Say's Mr Junker.


Hmm, maybe they'd have all preferred to be speaking German instead?


Memories seam to be short

He comes across as a hybrid of a bitter old man and a petulant child, and the only thing he can do is to make cheap-shot jibes every now and then. Pathetic.

They don't generally speak ze engleesh on ze continent though

Unless you really shout at them..

Then again , if you're an all inclusive fan or a kipper maybe ....

Unfortunately for friend Juncker, English is the international language of business and the mandated international language of aviation. As long as Americans keep speaking their version of it, and civil aircraft keep flying, English is not going anywhere.

And the wider engineering/scientific communities. So no, definitely not going anywhere soon.

Junkers comes across as a bit of an idiot, but I wish May et al would refuse to engage in petty rubbish. Hasn't she heard of the "rising above it"?

She would do well to start acting like a stateswoman, as I'm sure that would garner respect on both sides of the channel. All were seeing at the moment is petty bull**** from both sides, which I find embarrassing on all their behalves.

When you think about it, he's got a point. English is anyway only the 3rd most spoken language amongst EU members after German and French, and when the UK leaves there will only be th 4.5M Irish who speak English as a first language and maybe a couple of million other randoms around the EU, English will become one of the smallest minority languages within the EU.

Currently, English, French and German are the official languages of the EU, which means everything has to be translated at least twice. If you can cut that down to one translation, thats a massive cost saving!

This completely ignores the fact that English is used as an official language in large part also for the benefit of countries other than the UK, since it's spoken far more widely as a second language in the ex-Soviet block and Nordics than anything else.

Junckers of course knows this full well, so very likely only said what he did for a wind-up, and/or because, quite frankly, he's bit of t!t (he's a full-time politician after all, so no real surprise there).

I think there are a couple of gaping holes in his argument... one being Microsoft and the other being Apple... both at the forefront of technology... unless of course we all start speaking Japanese or Chinese... which lets face it ain't going to be happening anytime soon.

He's just jealous that English in it's Various forms has replaced French as the main international language... he'll have to remain content with radio speak.

May have to start learning Mandarin now we've burnt our bridges in Europe

Just have to add 'Y'all' to the end of each sentence

I loved the photo of Juncker making a speech, which was used to illustrate this.

On the wall, behind him: English.

I mean, come on? Are we really going to take notice of a guy who led a tiny country and made it into a tax haven? Against EU rules?

He's a nothing. His position as EU president shows up the whole edfice.

Juncker's behaviour is the best 'recruitment sergeant' for the Tories and hard ball negotiations.

The local council election results have demonstrated that the majority are aligning behind the Tories and their stance over Brexit.

Christ, you remain voters just don't give it up do you! Get over it FFS!

Fortunately many remain voters have woken up and smelt the coffee, but it's sad that there is a hardcore element of deluded Guardian reader types who are just so bitter and stubborn they're starting to sound borderline militant about the UK becoming part of failed socialist experiment.

Hard / soft stance over brexit . Just love the way we paint up our position

As far I can see junkers ruffled all your collective feathers to great effect lol ,

Lol, not ruffled my feathers, I'd have preferred to stay in... purely based on personal convenience... what does make me smile is Brexiters thinking they'll some how be better off

Uk will still be full of foreigners and the ordinary man on the street is still going to get the $h1t end of the stick, no matter what.

Oh and the hard Brexit will obviously be Europes fault... as usual.

I suggest that it's irrelevant now whether we will be better off or not. The EU has clearly demonstrated why it's better to leave. Frankly I rather to be poorer and happier. My sense of being part of the majority that got this country to leave the EU fills me joy every day

Hope you're ready to back that up!

Question is what has the EU done that affected his mental well being.

Less competition innit

lol - indeed

meanwhile back on planet reality

Yeah English is finished

I'm not entirely sure why people are getting uptight about this?
Junkers doesn't get to decide which languages people use.
I do laugh that it's mainly Brexit voters on here who seem most upset by his comment. I thought you wanted this BS?
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No we don't want this BS, another reason why we're leaving.