the way in which his party talks about Muslim immigrants. He suggests that the anti-British article was written ‘with an intention to contribute to a campaign of hatred’ and not at all ‘to inform the public about the British, but rather to depict them as unethical and barbarian.’ Verreycken said:
“Imagine if someone of the Vlaams Belang were to write a similar text entitled ‘Why we hate Muslims so much’ with similar stereotypes about the behaviour of Muslims and how their women dress. Picture the outcry and indignation of the Leftist crowd, led by De Morgen.”

Verreycken calls upon British citizens to follow his example and lodge complaints against De Morgen for its 30 August article at the CEOOR’s email adress: [email protected] If the civil servants at the CEOOR decide to prosecute their friends at De Morgen (which is highly unlikely as the Left always applies two sets of standards) the Belgian courts could declare the paper a “racist” organisation, which would make everyone “cooperating” with it (in whatever capacity) punishable with imprisonment for one month to one year.

 

Happy holidays!

Submitted by Bob Doney on Sun, 2006-01-22 21:20.

I don't accept that the owners of the bars, the restaurants and hotels HAVE to be subjected to this in order to do business

Nor do I. As I indicated in my first post, a few heavy policemen would sort the problem out if that's what the local people really want. Same applies in the UK. Binge drinking could be stopped if the police and courts had the will to do it. A few heavy custodial sentences and fines on drinkers and pub and bar owners serving drunks is all that's required. The will just isn't there to do it, for some reason.

Anyway, I intend to enjoy a few more holidays before the fuel runs out, so watch out, France, you're next on my list of places to wreck. If you want my Euros, you've got to take the consequences.

Bob Doney

Well Bob...

Submitted by Fedup (not verified) on Sun, 2006-01-22 18:43.

that IS my that IS my argument, I don't find much of what is being said by the journalist or by the responses very amicable, pretty one-sided (depending on your view) in fact.

To address your point, just because southern Europe decided to invest in tourism doesn't give the Brits (and other nations, but largely the Brits) justification to go in and disrespect other countries. The British, although I'm not saying it's everyone have a BAD REPUTATION, and in my opinion, understandably so. It's not just the Belgians who are fed up with how the Brits behave abroad, so if people are picking fights with them, they might as well pick fights with most of Europe - or wherever our destructive holidaymakers decide to visit. Until we clean up our act abroad I can completely understand the motivation behind the article, even if it is as I originally said a bit extreme.

My sincere apologies if you find my comments personally objectionable and if you honestly, honestly think that what I'm saying gives Britain a bad name compared to the issues that this article is addressing, I think I can live with that. For me, yob culture, the violence and sadly sometimes death, which results from drink binging IS the single biggest thing which lets our country down, whether it's in our local pub or on a beach in Spain.

... and "We should of sold you to Germany when we had the chance." are hardly what I would call a "thoroughly pleasant discussion"... But at the risk of upsetting anyone, I'll pass judgement on what I think of comments like that.

I'm as liberal as they come, but when the tramping as you put it starts to go beyond a few words of disagreement and starts to physically affect other peoples' lives to the point where kids are subjected to every obscenity in the English dictionary and people end up in hospital and suffer life changing injuries - that's where I would say things get 'spoiled'. I don't accept that the owners of the bars, the restaurants and hotels HAVE to be subjected to this in order to do business... Do people suck it up, bite their lip and put up with it just to earn a living... obviously they do. But they shouldn't HAVE to, I would say the same in Blackpool. Point is I'm sure people (regardless of nationality) can enjoy their holidays without ruining others. It's blatant ignorance and something the typical Brit that this article is addressing wouldn't put up with here.

And thank you for pointing out my little spelling error, or any others I might have made... I promise to over it.

All the best...

Yob culture

Submitted by Bob Doney on Sat, 2006-01-21 17:14.

If you're going to argue the toss you're dilusional. Some of the other comments are equally dilusional

This is just the sort of arguing that gives Britain a bad name. People of other nationalities can go on foreign websites, chat amicably with folk from all over the world, and have a thoroughly pleasant discussion. Then some argumentative Brit who can't spell and can't put a point without personally insulting the other contributors comes tramping in and spoils everything.

Bloody typical!

Bob Doney (suffering from Delusions again)

Agreed...

Submitted by Fedup (not verified) on Sat, 2006-01-21 16:59.

I've just stumbled across this article now...

I'm a Brit and I think the article is very well justified (if a bit extreme) and the Brits who are defend the flag here are doing so out of patriotism rather than using their heads. British colonisation hasn't stopped. Instead, we've turned European suntraps into clones of binge drinking yobbish Blackpool. In some places the native cultures have been washed away by vomit, blood and urine. Ok, I'm not naive to say it's just the Brits, but we've all been there, we've all seen it on TV. If you're going to argue the toss you're dilusional. Some of the other comments are equally dilusional:

"But perhaps, just perhaps the MONEY was tempting." - Of course it is, tourism is the single most important chunk of their economies. Take that away and they'd be knackered... But that does not justify that we go around behaving the way we do. We have no respect for THEIR countries. I'd love to know what your opinions would be if a bunch of Germans came over here on holiday to Blackpool. If they carried on the way we do in the Med then I'm quite sure they'd all end up hospital.

"Remember its because of the British that you are still a country." - Another stupid statement. The Brits wouldn't have been able to help anyone if it wasn't for the Americans. Makes me laugh when I hear Brits claim we won the War. We wouldn't have stood a cat in hells chance if it wasn't for the Americans... And if the Americans hadn't jumped in to aid us when they did, we'd all be speaking German now!

Blind patriotism is stupid and dangerous. Look at what blind patriotism has done in America. Instead of jumping to the defense of your country with stupid remarks, use your noggin, why not engage what the other person's saying and if you can defend your position objectively, do it. It isn't about supporting the popular opinion, it's about standing up for what is right... And if you truly believe that there's nothing wrong with yob culture and hooliganism are acceptable British traditions, let me know now and I'll pack my case.

the war

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2006-02-02 16:00.

In regard to your comments about the war.You said:

"Makes me laugh when I hear Brits claim we won the War. We wouldn't have stood a cat in hells chance if it wasn't for the Americans... And if the Americans hadn't jumped in to aid us when they did, we'd all be speaking German now!"

1# The Americans did not just jump into the war like you stated.They had no choice but to enter the war because their non-military merchant ships on the way to Britain were being destroyed by German naval vessels and the attack on pearl harbour.

2# The Battle of Britain was Hitlers first major defeat and did not involve any American fighters.

3# It was not just a case of Germans attacking Britain.We were attacking the Germans,Italians,and Japanese on various fronts around the world.

4# The war was an Allied effort and it was Churchill who created this alliance.

5# most European towns were liberated by British forces.

Your statement about the Americans jumping in and us speaking german was so stupid and you did not even mention the Red Army as if they played no role in the war.We may or may not have won the war ,we dont know but the fact is we were pivotal in the war.
You could also say the Americans would not have won the war if it wasnt for Britian.

im spaniard and i love the

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2006-02-02 16:19.

im spaniard and i love the english, brits
they are good people.
that statement is ridiculous.
we dont hate brits in europe.
thats bullshit.

You can mock the British.

Submitted by Lord Garold (not verified) on Mon, 2005-11-07 22:34.

You can mock the British. You are not being representative. It would be easy to dismiss the Belgians as a bunch of chocolate eating girls who run upstairs everytime the Germans decide to walk in and take over your country. Remember its because of the British that you are still a country. You complain that we drink too much. Well dont sell drink to someone who is drunk. The real criminal is the Belgian bar owner.

We should of sold you to Germany when we had the chance.

Double standards as usual

Submitted by Hjörtur J. Guðmundsson on Wed, 2005-09-07 01:03.

Well, at least there seems to be a good reason for the British to do so. But I guess what matters to the guardians of political correctness in Belgium is who is in question, not what was done.

The same here

Submitted by Hjörtur J. Guðmundsson (not verified) on Sun, 2005-09-04 01:01.

Great article Paul, it's the same here in Iceland and probably most everywhere; the Left always has double standards for everything.

Anti-Britishism

Submitted by Bob Doney on Fri, 2005-09-02 03:02.

An Ibiza club owner is allowed to relate how the British destroyed the tourist industry with their drink and drugs abuse.

I smell a whiff of hypocrisy in the air. At any point these "destroyed" tourist resorts could have stopped the destruction. They just had to say No and put a few heavy policemen out and about. But perhaps, just perhaps the MONEY was tempting.

Most of the beautiful coastlines of southern Europe were wrecked the moment the hotels and bars were built. As a youngster I slept on the beach at Malia in Crete when all there was between the mountains and the long, beautiful, empty beach were three houses and a taverna. Bit different now!

This is how it is described on http://www.travel-to-crete.com/place.php?place_id=43 - "Malia lies at a distance of about 30 Km east of Heraklion. It is one of the mass-tourism spots on the island. Big hotels, wild nightlife, video bars, great quantities of alkool, international cuisine. This is Malia. A beach and party Mecca. Not for those looking for a traditional way of life, virgin beaches and tranquillity. The beaches are great and clean (but crowded), and the competition brings quality up and prices down. An around the clock meeting point. You can find whatever you need around the clock... "

I wonder which Malia the local people prefer.

Bob Doney

Left-Liberal

Submitted by Briggs (not verified) on Fri, 2005-09-02 13:05.

De Morgen being equalled with Left-Liberal ?
Guess I am the Pope.

No for real, I hope DM gets slammed for that article.
Wouldnt I love to hear, read & see the headlines: DM is Racist.
Would this be the end of DM ? Doubt it.
If the Judge throws it out, can he/she be sued for discrimination ? :)