W@nker

[Peekay]

I ran across this;
http://www.maritimequest.com/warship_directory/warship_main_page.htm

and sent him this in a wee temper-type thing;
"Just to point out that in your major navies you have a union Jack with "England" beneath it. The Union Jack is for Great Britain (hence the Union bit). England hasn't had a Navy for over 300 years, there has however been the British Royal Navy. A lot of Scots, Irish and Welsh died onboard what you seem to think is an English fleet. Get it right for their sakes at least, if not so you don't look like an ignorant idiot."

and recieved this back;
"Thanks for your kind and warm note. If you noticed there are little pictures of the type of ships and little flags to show the nationality. This is for people who can't speak English, that way they can still easily use the site. Since Ireland, Scotland and Wales have no navy but Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa do, they have their own flags (except SA).

Now go back to your room and play with your crayons and don't let your mum and dad find out you have been on the computer. And next time don't be a coward when you insult someone, at least have the courage to sign your pitiful note.
Michael Pocock"

This coming from a guy running a so-called maritime website. I'm sure all the Scots, Welsh and Irish that died on Royal Navy ships will love him

Anybody wishes to help me in my bitter quest to rectify his error then register you disgust here
[url][email protected][/url]

This cnut has really got my hackles up

PK

[AlanM]

PK - just to be a bit of a pedant - and because it gets right up my nose, its the Union FLAG -its only called the Union Jack is when it is part of another flag like the Red or White Ensign

[Peekay]

Interesting! I never knew that, but that's not my point. Don't know why i've got so bloody annoyed about this. I've seen more offensive things on the web before and just shrugged them off. Must be the time of the month.

He has just recieved another little mail put a bit more succinctly this time.

PK

[Bingo Bango]

i see that when he lists contributors to the site all english people have a union flag against them and the one scot has the saltire

[glasgowken]

Errrmmm... to be honest PK, a slightly more polite message explaining his mistake may have got a better response

But I understand your anger, I get annoyed myself sometimes at this. So many people around the world make this mistake, even on historical websites, the sort of people who should know better. Then they often get pissed off if the mistake is pointed out to them. Some don't even seem to comprehend when it's carefully explained.

Americans are the worst offenders, but I remember getting a package from Austrailia, it was addressed "Glasgow, England"


Haha, just saw the guy's name, Mr Pocock

[Dugald]

Peekay, I share your feeling on this matter, and have suffered the same frustration as you for most of my life. Unfortunately there's not too much we can do about it. We, the people of Scotland, count only a bit more than five million in numbers, and, sadly, most of the rest of the world treat us as past of England. This practice is very common in Canada, and one comes across it every day in all types of media. The German language too, for example, always refers to the "British" as "English". It's not going to change, and I think the best thing to do is learn to live with it.

"A lot of Scots, Irish and Welsh died onboard what you seem to think is an English fleet.".

You know, I may be wrong, but it seems to me whenever deaths at sea in RN ships was spoken of in the media during the war, I never ever heard the expression "English Fleet" used, it was always the "British Navy" deaths.

I think Glasgowken has a point, and I tend to agree with him, when he says:

"Errrmmm... to be honest PK, a slightly more polite message explaining his mistake may have got a better response"

Yes PK, I know it's tough to control one's tongue when exposed to this thoughtless rubbish, but perhaps you deprived your main point of its value by your use of " ignorant idiot", and sent your adversary spiraling into invective. Anyway, remember, I'm on your side!

[Peekay]

I know all this. I've just seen this so many times this one tipped me over the edge. Hopefully this one was a wee bit better;


...and give you a quick flag lesson. Perhaps you might understand my point then.

What you seem to think is the English flag isn't. It is made up of three different flags;



The Welsh flag isn't included as it was already an English Principality as opposed to the Scottish and Irish Kingdoms. So when you show the Union flag as the English flag you're entirely wrong. It's actually called the "United Kingdoms of Britain and Ireland" flag. The 1606 flag was the Britain flag (or the "United Kingdoms of Scotland and England" flag). It is however still commonly known as the British flag as a lot of people recognise the name Britain more than U.K (it's an Empire thing).

PK

[dougie79]

dropped a wee email to this guy myself, i share your anger.

[hazy]

Some of my British mates who were in the Navy have also sent him emails detailing his blatant mistake. Some of the Lads are extremely proud to be English and see no reason that a Union flag should be called English.

[glasgowken]

I hope he sees sense and amends the site, although I suppose it depends how bloody minded he is.
This bit of his email "Since Ireland, Scotland and Wales have no navy" shows up his total ignorance of the UK situation.
Excelent explanation of the flags btw.

[The Voyageur]

The website is registered to an address in Arizona, USA. Might be your answer.

[Peekay]

Yeah, the bloke's from Texas! I've checked the headers on his e-mail.

PK

[Peekay]

It appears it's me and Michaels ball and we're playing with it.

"Yes I am an American and as such don't take kindly to being insulted. It's sad that your first email did not take the same tact as this one but, there it is. You get one chance to make a first impression and you can guess what mine is of you.

You can tell all your friends who are presumable in the same chat group to not bother sending further emails as they will not be responded to.

OK I see, your Irish and you insulted me because you thought I was a Brit! Well I'm a Texan so the problems you have with the British have no bearing on me. It also has no bearing on how I feel about the Irish. Since I ran the St. Patrick's Day parade in Dallas for many years I do know about the problems you guys have with England. But your political disagreements don't effect me one way or the other. I have to write about the Germans and the Japanese as well and you can guess that they are not my favorite people in the world. "

PK

[McShad]

I see it has been amended

[dougie79]

Nice work, see what a little bit of team work can do

Lets see what we can change next!