Sara

Frenchie, talking of names I feel I may have made a mistake calling my son Jacques here in France. As he was born here I wanted to give him a french name so that he could blend in more, but unfortunately that has not happened. On the contrary some children take the micky out of his name, why is this? Is it too old fashioned, could he shorten it to Jac, will that make him look a bit cooler (?)[8-|] 

Lucky you Emily, but would you defend their mad driving......?[;-)] I don't know whether it is just here in Normandy but they drive like lunatics, too fast and sit on your back bumper even in rain or snow....mad....While the pedestrians just walk out into the road without looking. Help.....[:-))]

Simon, yes I feel like my life is unlived .Obviously it would be nice to have a well husband , he is only 48, I am only 42..  We married 20 years ago, and I believe that if you truly love someone then you will want  to stick by them whatever happens, if he did not have me he would have no one. You said 'one life and all that' I chose to be with my husband who is very kind and loving and I would never abandon him, I know that sadly the majority of marriages who are in a similar situation  to mine do end . It becomes too much for the other person. In away I can understand as it is a very lonely life, but I could not do that. He first became ill after his vaccinations as a child when he was 4, before then he was a fit child. He has always tried to fight his health and when he was younger would have some better months than others, infact when he was 17- 25 he used to try and race moto bikes round Brands hatch and Snetterton. He had a very good job in London which funded this, but over the years he got weaker and weaker. My husband is a great conversationlist (but talking too much now makes hin extremely tired and unwell)  and used to have too many friends, infact when I started dating him it was quite funny as everywhere we went people would recognise him and come up to us to chat to him. He was and is a funny man (although obviously when your in severe agony 24 hours a day it is harder to be funny) he has  a great sense of humour  . He still tries to do as much as he can, he tries to do most of the chores round the house , as it keeps him active and we go out a lot as a family, mainly pic nics and visiting historical places. For the amount of time he has had his disease he has done remarkably well, most people are either bed ridden or have sadly died. So we have a lot to be grateful for. We have a beautiful kind thoughtful son and I am truly honoured to have him. In an ideal world, my husband and I would still be working (as we're young) and taking our summer holidays all over Europe. We would love to take my son to Italy, Greece and many more beautiful places that I know he would love to visit, but like a lot of people this is not feasable due to lack of funds .(and my husband is too ill, just to get to the air port would be an ordeal and not possible)....

That was not my point, I am happy with just smiling at people and just saying bonjour. ( I try and avoid kissing on cheek especially in winter as I do not want to catch any colds that I could then pass onto my husband, a mild cold can then lead onto pneumonia ) I do not want to intergrate and make friends. As I said when you are chronically ill 90% of friends are not interested. The first few years people are kind and nice but after 10 or 20 years they lose interest, it is a sad fact of life. It does not bother us , we are passed that now and are happy with our family (can be hard sometimes) When I wrote this it was mainly just to get my point accross that people are people where ever you go and just like in England people in my village have stopped socialising together and the village community has ended. The maires words not mine.  Because of my husbands illness I am very sensitive towards anyone who is ill, and will always try and help anyone who needs it.  So when and if I make new friends I would like them to sometimes just to ask how I am (I mean a genuine Ca va?)  and how my husband is doing, I don't want pity but it would be nice sometimes to speak to somebody who will not get bored..... .  I am and always have been a very good listener and like to help people . Before moving here I was a mentor for a very beautiful deaf girl .

Where I live hardly anyone intergrates unless you are either family or a good friend. This I have noticed every year at  the christmas party, nobody is that friendly and will only smile if you smile first. I have watched closely as I find it rather amusing .It is no different here than in England. People have busy lives and are moving from all different areas and obviously they do not know many people and they do not care. Who can blame them? It is now a very different world that we live in, when we first moved here there was the village shop that closed last year as nobody used it, that was a shame. My son and I used to pop in once a week to buy some sweets. I agree with Idun people kiss and say Ca va but hardly wait to hear a reply, they are off down the road before the other one has replied Oui Cava? Some people like England are selfish and do not have any manners 'my immediate neighbours would be sanding down doors at 8.00pm in the evening just as we're eating our dinner ( As I am writing this they are sanding , which is fine as it is before 7.00pm) they have been sanding down doors since May (?). Last bank holiday Monday they had a digger there all day, it made a huge noise, god know's what the other neighbours thought. I personally would never do this on a public holiday. They have just put a septic tank in, it was a huge job, must have cost an absolute fortune as they were there over a week, nearly two weeks (?) We have not fully intergrated as I have mentioned on other threads my husband is chronically ill and we therefore do not socialise, it makes him feels worse if he talks too long. People here in my village or in our local town know my husband is seriously ill and NOT once has anyone asked how he is, like England people are not interested , everyone has their own lives, anyone with a chronic illness is boring and are not worth talking to. C'est la vie.........

Exactly!!

I am afraid to say that you are still missing the point Quillan. Namely, the firm point of contention that Thatcherite ideology, the ideology of the unregulated free market, has been shown to be the proximate cause of the global financial meltdown. And yes I am fully conversant with the exact years of Thatcher's premiership. However that is hardly the point is it? Thatcher & her government deregulated the U.K. financial sector in 1986. Which, I would suggest, is the point in question. I say again to people who have a bee in their bonnet over this subject..address the specific point in question. Address the contention that unregulated free market capitalism caused the worldwide credit crunch. For that is the contention being made. My husband also thrived financially during this period. Many others did as well. However, I would suggest many businessmen & businesses also thrived perfectly well in other more sensibly regulated areas of the world also.. Areas of the world which are not quite as mired in the smelly stuff as the United Kingdom & the U.S. happen to be at the present time. Sara

It was not a rant on my part or indeed the part of Norman. Far from it I would suggest. My suggestion is to address the perfectly valid points that have been raised by those with a somewhat divergement view to your own. The U.K. is now tantamount to being bankrupt. So indeed is the U.S.A. I do of course accept that many other countries are also in serious difficulty. To a lesser or greater degree I suppose we all participated in the feeding frenzy. If I can call it that. This situation did not develop as a consequence of mere chance or indeed bad luck. I would once again put it to yourself & others that there was an underlying proximate cause for the financial meltdown we have witnessed over recent years. A fairly obvious one. To hide from the real causes of this situation I do believe is an unwise strategy. Sara

Yes. In this particular example. Sara

Well since you asked.... All I would say is that as illustrtated on the other thread, to which this thread arguably holds some relevance, you have failed to address the specific & fundamental points that have been raised in criticism of Thatcherism & the ethos of fundamentalist free market economics. Not to mention the detrimental effects such an approach arguably has on society. My suggestion & thinking on how things should be run in a modern capitalist economy I would have thought was obvious based upon my previous postngs. The most fundamental & important change required would be to turn the clock back pre. 1986 and introduce proper & meaningful regulation back into the financial sector. And by doing so perhaps embark on the long road towards creating a perceptible change in the ethos of society.. As you seem to be a fan of fundamentalist free market economics perhaps you might even consider taking ownership, to some small degree, of the problem yourself? Sara

I don't believe I exhibit a "blame" mindset at all. Quite the contrary I simply offer a perfectly rational & plausible explanation for a now widely observed & obviously apparent degeneration in social standards & behaviour. Also I would point out you the post that you quote of mine was in direct response to that of a previous poster. Responding to a more generalised point than the damage my husband suffered to his car. You seem to be quoting this out of context. Perhaps it might be a good idea for you to dicepher the true meaning & intent of peoples' post a little more carefully in future? Sara

Quote - Frankly, anyone who wishes us to be more like the Germans should seriously think what that means. Control, control, control. Whereas Margaret Thatcher broke the grey, control-freak mould and failure of the socialism imposed by Labour and gave people the chance to work and earn for themselves. Blair and Brown destroyed that by emascualting the superb pensions inheritance of the British people, restricting the entrepreneur culture and by massively increasing the useless job myth of the public sector which, remember, lives off the backs of others exclusively. B and B never created a private sector job which is the only type of job that creates wealth, which in turn they depended on to fund their stupidity. What they did to the education sector is worthy of the guillotine at any time; to simplify matters, they watered down everything and sold the idea that it was excellence. That is the cause of these riots. For Bobo's sake, leave you childish, univeristy socialism behind, some of you and get real. Unquote - That amounts to pure rhetoric I am afraid to say.. As I said before people need to face the true facts of recent economic history (as so brilliantly supplied hereto by our Norman!). It always makes sense to learn from the mistakes of the past. Whatever political hue one might favour. Sara

I totally agree with those sentiments sweet 17. Sara

Quote - Sara, Given your quote "The working class, chip on their shoulder are everywhere!!! " - I think you are hardly a reliable advocate for anti-Thatcherism. Not sure who or what damaged your car, but I guess I have little sympathy. Hope you don't move near me. Unquote Quite the contrary I would suggest in the U.K. a huge tranche of working class people have in fact embraced Thatcherism with open arms.. The long term foundations of Thatcherism could be argued to have been built upon such embracement. It has made right wing policies that much more acceptable to the U.K. electorate. Has it not? As for sympathy or moving..don't worry too much. But honestly I didn't mean any offence by my comment about chips on shoulders. It was just an observation. I think an honest one in reality. Judged upon peoples' behaviour & demeanor. Best wishes, Sara

I would suggest the obvious. Germany. Post reunification and notwithstanding their inevitable involvement in the global credit crisis I think that, nevertheless, Germany represents a pretty good example of how it might have been done. I also feel, in general terms, there is much the U.K. could learn from Germany in terms of avoiding consumer debt and the excesses of property speculation. Bearing in mind, however, our only half-joking economic rivalry with our more sanely managed neighbour, I somehow doubt it. It is not very surprising that the epi-center of catastrophe in the global crisis unfolding before our eyes lies principally with the economies of the USA and UK. In addition the economies of Ireland Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Iceland are also noteworthy in terms of the depth of their financial woes. All of whom bought heavily into the ethos of free market capitalism in recent years. Granted, however, that other countries within the euro-zone , notably Spain, Greece and Italy now also are very troubled indeed. I also fear that the U.K. will not be able to reap much benefit from the weak pound as was hoped for. As a direct consequence of its advanced de-industrialised state & reliance upon service industries. Again, a consequence of long term Thatcherism.. Despite what one might hear in the U.K. media. I personally would not be overly surprised if we do double dip in the U.K. within the forseeable future. Just my honest opinion. Sara

Yes. Of course I can do nothing but agree with the quotes you have provided. Again these are recorded points of recent history. These are facts known by all & sundry. Or at least they should be. However, the specific point I was responding to, made by another poster, as you are aware, was that deregulation of the financial sector was something implemented for the first time by Gordon Brown after he became Prime Minister. Which categorically & absolutely was not the case. Gordon Brown, as we all know, inherited this monetarist free market (i.e. deregulated) approach from his predecessors......ultimately from Margaret Thatcher. I am therefore somewhat confused by what you are saying here. I would concur, however, that New Labour joyously & wholeheartedly embraced the ethos & system of free market capitalism. They carried on with it unashamedly. Which will be to their everlasting fault. In my honest opinion & firm opinion. Due to the undeniable fact that the proximate cause of the worldwide credit crunch & financial turmoil we have witnessed was an unregulated financial sector. The collapse was due to fundamentalist free market capitalism.. This is the basic point I have been repeatedly making in my recent posts. Is it not? I am supportive of capitalism but have always held a strict preference for that of the properly regulated kind.. For this reason I personally hold Margaret Thatcher, in particular, alongside Reagan, as a fool. I would also say the same of those who came after her. Both those who held positions of influence within the Tory party & New Labour. Including Tony Blair & Gordon Brown. It will probably take 40 years or so for the U.K. to recover from the debacle of the last 30 years. One can only hope the country & those who govern it will have learned an important lesson. Somehow I doubt it though. I think, firstly, everyone needs to start opening their eyes to the truth. Sara

Quote - Within 4 days of being elected the then chancellor Gordon Brown severed the tie between the Government and the Bank of England href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/6/newsid_3806000/3806313.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/6/newsid_3806000/3806313.stm The slightly amusing thing reading the article is that GB wanted to put an end to boom and bust politics ! Unquote - Yes? And? What has this got to do with the central point being made here? What I am referring to here is the fundamental concept of monetarism, Thatcherism, if you like, Reaganomics & the economic revolution in financial deregulation that came with the wholesale introduction & implementation of such concepts that took place in the 1980's. Fundamentalist free market capitalism if you prefer the expression. Something born in the 1980's. Deregulation of the financial markets was the central precept of Thatcherism & Reaganism. This is what the two movements concerned essentially stood for.. It was a revolutionary move in economic terms. To go that far.. This is a given. It is a fundamental footnote in recent history. It is universely understood, accepted & appreciated. By all I seriously thought. People may disagree with the critical arguments against free market fundamentalist capitalism but to deny its large scale emergence onto the world stage in the 1980's is to deny recent history. Or was it all down to a dour Scotsman who came up with a not so bright idea one day in his rather short time in office? Sara

Quote It was Labour, namely Brown who started to deregulate the banks when they entered power ...................... Unquote I think you have just rewritten history. Seriously if you believe that to be true I am more than a little concerned for your command of history. I think Margaret Thatcher & Reagan, if he were alive, would have something to say about that also.. You're not serious are you? Sara

Russethouse and Euro you make good suggestions and comments in your latest posts. Yes I do intend to mention something to the boys concerned regarding the missing toys on a point of basic principle. I will keep it low key & see what they say.  Eurotrash, yes my husband has received similar compliments from some of the local French over recent years. I think the stonemason was actually showing a genuine acceptance of you, whilst remaining confused, perhaps understandably, of some of the Franglais he has seen & encountered over the years. A nice compliment really under the circumstances. I certainly kept an open mind about the boys in the bourg of the village and that was why I invited them into our house & garden to play. My husband did caution me to be careful in advance of their visit. As I say I do try to keep an open mind. Conversely, perhaps, I might have been too trusting? Who knows for certain. Compared to the problems back in England at the moment we have little reason to bemoan our situation in reality. Kind regards, Sara          

And then after some time, 30 years or so, after moral standards had steadily declined & blinkered vision had increased, the country became virtually bankrupt due to the flawed concept & unbridled implementation of free market captialism. As initiated by that great visionary Margaret Thatcher. What a truly wonderful success story! Sara

It is actually two weeks since the 'incident'. My son is exceptionally tidy, and keeps his lego all together in his bedroom. He plays with this regularly and has made a thorough search and count up... Regarding the french, I am just saying it is changing, they are not as friendly as they used to be and are definately more materialistic. I believe it is changing like in England in the 80's under Thatcher . Things were never the same again

I do not really understand the point you are trying to make here Andy. Of course glass is a liquid. Of course it can behave unpredictably when placed under mechanical or vibrational stress. Of course extremes of temparature will also test the resilience of glass. This is common & widespread knowledge for most people & for those with a particular interest in glass.. The point, in our case however, was that there was no previous damage to the windscreen. No chips or marks on the surface of the glass whatsoever. It was also a very temperate & stable day in terms of weather conditions. On the afternoon in question my son was playing hide & seek in the garden for about 30 minutes. Therefore, when hiding, he would not have been able to observe what the two boys were up to. My husband was working in the back garden, separated by from the garage area by a high wall. So I suppose one might say the opportunity was there. The possibility of such an opportunity shall we say? So, we have a combination of circumstances do we not? Certain of Jacque's toys mysteriously have gone "walkies". A very large & unexplained crack appeared on my husband's unsurveyed car on the same occasion. A plausible explanation exists for the method of causation for the damage in question. Can these two events be completely & utterly unrelated? Under the circumstances. Of course they might be. However, I think it is reasonable to conjecture that the two events might in some way be related. The law of probabilities & conincidence & all that. That is all I am saying. Not a wholly unreasonable explanation, or at least a possible explanation, to put forward under the circumstances. Surely? I wonder if such a thought might cross your own mind under the same, or very similar circumstances? As for cracking or breaking bottles in a uniform manner is concerned. All I can say is that whilst I always welcome the opportunity of such scientific challenges I too suspect that uniform cracks in glass bottles might be a little difficult to replicate. However always up for a challenge Andy if you are passing.. Sara

I agree the best course of action is to let it lie. In terms of the probable cause of the damage I believe there is a distinct possibility that it was vandalised. As I say the vehicle was not being driven at the time.. My husband has a friend in the car trade back in England who has seen this type of thing before. He also suspects vandalism in this case. If one inserts a screwdriver under the glass at the edge of a windscreen it will, with little effort, crack in this manner. Of course this will never be proved one way or the other. Thanks for everyone's feedback on this however. The theft aspect I think is much clearer however. Sara

You still don't get it do you? In the U.K. we are all sons (& daughters) of Thatcher. We have inherited her ideology. I tempted to say full stop but I will desist from doing so. Margaret Thatcher changed the national mindset, ethos & psychology of the British people. Irredeemably so I am afraid to say. The reality is that we now have a society in the U.K. which is overwhelmingly obessed by money. With all the attendant trappings of materialism, selfishness, lack of concern for those less fortunate than ourselves. This change in psyche has been aided & abetted by the insidious & constant drip feed of a national press & media which now lacks the quality of investigative journalism. To many intents & purposes the U.K. media now performs the function of an establishment mouthpiece in the U.K. Now all those on benefits, including the sick & disabled, are widely viewed as dole scroungers. Which they are not. A minority are however. And so it goes on.. I feel you miss the point on the bankers. Yes a small minority of roulette playing self interested bankers are indeed culpable. Encouraged in their stupidity by the deregulated system around them. Undeniably a Thatcherite inspired deregulated model. The wider picture is that a completely unregulated financial sector also allowed & encouraged the behaviour & irresponsibilty of overlending, including crucially the proposterous overindulgence in this seen within the mortgage sector. This directly fed & to a very large extent caused the credit crunch. Such free market ideology can indeed be traced all the way back to the Thatcher era. Indeed that's where it came from.. Tony Blair simply adopted the same free market ethos & ran with it as willingly & as happily as any Tory party would have done. Dour Scotsman Gordon Brown embraced & ran with it just as willingly. Pushed often by the Tory opposition to go even further in pushing the envelope of relaxation of the rules for the financial sector. Sheer & utter madness anyway you cut it. Traceable very easily back to Margaret Thatcher & her, revolutionary in its extremme, deregulation of the financial market. With a little help from Ronald Reagan. Not changed, modified or repealed by successive governments over the following decades. Whatever the skewed reporting of the U.K. press & media might have you believe. There is nothing wrong with a work ethic. Of course not. However, such ethic has now become rhetorical for many people in hiding from a simple truth. Indeed a work ethic in a properly regulated, answerable and fairer society is a very good thing indeed. Many people, including work orientated & highly successful people chose to leave the United Kingdom because they saw through the transparency of the free market system & its incumbent establishment. After all it has all been about making money to the exclusion of much else.. France sadly I feel is now heading the same way. Since the less than benigh influence of "Thatcherite" leaning Sarkozy. Events recently appear to have caught up with him however.. Sara

[quote user="NormanH"]Another article which has many points I agree with. "What we're now seeing across the cities of England is the reflection of a society run on greed – and a poisonous failure of politics and social solidarity" http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/10/riots-reflect-society-run-greed-looting "Politicians and media talking heads counter that none of that has anything to do with sociopathic teenagers smashing shop windows to walk off with plasma TVs and trainers. But where exactly did the rioters get the idea that there is no higher value than acquiring individual wealth, or that branded goods are the route to identity and self-respect?" He goes further than I would, as does the man in this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biJgILxGK0o but I think that solutions can't be found without careful analysis of causes. [/quote]   Thanks Norman. Very interesting links. I think Darcus Howe sums everything up rather well with the use of one poignant word "insurrection". In a society predicated upon greed & materialism, an ideology drip-fed to us all by the Murdoch press & media machine, and in more recent years joined firmly by the emascualted BBC, since the Andrew Gilligan affair, frankly what did we expect to happen? After all, in simplistic terms, an example, at the upper echelons of U.K. society, has now been clearly set by bankers & our self-orientated members of parliament. Ever since the adoption of the ethos of free market capitalism (dating back to Thatcher & her close acquaintence accross the seas Ronald Reagan) & adhered to by all successive governments of both persuasions, this has been the inevitable course in which we are headed. To deny this, I personally feel, is to deny the strikingly obvious.. Repeated work ethics & rhetoric apart. Sara