I've never met an Irish person that "blames" the modern English for what our ancestors did. I might be talking out of turn, but I think they mainly just want us to acknowledge what happened and not downplay what the British did.
I met plenty when I lived there and plenty in the UK too.
Even while trying to acknowledge the sins of our past and sympathise with them (in all honesty), they still treated me like crap for who I am and where I'm from. That's just xenophobia
I think JetSetWilly's opinion is not the normal in England, at least around people my age.
I was always taught what a lot of people here say, that the potato blight was a natural disaster, but the British government took it as an "opportunity" and purposely did not do enough to help.
In my personal opinion, I think that few people would have died if the British government stepped up, not the many millions that died as a result of their inaction. As an English person, I'm not proud of what our government did to Ireland over the years. Ireland is a beautiful country with great people, and it took a long time even to get the relationship between the UK and Ireland to where it is now.
Yeah Next are pretty good if you know what to look for, lots of their stuff isn't great but their 100% wool products are not bad at all. They use cheap dyes so their stuff isn't particularly colour fast, but if you take care of it, it will last a long time.
They use Merino wool, however not very much of their wool is sourced through the Responsible Wool Program(4% as of 2022), so there is a lot of wool in their cloths come from places you may not like how the sheep are treated. Their cotton is around 60% slave free(not bad for a fast fashion brand).
Odd, the large Tesco near me has no coin required for the trolleys. However, the Lidl and Sainsbury's do. I don't carry cash, but I keep a few pound coins in the car just in case.
At least with Sains', if you ask the security guard near the door he'll unlock one for you anyway :)
I've already heard stories of people coming back to the UK from a trip abroad, and UK border staff insisted to see their BRP even though it's acceptable now for it to be digital. I'm assuming it's going to be a right pain in the arse for my wife when she comes back to the UK from visiting family abroad.
I recommend printing some documentation from the government website wherever it says that $x is allowed or $y is deprecated. It won't stop some officious c*nt at the border, but when they call their supervisor, the latter might be able to recognise enough of the words to look it up and figure it out.
The article states that the change is due later. I know someone who received a BRP just days ago and was told that the electronic visa system isn't yet available. So the BRP has always been and remains mandatory for travel, until these changes take effect.
