A Europe of city-states

[shaddack]

@Boundegar

I’ve seen alternate histories and roleplay games based on the idea of the United States becoming disunited, but in reality we fought a war about that, and the Union won.

The First Civil War, you mean?

[jerwin]

Goes with the theme?

[Ratel]

There’s gotta be a way to combine these two maps:

[Ratel]

Never changes. Bad old town.

[Mindysan33]

Because people can’t time travel?

[renke]

Brussels is the saliva of Europe?

[wrecksdart]

Ooohhhh, @beschizza my dizzle, you are a tricky bastid…

[shaddack]

@renke

Brussels is the saliva of Europe?

Given the quality of the regulations from there, I wouldn’t be surprised of the amount of drool produced in Brussels.

[Boundegar]

The water one is so much bigger than the liquor one. That’s what’s wrong with this country.

[bizmail_public]

@Mister44

Why isn’t Constantinople on that list?

Great question, with a fantastic answer:

[kupfernigk]

@bobtato

Apart from anything else, I think British people are quite happy to leave dealing with the outside world to London.

It is interesting that you should think that.

@bobtato

As to whether the UK economy is too focused on London, that’s a question that will never die (because most MPs represent somewhere other than London), though the evidence suggests maybe it should.

What evidence?
I’m a recovering Londoner, I spent most of the first thirty years of my life there with brief excursions to Cambridge and Berkshire, and to anybody unprejudiced it is obvious that London massively distorts the British economy - unlike the US, Germany or France where there are multiple power centres, Britain only really has one and it shows. It means that a lot of our supposed GNP actually consists of financial companies and banks moving the same money constantly through a peeler and removing the layer they’ve shaved off. That’s how we manage apparently to be a rich country but actually to have an average real income lower than that of the poorest states of the US.

[kupfernigk]

@hhype

Perhaps if there is a central government with enough power to ensure the rights of the people.

Please excuse me while I go away and engage in hysterical laughter.

[Mister44]

@Ratel

Been a long time gone, Constantinople.

Why did Constantinople get the works?

[kupfernigk]

@shaddack

Given the quality of the regulations from there

[citation needed]

Anybody who has been involved, as I have to a small degree, in EU directives, knows that the problems do not lie in Brussels but in the overweening vanity and power hunger of national politicians.
(It’s occasionally funny watching right wing nationalist politicians who want to return to the 1930s accusing the EU of being undemocratic, but usually it’s just depressing.)

[Ratel]

That’s no-one’s business but the Turks.

[kupfernigk]

@Mister44

Why did Constantinople get the works?

That’s Micklegarth to you, if you want to stay on the right side of Scandinavians.

[Mister44]

THANK YOU FOR PLAYING!

I’ll stop now…

[renke]

[Mister44]

Holy crap - I had no idea They Might Be Giants covered this song!

(ETA - I was aware of the TMBG version, which I though was a song they wrote, not a cover of The Four Lads, which I just learned about.)

I learned something today!

Have to say I prefer the TMBG one…

[KathyPartdeux]

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