Rabbie

I feel that any one who thinks that Brexit is a good idea should look at the people who think it is a good idea. people like Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, George Galloway, Nigel Farage etc. Now they may be political heroes to some people but I doubt if many people who admire DT also admire GG or vice versa.   Michael Gove today said the UK should leave the single market. This seems to eliminate the Norway/Switzerland option. When will they decide what they really want if we leave. We have a right to know what is proposed if we support the Brexit option. In the  debate about the Scottish referendum I stated I would not vote for  a "pig in a poke". The same applies here

The only attack of gastro I have had in the last 15 years was after eating a meal of mussels in a pub not far from home. I have never had any problems after eating in France but that could well be due to luck and a good natural resistance to these bugs.

Why are people still perpetuating the discredited euromyth about straight bananas? The EU makes a convenient scapegoat for these stories which have no foundation in fact. A friend of mine who was an MP was shocked when he was first in parliament to find that an EU directive on one sheet of A4 was expanded into forty pages of UK legislation most of which was not needed by the EU directive but suited the government of the day to justify on those grounds. It is standard practice for any international agreement to be worked on by civil servants with Ministers only involved at the final stages. If we vote to leave then the majority of the negotiations will be carried out by officials on both sides. The same will apply as we negotiate trade agrements with other countries. That's just the way government works. As I understand it EU directives now have to be approved by the European Parliament before they come into effect

Idun, for once we can agree on something in this debate. Yes there is a need for EU reform but the UK will not have any influence on that if we leave. There has been quite a lot of talk from the Brexiteers about how undemocratic the EU is but this seems to ignore the fact that the EU parliament is elected on a fairer system than the UK parliament. If you doubt this just see how many MEPs UKIP have compared to the number they have at Westminster. Yes some decisions do not go the way the UK would like but that is inevitable with democracy or any other system of government.

With still 46 days left to Polling day I am sure we will all be given lots of advice on how to vote. Some of us already know how we will vote and are unlikely to change our minds in the interval. Some however will decide on what is said in the rest  of the campaign. Hopefully now the local elections are over in the UK there will be some intelligent discussions of the pros and cons of this issue

There are still 7 weeks to go to the referendum and tomorrow we have local elections in many parts of England  and assembly elections in Wales and Scotland. Once those are out of the way I expect there will be more campaigning, debates etc. I suspect we will be thoroughly fed up by 23rd June which may have an effect on the the turnout

Pedants Corner. The word "maid" is feminine so IMO she is sufficient. A male servant would surely be a manservant or Gentleman's gentleman

If they were married in England or Wales then if you go to nationalarchives.gov.uk you should be able to obtain a copy. That website also tells you where to go if they were married in Scotland or Ireland

As one living in the UK it does look like the Remain In side will win the referendum. If the Brexit side win then it will be at least two years before the actual exit occurs. Plenty of time then to apply

When I first started driving in the 1960s the cars I drove had a comfortable cruising speed of about 50 mph  but now cars have a much higher cruising speed and are perfectly happy cruising at the legal maximum or above. So for older drivers it often does not feel as fast as it is. I think it is more important that drivers are watching the road rather than the speedometer so it is not a question of dangerous inattention. Also there are some roads near us where the the speed limit seems to be set unreasonably low - for example a long straight stretch of dual carriageway with a limit of 50mph with no exits or exits except at the ends. It also seems a little bizarre to have a main road restricted to 40 mph with narrow roads leading off with only the national limit of 60mph What worries me more are drivers who are overtaking in unsuitable places even though they may be within the speed limits.

The remote content refers to links embedded in the email which are used to display company logos and other info. This can be exploited by malicious posters which is why Thunderbird does not display them unless you say so.

I am sure that Hilary Clinton is hoping that her Republican opponent will be Donald Trump as that would give her the best chance of winning. Meanwhile back on topic. If/when I move to France it would be unreasonable of me to expect to be treated differently than French people as regards healthcare or road charges etc. If I don't like it I don't need to go. It's that simple

Idun said "I have no idea how the vote will go and for example, when we voted to go in in 1975, Yorkshire did not. So I would imagine that lots of people in Yorkshire would know people who were against it at the time..... maybe that is how it is now. Some regions have an underlying distrust of the EU........ perhaps and would vote no!" Unfortunately this is not correct. Yorkshire voted to remain in with a comfortable majority. The only two areas to vote to leave were the Western Isles and Shetland. See this link for more detailed information

This referendum will not be decided by cold rational analysis of the facts but by people's emotional response to the arguments. This applies equally to both sides as the vast majority of ordinary voters do not have access to all the detailed information even if they have the inclination. With the In side we know what is being offered - something very similar to what we have now but with the Out side nobody honestly knows what deals they will be able to negotiate should they win the vote.

The information was there for those who wanted to find it whether they lived in London, Scotland, the North East or where ever else in the UK. In those days there were good public libraries in every town and there was good coverage in the press and on radio and TV. It was just a question of whether people wanted to do their research or not. As I said it is all in the Treaty of Rome. That is what we were signing up to.  The case both for and against was publicly debated in the 1975 referendum. It was reported widely in the papers and on television and radio. I did not have a TV until just before the referendum but I was able to follow the arguments easily on Radio 4 so no difficulty if you wanted to. By the 1970s the German economic miracle was a well reported fact and it was clear that they were the rising power in Europe. My father who had no love for the Germans always thought the only way to curb their ambitions was through the EEC as it was then.

I noticed earlier this week that one of the Brexiteers( Chis Grayling) said that if they won they wanted David Cameron to lead the negotiations for the UK exit with the EU. This suggested that either they thought DC was a brilliant negotiator so why don't they accept that the deal he has already reached with the EU is the best possible or they are looking for an excuse that they cannot deliver on the promises they are making that the world will be queuing up to give the UK wonderful trade deals. There has been a couple of programs on BBC giving the history of the UK and what is now the EU since the second world war. It was obvious from the initial EEC as defined in the Treaty of Rome that close political union was always an aim so those who say the 1975 referendum was just about a free trade area just did not do their homework. After all we had left EFTA to join the EEC which should have been a slight hint. The programs also highlighted the biggest handover of British sovereignty was done by Margaret Thatcher when she gave up the UK veto in the Single market Act in 1986.

Why not consider a Japanese flowering cherry. They come in weeping forms and should be OK in your climate

Ericd said I used to read the "Sunday Post" religiously from front page to back cover and that, along with my daily office work and exchanges with colleagues, helped me with vocabulary. Help ma boab. You must have picked up a strange vocabulary if you learnt from the Broons and Oor Wullie.

Horizontal Berlitz is one of the most fun and effective ways to learn a language. It worked for me learning Swedish when I met Mrs Rabbie. Duolingo I found a useful way of building a broader vocabulary even if some of the sentences are a little esoteric

[quote user="Théière"]Morning Jon, So Tres pass isn't a French word then? I didn't believe it existed in Britain either (one of those pub discussions) as break ins to Buck House seemed to get done for other things? [/quote]There is no trespass in Scotland but it is a civil offence in England rather than a criminal one. Pedantically you can not be prosecuted for trespass only sued for any damage you may have done.

[quote user="woolybanana"]......  Oh, and he is worried about his ill gotten gains which are being looked after by a nice NIgerian chap he met on the net.[/quote] I heard they had been transferred to some lawyer in Panama. Welcome back Paul

[quote user="Aardvark"]And the goings on in Syria are just the latest in the planned long-term destabilisation of the whole region by the USA.  The forces trying to oust the democratically elected government are being funded by the CIA, etc.  The whole thing stinks even more because the thousands of refugees will be a major burden on Europe and not the USA.  [/quote]I don't think the Assad government in Syria is what we we in the West would call "democratically elected". Even Putin seems to have accepted that Assad will have to go as part of a peace settlement.

All acts of indiscriminate terror are appalling as are all acts on which kill or injure innocent bystanders. That is something with which I think we can all agree when it comes to attacks in European cities like Brussels, Paris and London. But there is little difference in morality in the bombing in Syria when many innocent people have been killed or injured. I know some will say that they should have moved but where to? Europe does not want any more refugees  as it is s struggling to deal with those who have already arrived.

[quote user="idun"] And what of people with no mates, how do they feel these days, or is there an app for that too[:-))] [/quote] I think they join internet forums

No British government since the war has had the support of 50% of the votes cast. The Next British general Election is due to be held in May 2020 as a result of the fixed term legislation passed in 2010 so very unlikely for any government change till then.