(6 January 2013, 16:41)ObongoPox Wrote: Based on prevailing winds and absence of obvious targets,NI and Eire would make good BOLs( except if the winds were Easterlies).Atlantic Coaat of Ireland must be one of the least spoilt in Europe.Shame there's no decent forests.My speaking with an English accent could be slightly disadvantageous,too.
Easterlies are rare on the entire island of Ireland (speaking as a keen amateur meteorologist!); the tepid water and Atlantic airmasses around Ireland usually hold them at bay, so for example, last winter when the east of England was shivering in sub zero temperatures thanks to a continental airmass (around Feb, as I recall), it was milder here than in Algiers.
West coast of Ireland is perfect retreat country - if you're Irish. By which I mean, from a Catholic, Celtic background. That means Brits (especially Northern Ireland's Protestants and the English in general) will become persona non grata at the best of times for many of the natives, and the "expendable gringo" during a major crisis, regardless of how well one feels one is being received in the interim. There is a genuine hatred there and it's been ongoing for centuries.
NI... same comments apply for Catholic areas, but the reverse holds good for Protestant locales, of which there are many and indeed, in which many English people reside. The sense of Britishness is very strong, pretty much unparalleled on the UK mainland outside of Govan and the "Chelsea fan" regions of London and Essex. So generally an English accent is very welcome.
In my book I am covering the various regions of the UK - and Europe beyond (as UK citizens can freely migrate within the EU) - in considerable depth and have spent a lot of time producing detailed maps. For NI, I show the areas with a pro-UK majority and the best retreat locales within them.
NI does indeed possess certain quirky advantages over the mainland UK, a view firmly held and promoted by my good friend from Argentina, Mr Fernando "FerFAL" Aguirre (author of "Surviving The Economic Collapse") and much respected survivalist blogger (his blog is here:
http://ferfal.blogspot.co.uk/) Some key points about NI (over and above the aforementioned Balkanised condition of the land):
GUN LAWS: You can own a semi-automatic weapon and a handgun, and you may display them in plain view which is as far from the situation on the mainland as possible outside of Switzerland or the USA. Presumably this has to do with many ex police and army living in NI who feel threatened by dissidents; yet these license are granted to anyone who is basically law-abiding.
ANNOYANCES: No bailiffs, no water charges, no council tax. Laughably, some mainland-based firms threaten people with bailiffs calling round to lift possessions; impossible though, as that is positively illegal in NI.
HOMESCHOOLING: Permitted and 100% unregulated (my sister has been homeschooling her 3 kids). There isn't even a requirement to notify the authorities. You just keep your kids at home and teach them to your own satisfaction.
CRIME: Lowest in the developed world outside of Japan. Even during the Troubles, crime was absurdly low. This was one of FerFAL's critical reasons for moving to NI.
EDUCATION: If you do send your kids to school, NI has the English-speaking world's highest rate of literacy and consistently the best performances at school in the UK.
Those are just some of the positives, however, it's not perfect; that quiet tension between the two communities is always there (observe Rory McIlroy's recent problems over his profession of feeling more British than Irish, a rare comment from an NI Catholic!) And of course, NI has its own WW3 targets, all concentrated on greater Belfast.
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