To the citizens of the United States of America :
In light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus
to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of
your independence, effective immediately.
Her Sovereign Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, will resume monarchical duties
over all states, commonwealths and other territories (except
Kansas , which she does not fancy), as from Monday next.
Your new prime minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a governor for America
without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will
be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine
whether any of you noticed.
To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules
are introduced with immediate effect:
1. You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then
look up "aluminium," and check the pronunciation guide. You will
be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.
2. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour', 'favour'
and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut'
without skipping half the letters, and the suffix "ize" will be replaced
by the suffix "ise."
3. You will learn that the suffix 'burgh' is pronounced 'burra'; you may
elect to respell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you find you simply
can't cope with correct pronunciation.
4. Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable
levels (look up "vocabulary"). Using the same twenty-seven words
interspersed with filler noises such as "like" and "you know" is
unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.
5. There is no such thing as " US English." We will let Microsoft know on
your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take
account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of "-ize."
6. You will relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The Queen",
but only after fully carrying out Task #1 (see above).
7. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday. November 2nd will be
a new national holiday, but to be celebrated only in England
It will be called "Come-Uppance Day."
8. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or
therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and
therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns
should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort
things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not
grown up enough to handle a gun.
9. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more
dangerous than a vegetable peeler. A permit will be required if
you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
10. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and this is for your
own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand
what we mean.
11. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start
driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time,
you will go metric immediately and without the benefit of conversion
tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand
the British sense of humour.
12. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been
calling "gasoline") - roughly $6/US gallon. Get used to it.
13. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries
are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling
potato chips are properly called "crisps." Real chips are thick cut, fried
in animal fat, and dressed not with mayonnaise but with vinegar.
14. Waiters and waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with
customers.
15. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually
beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be
referred to as "beer," and European brews of known and accepted provenance
will be referred to as "Lager." American brands will be referred to as
"Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine," so that all can be sold without risk of further
confusion.
16. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good
guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to
play English characters. Watching Andie MacDowell attempt English dialogue
in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" was an experience akin to
having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.
17. You will cease playing American "football." There is only one kind of
proper football; you call it "soccer". Those of you brave enough
will, in time, will be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities
to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every
twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).
18. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host
an event called the "World Series" for a game which is not played outside
of America . Since only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a world beyond
your borders, your error is understandable.
19. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.
20. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's
Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all
monies due backdated to 1776.
Thank you for your co-operation.
John Cleese
