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Thibault

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Everything posted by Thibault

  1. I think it would be a mistake to rush into a referendum. People need time to appreciate the facts, as opposed to the emotive stuff in some parts of the press. Also, time must be given to Cameron to try to negotiate some changes to the way the EU operates. There is little doubt that the EU needs reform.
  2. The last poll I saw gave a majority to the Yes to stay in camp.
  3. Current polling indicates a Yes vote. It is a democratic vote and given that all of us support democracy, we have nothing to complain about, surely.
  4. Unless it is the EU gravy train, where they make sure they get the maximum......despite not voting very much.
  5. Not just UK MPs - there was a piece in the paper this morning about the people who compile the official French dictionary who work one day a week and are entitled to multi-million euro flats in Paris free of charge.....and presumably a salary as well.
  6. It's called Short money because Edward Short, a former Labour MP invented the system.
  7. Short money is a grant opposition parties receive from the state to pay for their offices. It is related to two things, the number of seats a party has and the number of votes cast for the party overall. On the basis of having one MP and having had around 4 million votes cast, Carswell is entitled to receive £650,000 per year for the next five years. He has said he doesn't need all this money to run his office. Ukip are saying they want the money and will decide how it is to be spent. I don't know who true it is, but the papers are saying there is a serious disagreement over this. Ukip have briefed against Carswell. Carswell is reported as being unhappy that Nigel didn't resign as he had said (permanently, that is). How much of it is exaggerated is hard to tell. But it is interesting,
  8. Interestingly in his latest book, Farage went on at length as how it would be impossible to lead a party without having a seat in the Commons and therefore if he lost Thanet, he would resign. The cynic in me feels this was a veiled threat to the electorate to elect him or lose him. In the event, he lost and Nigel (I'm a man of my word) Farage had to resign or risk any credibility he might have. Of course, it was generally expected he would throw his hat in the ring in the September elections for a new leader, but it seems he and Ukip couldn't wait. What is more interesting is the difference of opinion between Carswell and Farage over the Short money......
  9. [quote user="Jazzer"]I think there was a hint of things to come, in his resignation speech. He said that unusually for a politician he was a man of his word, he was resigning and he intended taking a holiday over the summer and may put his name forward for a leadership contest in the Autumn! Now you see me , now you don't!![/quote] That was before he was implored to stay on and his resignation was rejected. Just goes to show that Ukip is a one man party as their executive appear to think they cannot cope without old Nige.
  10. How touching. Nigel (I'm a man of my word) Farage has withdrawn his resignation as leader after the humble representations of the Ukip executive implored him to remain. This contrasts with his latest book where he suggested that it would be impossible to be a leader of a political party and not have a seat in the Commons........
  11. [quote user="PaulT"]To add to Pickles post: SNP has 56 seats with 1,454,436 votes LD has 8 seats with 2,415,888 votes UKIP has 1 seat with 3,881,129 Plaid Cymru has 3 seats with 181,694 votes - yes one hundred and eighty one thousand and six hundred and ninety four votes gives them 3 seats.[/quote] Surely this is just a function of vote distribution. The SNP votes were restricted to the 59 seats in Scotland, PC was restricted to Wales, whereas Ukip and the Greens were spread all over England, Wales and Scotland.
  12. Well, it is hard to image - steak and chips isn't it. It reminds me of TV coverage of events etc which usually involves someone speaking from outside a building vaguely associated with the event or person in question.
  13. The key thing for me was seeing how the book of rules for employment had grown over the years - a great presentation showing the actual series of books and comparing the size of the first one with the latest. No wonder unemployment is an issue.
  14. Yes, I know. I just wondered if the people on here who seem to be Ukip supporters knew what their policies were without having to look them up. Some of the people I know who intend to vote for them, have no idea what their policies are apart from the ones I listed. In other words, it is the anti-EU stance which is attracting some voters, coupled with the fact that since the Lib Dems have been tainted by actually being in government, they are no longer the Protest Vote Party and to some extent Ukip has picked up that particular baton.
  15. IIRC Mandelson's downfalls (there were two) were because he played fast and loose with the truth. Recent newspaper reports indicate that UKIP is taking blue collar votes in traditional Labour areas, so it may be that not just the Conservatives will lose seats to them. Can anyone name any feasible policies that UKIP have (apart from leaving the EU, bringing back smoking in pubs and stopping wind farms)?
  16. I am not sure it is only Conservative and Ukip voters who dislike the EU and would support a referendum on the matter. There are plenty of people in other parties who are Eurosceptic and certainly there are a number of current Labour MPs who are. People who see no case for reform of the EU and its institutions must be willfully blind. Any organisation whose auditors refuse to sign off its accounts for umpteen years obviously has a serious problem.
  17. To read media comments or listen to interviews with a wide range of people, you might be forgiven for imagining that the university tuition fees have to be paid up front. They do not and as some other posters have remarked, you only start to repay the loan when you earn above a certain amount.
  18. Thanks, I suspected as much, but as my local Tesco stocks it, I thought it might be available in supermarkets in France.
  19. Does anyone know if French supermarkets sell pressed beetroot juice?
  20. There is a notice up in our local supermarket which says there will be no fresh bread on Tuesdays. I found this rather strange as it doesn't seem to affect our local Aldi which has fresh bread every day. I put it down to another example of a typically strange French approach to economics........
  21. [quote user="You can call me Betty"]http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/19/-sp-thousands-britons-claim-benefits-eu Seems "benefit. Tourism" isn't just something the UK suffers from.....[/quote] But surely, Betty, the Brits who come to France come for the opportunities, the quality of life, the lack of crime and the wonderful country, unlike the foreigners who go to the UK purely for the benefits.......
  22. PaulT wrote: Thibault wrote ' to publish yet another image of what is forbidden to devout Muslims? ' Is that not the point, it is forbidden to devout Muslims to publish images of Mohammed BUT how is it forbidden for non Muslims to publish images? I have read somewhere that there is nothing written to forbid this but radicals interrpretation - someone will correct me. I can always remember as a child if Charlie Drake came on the TV my sister would say 'I don't like him, I don't like him' and the reply she got was 'then don't watch him, don't watch him' ( she was 23 at the time :) ) Same principle applies surely, if Muslims do not like it do not look at it. unquote Well, there were riots in Niger because of this latest cartoon and people were killed, churches set on fire, French own-businesses attacked etc. There were riots in many other predominately Muslim countries. All this because it is so important for Charlie Hebdo to have freedom of expression to insult someone's religion. So is the world a better place because they think it important to be able to say and print just what they like regardless? I'm afraid I don't think so. Free speech also implies responsibility for the consequences.
  23. I am surprised that many seemed surprised that the publication of the second cartoon by Charlie Hebdo didn't go down well in traditional Muslim countries. What did people expect, that everyone in the world, including Muslims, would all say what a good gesture it was to publish yet another image of what is forbidden to devout Muslims? What was the point Charlie Hebdo was trying to make? What if some Christians somewhere, already living in difficult conditions in largely Muslim countries, are killed because of the reaction to the second cartoon? Will we all still be saying how good it is to have the freedom to insult all people and all religions?
  24. [quote user="Chancer"][quote user="Thibault"]Do French media people say 'Dover' or 'Douvres' when referring to that place in French broadcasts?[/quote] They say Douvres, Londres Eedanbour etc although the last may well have the same spelling, they also say Mikael Shoomarrer, Osame Ben Laden and lots of others. I quite understand it in a French broadcast. [/quote] Exactly. I was really commenting on a post which seemed surprised that English broadcasts call the capital Paris and not Paree.
  25. And, of course, they always say 'London'.......
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