Romney on England: "It is a small island . . doesn't make things. . the world wants to buy".

He is in deep water with the Brits now - send this to the British newspapers!

I have no words...

So wrong for POTUS.

Small roads? Small houses? He couldn't really have said that!

Could he?!!

which always seems to be there, you cannot see just how big London is. Been there, done that and it is far from a little island.

anything and everything is smaller

He probably complained about their tiny sandwiches.

And sometimes small is just big enough. Seriously

manor houses that dot the landscape.

from my travels to europe that the houses and roads there are noticeably smaller.

Not surprising since they cram more people in to less space than we do.

The smallest in Europe, on average, in home space built since 2003 (this is a 2011 study) and tiny compared to the average in the US. Furniture tends to be smaller; not as massively overbuilt and the available space is designed to be utilized efficiently. People in homes tend to spend time in the same rooms at the same time, too. Extra space is a very American concept - just because we have it doesn't mean it's necessary.

As for smaller roads; yes, many of their roads are 'smaller' - they have smaller vehicles, overall. And comprehensive, efficient public transport that minimizes the need for a vehicle at all for many people. I spend a lot of time in the UK and rarely feel like I'm being cramped or don't have enough space (rush hour on the London tube is a different story, I'll grant, but nothing is perfect).



The largest square is the US; the smallest is the UK.
US: 2,300sf
Australia: 2,217sf
Denmark: 1,475sf
France: 1,216sf
Spain: 1,044sf
Ireland: 947sf
UK: 818sf

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/average-home-sizes-around-the-151738

How to piss off your closest ally, casually!

...was large enough for a guest house," Mitt says, "but it was just too old. It had to go."

I've never understood this whole "compete globally" nonsense.

wealthy capitalists buy up everything of value in the world to resell at a profit. If you can't get something legally, you send in your army to secure it for you. Luckily England will likely remain off Romney's radar because he sees nothing useful there.

Michelle Obama is walking into a mess when she gets there! This guy is such an idiot. He oughta be ashamed of himself.

And I hope they let her tell the press - because the British press WILL ask about it - "For the first time in a long time, I'm ashamed of America."

self. And the British press will eat it up and praise her to the moon. Probably contrasting her with Mittwit in the process. It will be to laugh.

Seriously!

translation: and he/Ann have never found anything they'd like to buy from England.

of Saville Road make suits that the rich from around the world come to buy.

He was greeted as a rock star. Throughout the U.K., he was met by swooning enthusiastic crowds in the tens of thousands and even, at one place, by 200,000. I take it poor Mitts' visit is a bit more toned down. Well, at least the Brit comedians are having a field day.

Short People got no reason
Short People got no reason
Short People got no reason
To live
They got little hands
Little eyes
They walk around
Tellin' great big lies
They got little noses
And tiny little teeth
They wear platform shoes
On their nasty little feet
Well, I don't want no Short People
Don't want no Short People
Don't want no Short People`Round here
Short People are just the same
As you and I
(A Fool Such As I)
All men are brothers

That's a statement that says "We support the UK", doesn't it?

who would read a book written by Mitt Romney anyway?

Right after you learn the difference between USSR and Russia.

The US is a continent because it sits on North America.

... like Haiti.

I'm sure Romney didn't write any book. He probably just gave a nod to someone who wrote a check to the actual author. And if the book causes any waves, he will deny authorship. The actual author will find himself looking up at the undercarriage of a bus.

an "adviser" said that, and he doesn't really believe it, even though his name is on the cover.

It's not like he ever thought that.

An asshole that won't take responsibility for being an asshole on purpose is infinitely worse than an asshole by accident or an asshole on purpose that owns up to it.

No Mitt, you'd have to go back to the days of England that you would love to see America go to in order to see the gross opulence that you are alluding to. When a chateau was really a chateau, and servants were really servants.

Mitt is GROSS and BOORISH!

We do!

They make their cars backward.

This man better not get anywhere near the Presidency.

8 years of Shrub-style gaffes were more then enough.

England is on an island that most people refer to as Great Britain. England has a land border (shock horror!) with two other nations.

Small houses? Compared to what? The roads are "adequate". Last I heard England had a rail passenger service that works. Kind of. And though not much gets made here anymore there are plenty of people in the rest of the world willing to buy stuff in the City of London.

And if the island of Great Britain was still attached to the European continent (in the land sense), the whole of history would be very different. The Romans would have marched over here. We might have been part of a larger France. Who knows? That's an alternative reality.

While he is a moron, we do have the least living space per person in Europe. At least according to the most reputable source I know: QI.

Beyond that he's a moron of course.

"Teeny people who don't do anything productive but drink and make merry all day!"

Well, he might as well have said it.

At a terrible cost, they held the line. We owe them more than we can ever repay.

Romney is an ugly fraction of a man. My apologies to men.

That you are the first American I have EVER heard say something like this and it means more to me than I can say.

Thank you.

I'm sorry you haven't heard more Americans say thank you. We aren't all Romneys (thank God) and many of us do recognize the debt we owe. Not only your country's valiant defense, also law, language, literature and so much more.

You all have a great Olympic Games.

The Jaguar XK comes to mind.

And wonderfully bitter pale ale.

But I like peapods in stir-fry!

Romney doesn't strike me as a fan of The Who or the Stones though. Bet he couldn't name a single song.

Many of them to be studied in academic settings!

the Harry Potter series!

And many of our most successful TV shows are just cheap copies of better versions that were first made in England.

The entire "British Invasion" in rock music in the '60s, along with Yardley of London cosmetics (I bought nothing BUT their eye makeup for years!), and Mary Quant and Jean Shrimpton who practically LIVED on American magazine covers for years, and Twiggy. All losers nobody ever heard of or was interested in, 'eh? Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney, Burberry UK, Philip Treacy and those crazy much-talked-about hats. John Galliano.

Then, too, the MG (my first car, bought used and loved for years), Jaguar, Rolls Royce - the car AND the engines that power huge machinery and aircraft, Austins, the Mini-Coopers, Land Rovers, the Lotus, and more, and let's not forget the Aston Martin.

Which brings us to the arts. How 'bout the guy who drove those Aston Martins - James Bond. Gee, that was a nothing dead-end brand that nobody was interested in buying, wasn't it? The BBC and all those dramas and comedies. Mr. Bean etc. Nope, not buying any of those, are we? Monty Python - naaaah. Useless boring uninteresting failures for sure. Absolutely Fabulous? Adele? Another bunch of nobodies. From Charlie Chaplin to Alfred Hitchcock to Cary Grant to BOB HOPE. Yep, he was born in Britain, and his real first name was Leslie. Elizabeth Taylor. Hell, half the rock world is British in origin. Sean Connery, with or without 007. Colin Firth. Patrick Stewart. Emma Thompson. Kenneth Branagh (one of the best actors EVER), Alan Rickman (another one of the best actors EVER) - and speaking of which, Harry Potter Et Al. Yeah, that was a big wash-out, wasn't it - in both book stores AND theaters. Nobody gave a damn about anything some J.K. Rowling wrote, did they? And let's not forget that complete loser Will Shakespeare...

Oh yeah, and never mind that our top TV shows were all Americanized versions of BRITISH television, whether it was "All in the Family" or "American Idol." Those were BRITISH inventions.

Yeah the Brits. They got NOTHIN'. NOTHING of interest. Nobody even pays attention to those boring stuffy British royal weddings either. Nobody tuned in for any of that. Americans don't give a shit about all that pageantry. That's why nobody ever goes over as tourists to visit London or Stonehenge or Stratford-on-Avon or that big-ass Holy Grail of Golf in Scotland where tom delay and all his little friends just HAD to go on an expensive freebie junket, or anything that they got in trouble for back home. Or Irish linen, English Breakfast tea and Earl Grey tea, Irish Breakfast tea (they should all hold their tongues in romneyland, what with their teabagger bits - where do they think THAT originated???), crumpets, scones and other high tea delights, plaid, heather, English lavender and English roses, corgis, cheddar cheese, and more. The ENTIRE UK, including Ireland and Scotland and Wales. And the Empire that spawned US Americans OURSELVES!!!

WHAT AN ARROGANT ASSHOLE romney IS!!!!!! And his arrogant smug snooty wife, too. They're the quintessential Mr. and Mrs. Ugly American, if anybody ever was. Hey shitty mitty - you think Obama was going from country to country "apologizing" for America? I've got BIG news for you, asshole - we're ALL going to be going around the world apologizing for America if YOU somehow manage to buy your way into the White House.

Your cash ain't nothin' but TRASH. Just like YOU.

I know it's now German engineered, but it's still British built. For as long as I can drive, I don't want to drive anything else...just wish they would start shipping the diesel model over here.

make some of the best shaving soap and creams you can buy.

A killer stream of awesomeness from the mid 60s to the 2010s.

Quad, Linn Sondek, Creek, Rega, Spendor, Tannoy, Exposure, and Goldring just to name a few.

And the British don't enjoy making blokes redundant!

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/07/26/romney_once_called_england_just_a_small_island.html

of course, if it weren't for the divide, they probably wouldn't have been spending so much of their military budget on their navy for centuries, so who knows what the situation would have looked like.

The man is an idiot with aHarvard degree

The brits greatest victory at that point in the war was Dunkirk, a major evacuation.

The german army had just wiped out the much larger french forces with ease.

It's doubtful, with a land connection that Britain would have been able to hold back the Huns. They just barely managed as is.

trees . . . .

the "size" of things. Hmmm.

The greatest music during the '60s was coming from that little island.

Who knew?

while everyone else was listening to Sgt. Pepper.

Not ready for prime time.

Old Europe got all up in the Anglo-Saxons' grill?

Gold medal arrogance.

What a dipshit.

And yes, special kind of arrogance.

I look at it this way, the Brits will love us all the more when we re-elect President Obama.

The US & UK~BFFs and stuff.

Julie

So he'd still be out of luck.

probably posthumously baptize Henry VIII and make some sort of claim for the throne. I think this whole "Romney goes to London" thing is just his way of sizing up his chances.

http://books.google.com/books?id=PDpBpo5CVB4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=mitt+romney+no+apology&source=bl&ots=wGt5MR7o4i&sig=9O7kL5HZdlFWWfYQh4IfwUr_EzM&hl=en&src=bmrr&sa=X&ei=jKYRUPSQAoTerAHcwYHoCQ&ved=0CD4Q6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=mitt%20romney%20no%20apology&f=false

"China, Spain, Britain, and the Ottomans expressly or effectively retreated behind barriers to foreign trade, each convinced that competition had made them weaker. Their retreat from the marketplace of ideas and their retreat from the marketplace of goods inevitable led the their retreat from the pinnacle of leadership.” (40-41)

“…the British culture of order, organization, and rigid structure—once assets in Britain’s conquest of nations in the undeveloped world—may have prevented it from developing the risk-taking approach and entrepreneurialism critical in free markets. Culture did indeed make a difference.” (41)

“The history of leading nations that have fallen has even more to teach us, however, perhaps at a more fundamental level. In the face of evident decline, why do nations fail to act? Are there cases where nations instead have acted to halt their decline? What accounts for the difference between the two? The answers to these questions may be the most instructive because they can suggest a course of vigilance in the modern world very different from that of the Ottomans, the Spanish, the Portuguese, or even the British.” (42)

So... according to Mitt... Britain has retreated from the marketplace of ideas, they are risk-averse and are not entrepreneurial because of their rigid structure and culture, and they are a fallen nation.

so the information is kind of like a secret

oh my

square foot places.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002575315

the comment sections of all the British newspapers and tabloids that are carrying stories about Romney. Let this story clobber Romney while he is sojourning in the U.K.

it might not have had so many gaffes.

Thanks, Grantcart

mikey_the_rat

What a doofus.

grantcart

wow, and he was on a sharm offensive in the UK some claim?....

Diclotican

But at least he shares and appreciates the anglo-saxon heritage thing

Have to contribute to a DUzy worthy thread.

Isn't that how Republicans do diplomacy?

They were hit by bombs that took out whole blocks of buildings back when "blockbuster" wasn't a summer movie or a video rental store.



Romney would have cut a deal with Hitler to buy and sell England for quick buck.

like many other deluded Americans, he likes to think that we swooped in like Underdog and saved the day. The Brits fought like hell until we decided to pull our heads out and join the fight.

we probably wouldn't have jumped in had he not. We would have been happy just sitting back and making money on Lend/Lease

That bonehead play set them back 100 years.

There's a general sense of urgency on their part. That's the only thing that explains how blatant they have been. Between SuperPacs and offering the the Tea Party as a solution to their draining the world's treasury.

Maybe they're just so far behind the times that they never got the memo about a digital age and they think that if it doesn't make it to the 6 O'clock News then it never happened.

reminds me of a kid in school that didn't study and had to make something up on the spot.
what a doofus

an expert on war, based on his extensive experiences avoiding it.

he'll have all that diplomacy stuff mastered.

by tossing a quarter at a local historian, to pay for a rat to gnaw that thing off her face.

Oh yeah, Amurcan...

Just in case you want to be sure he's not being misinterpreted. (He's not.)

Starting near the bottom of page 39...

http://books.google.com/books?id=PDpBpo5CVB4C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA39#v=onepage&q&f=false

since we've had a war with GB. We're liable to be in another one by the time Numbnuts is done over there. What a knob!

http://www.leftfootforward.org/2012/07/mitt-romney-britain-small-island/

http://hinterlandgazette.com/2012/07/mitt-romney-called-england-small-island-small-roads-houses.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HinterlandGazette+%28The+Hinterland+Gazette%29

...among others. For more:

https://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23romneyshambles%20small%20island

thanks for the update

Is he trying to loose? I mean, what the hell?

... not lose ...

He is not a practical candidate.

Soon others will see this aspect of this idiot. *sigh*

The latter day version of absolute monarch as a "captain of industry." To whom everyone beneath him (and as CEO, that means EVERYONE is beneath him) bows and scrapes.

The CEO's word is law and no one questions it, especially since he likes firing people who serve him.

That alone leaves him extremely ill-equipped to be a public servant, which the President of the United States is.

sounds like it

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1017&pid=44227

The transcript is there in addition to the video. Yes, Romney would have probably thought it be best if Hitler won, just like the Koch family. It's laid out so plain, it's mind boggling.

"He sure showed those foreigners who's boss, ah hyuck hyuck".

Ignore the Village Idiot.

"And if it hadn't been separated from the continent by water, it almost certainly would have been lost to Hitler's ambitions"

Just how ignorant can one man be? The entire British populations character and resolve was tested by Hitler and they beat him. By sheer guts and bravery and valor and determination. And an exceptionally wise and cagey Franklin Roosevelt. Churchill was pretty brilliant, also.

To attribute their WW2 victory merely to the English Channel is one hell of an insult to all British people and their forefathers.

I hope this gaffe has legs and longevity.

And remind me never to ask Mitt to help me with my history term papers.

-90% jimmy

Nobody sings it like Dame Vera Lynn:

Nah, that little island produces nothing people want to buy.....

What if they remember our Republicans?

Maybe they aren't made there anymore but it was the birthplace.

man what moran!

-p

I have a friend from Australia who came here specifically so that he could make guitar amps. Check out Matamp and Hayden. They both blow Marshall out of the water. Laney still makes some of their amps in the UK as well. There are other companies I'm forgetting as well, of course.

at the Rose Morris Showroom on Shaftesbury Avenue. Great amp. I listened to pretty much all the amps they had including the sounds I heard from groups using them live in clubs and I thought Marshalls just had that crisp, crunchy sound like Hendrix got that you couldn't get with any other amp. I tried Laney, Orange, Hi-Watt, Sound City, Wem and I couldn't get that Marshall sound from anything else. The Vox AC 30 was a cool amp for its crisp crystalline sound and portability but it just didn't do it either. I had a U.S. made Sunn with two cabinets and that didn't give me that sound either, although Hendrix went through a period of using Sunn amps instead of Marshalls. I guess it depends on what sound texture you like.

Some of those companies used the same manufacturers at times, some manufacturers switched factories, etc. I know that early Orange amps were made by Matamp, and I think there was some overlap between Orange and Marshall at some point, as far as manufacturing goes.

Do you still have that Marshall? I hope for your sake you do.

and I had no choice but to sell the Sunn stack, the Marshall stack, along with a pre-CBS strat and telecaster, 1961 Gibson ES 335, vintage Gibson Les Paul Special with the P-90s, and vintage Epiphone Broadway. I even had to get rid of my beautiful 1960 Jaguar Mark II 3.8 sedan. I had no idea that collectors would one day put these things out of reach. They were very affordable when I originally bought them. The store in London gladly took 6 crisp $100 bills US for the Marshall stack when I bought it new.

The pricing of vintage instruments has become insane.

When I was first getting into music in the late 80's and early 90's, 70's and early 80's Fenders were seen as junk and were still really affordable. Now those same guitars are sought-after. It used to be that people wanted pre-CBS or nothing. Now, pre-CBS fenders are out of the price-range of even most pro musicians, unless they're of the wealthy sort.

I paid $100 for the used pre-CBS telecaster when I bought it at a music store in Georgia in 1966. Good guitar. It wasn't considered collectible back then. Back then, a high school kid mowing lawns could afford a real good guitar. Nowadays, a kid mowing lawns can afford a piece of crap made in China.

My first bass I got in '89 was a piece of crap made in who-knows-where. By the time I replaced it a year or two later, one tuner was falling apart, and it had serious gouges in the frets. Still, that bass - a Kramer - isn't worth squat now. For about that same price, I could have got a 10 year old USA fender, which would be worth double to triple now. *sigh* live and learn.

I really want a new guitar now, but I'm holding out until I can afford the vintage gibson that I really want, because I know that it won't go down in value, and if it's lasted 50 years, it will last 50 more just fine. Neither are likely true of many new guitars.

but I'v never heard of those so I'll have to check them out, Yeay! Like a kid in a toy store. I bought Marshall DSL100 JCM 2000 A while ago and it sits on a Laney top cab. It is just sweet, even w/o effects!

I'm clueless as to where they were manufactured.



-p

The bottom had 4 - "12s and 2 midrange horns. This along with a Gibson SG standard. I could retire on that stuff now!

he is quite happy to take their money.

Romney, has any Brit called you a wanker yet? Because they should.

Thousands of airliners flying with Rolls Royce engines. Rugged and reliable.

I hope that gets sent across the pond for them to print so they can show the citizens what are repuke fuckwads are saying about them.

which it shares with Wales and Scotland. There is no island of England. If this was an innocent comment by a tourist stumbling around Piccadilly Circus - it would be a forgivable faux pas. But this geographic ignorance in a book written by the potential leader of the free world?

"Romney book: Britain is a tiny island that makes stuff nobody wants"

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/07/26/romney_book_britain_is_a_tiny_island_that_makes_stuff_nobody_wants

A gaffe seldom has legs or lasting impact in an election, but such an idiotic and easily refuted claim written by a candidate is a whole 'nother animal riding on the roof. "No Apology" just makes him known as proudly careless, incompetent, and willfully dumb.

Thanks Mr Rmoney, for once again making Americans look bad.
The book is called "no apology?". Should be called "no brains".

No wonder the English think he's an asshole. He can't write worth a damn and act polite in public.

I'll be disappointed if there isn't a little verbal slapstick!

How much money is Romey/Ann/Blind Trusts etc making from all of the Bain properties in England? It is very time consuming to try to figure all this out.Romeny needs to once and for all list all of the companies he has monetary interests in all over the world.

"Ann and I really appreciate our Anglo-Saxon heritage. Oh, and by the way: you suck."

-- Mal

When Britain and the Commonwealth Nations were standing up alone to Hitler during 1940-41, where was Romney's family? Weren't they hiding out in Mexico so they could have a few wives?

He clearly didn't realise GB is the country of the Industrial Revolution...He saw a country with innovaction, creativity, culture, tolerance, that is self-mocking, humourous with Conservatives that want to legalise Gay Marriage and support Obama, because they think Mitt is a dim wit.

So while he is dumbing things down for us, he only makes himself look like a fool.