SC
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Posts posted by SC
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Unfortunately every bright cloud these days can have a gloomy lining:
"Honda is planning to cut 800 jobs at its Swindon plant, blaming weak demand across Europe."
BBC today.
Steve
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Norman wrote:"So really there is no connection to the UK Budget"
Thats right there isn't.
In France, austerity is being seized on as the reason for lack of growth whereas despite those draconian UK budget cuts, ordinary UK citizens are optimistic enough to go out and buy new cars.
"it is more a question of Japanese management and design."
Freedom from the union intransigence in the old British owned car industry, more like.
Steve
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[quote user="NormanH"]The productivity of French workers is higher than their British counterpart, but they are still burdened by the fact of having French management and owners.
[/quote]And labour laws.
Lest this reflect on the average British "worker", conventional productivity per worker is not a measure of how hard someone works as it does not take into account the cost of the financial or intellectual investment to enable that productivity. In an economy or social structure that makes it difficult and expensive to lay off employees, companies will invest in machinery and work practices to achieve productivity gains.
Steve
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[quote user="NormanH"]I can't see any link between Budget cuts and car sales.
[/quote]In as much as austerity is presumed to stifle growth.
Steve
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When the UK coalition government announced its planned budget cuts a couple of years ago it was reported on TF1 news as draconian with the comment: "imagine what would happen if the government of France tried to do that here".
Now we know that most of the UK cuts have yet to bite deep, but I wonder what the average Frenchman would think about poor old Britain if he looked at the BBC news site today:
Peugeot Citroen hit by 'crisis' in European car sales
"Sales worldwide were down 16.5%, the French company said"; " sales fell 13% in France"
On the same page were links to: "UK car sales reach four year high" and "US car sales hit five year high". Its was also reported elsewhere that Peugeot's UK sales were up 5.6% in 2012.
The Guardian reported: "Sales of UK-built cars rose 11% in 2012" and last summer there was the headline "Britain now produces more cars than Germany" (in the Mail :) )
I wonder if the French media will pick up on this and how the politicos will respond if questioned.
Steve
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I received a message purporting to come from EDF this morning saying that my last bill had not been paid with a clickable link to pay on line. Looking on the French anti scam sites I see that quite a few of these messages have been received over the past few days.
I know that this one may have been mentioned before, but it does no harm to mention it again.
Steve
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Thats enough islands - Ed
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"Operation Escargo" will affect most cities and create jams on many major routes on Thursday. Medical taxis are also involved.
Steve
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You should be able to find a tube of "efface rayures" in the motoring section of a supermarket. Take great care on modern finishes especially metallics as the paint coats are very thin.
Steve
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Do you suspect that he had a TVA liable trading business that he carried on at night and he used these receipts to reduce his liability?
He could have been filling them out in his tva registered builder pals' names to flog them to them later at half price. Thats more viable - you need the right sort of mind........Was I a C&E inspector?
Steve
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Hi,
you know what grinds my gears? Having to scroll such a long way down the drop down "year of birth" boxes on internet forms to finally get to mine.
Just sayin,
Steve
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If one is happy enough to eat oysters or see people eating them - after all its like eating the contents of your hankie when you have a bad cold - I can't see that a bit of public nail biting is objectionable, and if you can't avoid seeing something that you don't like you can always move seats.
A few years ago, not far from Val's neck of the woods, we stopped on the way to Roscoff at the restaurant on the main road in Pleyber-Christ. At a nearby table was a French couple, I guess in their thirties and neither much of a catch, who seemed to be on a date. At one point he absent mindedly picked his nose and popped the result into his mouth. Suddenly realising that his date was watching him he looked very sheepish, but, presumably to put him at ease, lo and behold she smiled and did the same! Fortunately it all stopped there as I couldn't take my eyes off them, but I've always wondered if when they got home they went a stage further and did a bit of bogey-sharing.
Personally I find loud British people objectionable in restaurants. I'm not talking yobish behaviour, but the grey bun, tweed skirt, poncho wearing sort, when everything is said so that everyone else in the restaurant can hear it so that before they leave everyone who understands English knows how well travelled they are, their favourite city, restaurant, dish, which Volvo they have, and so on.
Three slices of hot andouille de Guemene on my salad, mmmmmmmmm.
Steve
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[quote user="Chancer"]Do people still fall for that one? [:D][/quote]
Not here now that you've wrecked it. Sad, nobody likes a spoilsport.
Steve
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If you've been to the UK recently you might be interested to know that following the UK Government's freedom of information act you can now get access to ALL speed camera offences registered in the last 12 months.
Did you know that every time your car goes past a speed camera, even 1mph over the set limit, it is registered and put on a database? You only get a ticket if you are way over the limit or, (this is the bit that I didn't know) if you receive over 3 near misses, you will be classed a serial offender and get a ticket the next time you go just over the limit or if a patrol spots your car.
This is why you hear of people being done for 34mph in a 30mph limit area, whilst others doing 39 do not. You can check what has been registered against your vehicle, go to the following web address:
http://www.i-database.co.uk
Just enter your reg to access the info.
If there is any data on your vehicle you can click on the camera window to see a copy of the photograph of the offence.Steve
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[quote user="Mrs Trellis"]
Another garage told us that cars made for export might not be up to the quality standards of those made for France... so they make it a pain to import them.
[/quote]
Well, the folk who assembled Peugeots in the UK thought that panels were carefully selected to give the worst possible fit [;-)]
French classic car enthusiasts know that French cars for the UK market were fitted as standard with various extras such as wooden dashboards and door cappings, not available to French buyers. Even with modern cars you don't see anything like the numbers of "poverty spec" cars in the UK as you do here.
Mind you, French brand cars have a terrible reliability reputation in the UK, but not French made cars like the Yaris which are all(?) built in France.
The xenophobic attitude of the garage you contacted extends further down than national boundaries; I've been providing a neighbour with internet adverts for a very specific second hand vehicle, but his main criteria seems to be that when he calls, the seller has a west France accent, others are considered untrustworthy!
Steve
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Google UK was v slow and sometimes timed out for me today too, and also defaulted to Google FR. If I started to load the BBC news site and then flipped to Google UK, it loaded quickly as usual.
Its OK now though.
Steve
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Brittany Ferries services resumed
Update - Monday 1st October
We are pleased to announce that industrial action is over and services will resume on Tuesday afternoon.
http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/routes/sailing-updates
Good, but it will be interesting to see what the changes make to the services.
Steve
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Accord de fin de crise entre la direction et les syndicats chez Brittany Ferries
Par Juritravail | 28-09-2012 | 0 commentaire(s) | 0 vues
La direction de Brittany Ferries, une compagnie maritime qui dessert la Grande-Bretagne, l’Irlande et l’Espagne, a conclu avec les syndicats un accord de fin de conflit à Roscoff, dans le Finistère. Jean-Paul Corbel, représentant syndical CFDT des personnels navigants, a indiqué que cet accord devait être présenté aux salariés.
Steve
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Never thought of that - it's Club Voyage now though, I don't think that its associated to owning property here any more.
My OH travels from south Brittany to N Devon every few weeks and the return fare (with a 20% discount) this June and September has been under £200 without a cabin, £250 ish with a cabin, for 5-10 day stays.
A price worth paying we think, for driving 240 miles with a good rest in the middle, instead of 760 miles via Calais, plus £50 more petrol each way, and a hotel en route.
Steve
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[quote user="Martin963"] their inability to process a cheque in payment for FPOC
[/quote]FPOC?
FPOC First Point of Contact FPOC Free Persons of Color FPOC Ford Probe Owners Club FPOC Facility Point of Contact FPOC Fighting Position Overhead Cover FPOC Factory Point of Contact FPOC Financial Point of Contact FPOC Force Protection Operations Center FPOC Forum Presiding Officers and Clerks FPOC Fortezza PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) Operations Center FPOC First Phaeton Owners Club FPOC Functional Point of Contact FPOC Female Probe Owners Club
Please let it be the last one! [;-)]
Steve
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[quote user="Russethouse"]
They come from Cambourne, its not a big journey to Plymouth and they probably thought he could manage comfortably for a day....they didn't count on nearly a week.
[/quote]
Thats odd, despite refreshing, I didn't see your post when I made the following one?
Steve
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I don't think that Val 2 was making judgements, she was using "ill" in the old fashioned and non PC way to describe someone who due to an illness or ongoing condition can't do some things that most of us can. In this case walk far or drive far.
I am now in a minefield and will don my flack jacket. (donning flack jacket noises)
Steve -
[quote user="Val_2"]Without knowing his medical condition, seems odd to me they should venture so far from home in the first place especially as he says he cannot walk anywhere nor drive very far?? If he is that ill, why can't his wife drive to Cherbourg or if she dosn't drive, they have taken a big risk in coming in the first place should he be rendered incapable.[/quote]
I might be mistaken, but in a broadcast of this couple I thought that they mentioned a 24 hour trip. Maybe they didn't bring a car. However from the same BBC page: "Foot passengers here in Roscoff have been offered transport home through Cherbourg, but that also involves long coach trips on both sides of the Channel, an overnight stop and a ferry crossing".
Do you remember the dust cloud thing a couple of years ago? People found their way home from all over the place. St Malo terminal was bizarre, there were hire cars from Spain dumped all over, and there was a German coach that had Berlin-Peking on the side!
I suppose it depends how much one needs to get back, and some folk making large claims may have a misconception of the compensation that is likely to be paid.
Steve
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On a lighter note, here's a reminder of what you've been missing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcVlutIUyDA&feature=fvsr
[:)]Steve
Light at the other end of the (Channel) tunnel?
in Other Topics
Posted
[quote user="woolybanana"]And that splendid Indian company Jaguar Range Rover is recruiting 800 staff.[/quote]
Fairly sure that those new employees of that splendid Indian company Jaguar Range Rover will be pretty pleased about that.
Steve