Re: Calling all pedants

In message <fp8s42pisiqjqct3hm0ohtklkate15oqp8@xxxxxxx>
peter abraham <apeterabraham@xxxxxxx> wrote:

On Tue, 25 Apr 2006 11:57:32 +0100, Graeme Wall
<rail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In message <hmpr42ptd0c7uvjjrbf8uo9dhhr8g923ki@xxxxxxx>
peter abraham <apeterabraham@xxxxxxx> wrote:

On 24 Apr 2006 11:14:36 -0700, tshanazt@xxxxxxx wrote:

The National Rail online service disruption information regularly
refers to the existence of "alternate" timetables where something has
prevented normal operation. Should they not describe these as
"alternative" timetables? "Alternate" implies to me an element of
providing one timetable on (say) Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays and
another on Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays. Or is "alternate" a
perfectly acceptable synonym (if that's the right word) for
"alternative"?



There are approx 1 Billion English speakers / users in the world. Of
them, approx 60 million live in the UK. Of these I would think that
less than half speak it as a first language.

How the devil do you work that out? Non English speaking immigrants probably
account for about 5% from memory. The number of Gaelic/Welsh speakers who
are not bilingual can't amount to more than 1% of the total. The number of
Asian descended people who are not bi-lingual might come to another 5%. Add
in the EU immigrants who have English as a second language and you've got
10-12% at most leaving 88% who do speak it as a first language.


Graeme, You live in a country where the LCC boasted of using 83
languages in its schools system. My step brother was dep head of a
west london school of 1800 pupils, not one of which was ethnic
"white".

Ignoring the fact tha the LCC hasn't existed from the 60s, what applies in
inner London, or even inner Bradford, doesn't necessarily apply to the whole
of the country.

As long ago as 1975 whilst strolling the length of Oxford St on a warm
Sunday evening with a colleague caused us both to remark that we had not
heard a word of English spoken. (Both of us being Naval officers we were
familiar with one or languages!)

1975 was a long time ago and Oxford Street has always been noted for having a
preponderance of tourists, the locals don't shop there. If you'd walked
round Earls Court you could have thought the majority of people in England
were of Australian origin.

The statistics published have always had a ring of non-truth about them.

Why? Because they don't fit your image of the UK being overrun by
foriegners?

The number of Indian and Pakistani families who had to rely on their
children to communicate with the outside world suited the exploiters and
more readily concealed the illegals.

While true, the number is rapidly dropping as we are well into the second and
third generations of families originating from the sub-continent.

This is just as true for the many other immigrants from eastern europe who
are in the girl slave / sex trades.

So how many millions of those do you think there are in the UK?

You should not confuse daily use with first language. The UK arrives in our
home only via the Sat TV and the number of non anglos evident in public and
reported life frequently causes comment from our neighbours when they see
the foreign tele!

So if you are just going by what you see on TV I assume you think that most
people in the UK are members of Parliament as they are seen on TV more than
any other single group of people. In fact there are only about a thousand of
them out of a population of 62 million.

--
Graeme Wall
This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at <http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html>
.

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