Gastines

With regard to the money pumped into the Banking system, I can't understand why SOME of the billions wasn't used to buy the remaining equity in all the houses about to be repossesed. At least the occupiers would be housed and the Government could get the rent at source ,either from salary or benefits. They would at least have a housing stock. At the moment it seems that the whole banking system is a money making exercise for a few at the expense of the tax payer. How Brown and Darling seem to take credit out of all this is amazing, having helped to cause most of them in the first place. It appears that most voters forget how much Brown took out of everyones pension pot. I.m still trying to figure out where all the billions went before the latest billions were given as a bail out. I expect a few bank accounts in far flung corners have blossomed!! Regards.

I read somewhere that within a contact  wordwide of 7 people ,someone will know a mutual friend or relative. I have just had quite an amazing contact. 55 years ago I was in a Chest Clinic/Home in Ventnor ,Isle of Wight. A few days ago I had an e-mail from a chap in Sydney Australia saying he was there at the same time and got my e-mail from the St.Cath's site. I came from Bournemouth,he from Derby. When asking if I had any visitors while a patient ,I replied one from my eldest brother who was in the Grenadier Guards. I have just had a reply telling me that his brother was in the Guards at the same time and remembers my brother who went on to weapons training instructor at Pirbright, and was also in Germany with him..Quite a coincidence!!! Regards.

No Government Ministers involved in the Arms Industry. Regards.

Thanks for the reply. We were told that if we sold our present property as a B&B,up and running,the commercial tax payable was something like 26% of the price increase of the part of the property used for business.i.e. only taking out private living accommodation. The Notaire advised that the only way to avoid this was to de-register at least one year before selling.We stopped the B&B over a year ago,5 years of B&Bers is enough, and as we are now selling to move to a smaller house I'm glad we don't have that excess tax to worry about. Regards.

Peter Danton. Could you advise if the same scenario is in place.... Some years ago, we bought a Longere and wanted to open an Antique Shop, As it was a private house we had to pay a Commercial Tax to change it's use.. We actually changed plans and the Tax was repaid BUT if we had changed the use of part of these premises, we were advised that if  sold,;they needed complete re-furb,; the profit on the part used for business would be subject to the  rules applying to the sale of Commercial premises. A fairly hefty tax from memory. Regards

Must be the postal service in general. Normally takes 3 days to UK but we paid 12euros for 3 day service for small parcel to arrive well before a birthday,arrived 8 days later?Post early for Christmas? Regards

3 degrees outside this morning,been raking up leaves and soon as I turn my back---- One thing we do as the cold weather arrives is completely shut off the first floor with a layer of Styrofoam sheets on the stairwell. Luckily our bedroom is on the ground floor +wc/bathroom etc, so we don't have to venture.or heat, the upstairs 5 bedrooms/landing/shower rooms. Mind you we were here for 4 years before the penny dropped about what a difference it would make. In case you are wondering , we can access the upstairs from outside staircase if required. Regards.

Just adds to the general acceptance of foul language by the youth and public. OK to F & B but don't use any racist words.At least I can avoid watching ,listening to this pair but unfortunately there's a lot more out there. OH yes, visited the main office of Ouest France yesterday, the papers with the biggest Europe wide sales are listed.First Das Bild ,second The Sun, about 7th The Mail and The Telegraph about 14th.No mention of The Times etc. One confession ,I've always called it France Ouest. Regards.

On a recent visit I asked the Dentist to repair what I had left. I thought I'd just get a couple of fillings but ended up with 2 ceramic teeth and bridge needing 4 visits in 3 weeks.Very pleased with the outcome but given a bill for 940 euros.I have C.V. and normal 100% cover but wasn't expecting much back.Within 2 weeks from CPAM and Radiance I had 560 euros repaid, much to my surprise. Bearing in mind the last work of the same nature I had done in UK 25-26 years ago ,cost £990. So. I would imagine some of the payment will find it's way back into your bank but how they work it out remains a total mystery. Regards.

Why can't the UK exchequer pay off the debt on these houses,thus getting ownership and rent back the property to the otherwise homeless families? The rent could be deducted as source from benefit or salary. If all these families are going to be made homeless ,I presume the local councils will have to assume responsibility for the them and the costs. Mind you perhaps the Exchequer would prefer local councils to shoulder the costs from local taxes than have to put it's own hand in the till. A few of the bonuses handed out might go some way to helping out if they were recouped. It would also save housing people in million pound houses and paying benefits on top as some of the London councils seem to be at present. Regards.

Interesting, very interesting but where are all the ex-homeowners living now?Is it too simple an answer for the local council to take over the REMAINING debt on the property,aquire ownership and rent it back to the occupants.Obviously the rent would be deducted at source from wage or benefit. I presume someone is still responsible for housing them? I note that in UKsville ,the local council house the lucky ones in £ 1MILLION+ houses and pay for all the extras. Why don't they house these parasites  in areas of cheap housing .The amount given to them in benefits might even help the local shops. Regards.

Thankyou UNITED,even I can understand the situation a little clearer after your response. Regards.

I still can't grasp how the whole situation has got as bad as it is.Apparently started by Sub-Prime something in USA.The question being ,where are all those USofA people  living who were in those thousands of boarded up houses? As a house in the States seems to cost a fraction of a house in UK,there spending power is supposed to be better,judging by the size of some of them,[the people not the houses] how come that so many seem to have got in arrears all at the same time? There seems to be absolutely nothing us mere mortals can do,that Gordon,Mervyn plus Lord Mandy can't bu--er up. Anyway ,I must pay my Contributions and accept my fate. Regards.

We have tried contacting St.Lo and Caen via there web sites,in French I might add, but have not received any replies,  hence asking if anyone in the vicinity. We will probably motor up in the next couple of weeks and see if we can get any joy. Thankyou for replies. Regards.

We are trying to find out details of the death and burial/grave of a relative and wondering if anyone Normandy way might look up something for us? My wife's family originated in Ploeuc-sur-lie in Bretagne and we have traced the family back  to 1804. However ,one missing link is proving hard to trace. My wife's grandfather apparently died in a fire in the mid 1970's, we were told this happened in Brittany but have not been able to trace any record of the burial in the Brittany cemetary records. We were advised that the computer records would tell us if he was buried anywhere in Brittany and now are hoping that Normandy holds a similar cemetary record? We ventured in to Avranche and the cemetary bureau was closed and the staff at the Hotel de Ville didn't know what we were talking about. Are there any Researchers/Archivists out there who can point us in the right direction or even better know where we can find the information? We believe that there was family connections with Granville, as the great grandfather served in the 279th Territorial in 1890 in Granville. Any help or info welcome. Regards.

Daughter uses it as she is Bournemouth based. Any rough weather forget it. If you're not a good sailor forget it. Book well in advance otherwise late bookings seem to double in price. Avoid Fri-Sat arrivals/Departures St Malo as they are anything from 1-3 hrs late. I think that just about sums it up. We use B.F.  to Cherbourg and drive down as we are based by St.Malo. Regards

Glad I stuck with HSBC. I did get a panic on when the max cover was £35k per person per bank.Now it's £50K and it has also paid off to have a joint account. I did contact HSBC about any perceived problems and after 2 weeks got a reply," No problems"!!! It seems to have been a hugely manipulated exercise and for me, not the brightest button as has been pointed out on here many times, where did all the cash originally disappear to,apart from Lehman 's directors salting away dollars171K?

I did note Jotty's response and I always think any response is worth reading. Perhaps my opinion was dulled by returning to a gale from the sunnier south?In reply to Quillan it was a posting aimed at the local economy/unfinished houses theme  although perhaps a little off track. We did manage a few Cathar castles but in the case of the Chateau de Puilaurens, we only got as far as the steps of the chicane. Glad I wasn't in the building trade then!! In a restaurant at Puilaurens at lunchtime the local schoolchildren were having their lunch, about 20 of them aged 5-11. The 2 youngest boys started playing up and the teacher actually put them in a corner each side of the door with a curtain pulled over. One was tearfull,the other cheeky. Slightly different than discipline in the UK? A further add-on,as well as Agen prunes, we had the best Chinese meal in a spotless restaurant called The Dynasty, the mirrors imported from China were worth a visit on their own. Regards.

At least I know who to ask to fix up my next £350K mortgage on the fiddle!! Regards.

We've just done a holiday trip down to the Med via Nantes/Anglouleme/Periguex/Carcassonne/Toulouse/Narbonne/Perpignan.back up the side of the Pyrenees  via all sorts of villages and towns,Agen/Niort etc and were amazed at how many places outside of the main commercial areas were virtually derelict.Noticeable where the amount of UKers where there were cheap flights to UKfrom local Airports. A lot of the towns seem to rely on income from one tourist site as in Carcassonne. Always wanted to visit ,a cite worth a visit but to me it had no Soul. I expected a different feel to the place but it was spoilt by the plastic sword shops etc. All it pointed out to us is that you definately need to have a good look around before deciding where to live or even buy a holiday home. While we may not get so much sunshine at this end ,there are a great many things to do and see for residents and visitors in a fairly compact area and the added bonus of easy access to Ports/Airport/Sea and all Shopping and Health facilities. Perhaps as buyers become more aware of needs and finances they realise that a house with a pool in the middle of nowhere is not such a good idea? Regards.

On a quieter note, may I add that having bought our first holiday wreck and enjoyed the pain,pleasure and hard work of turning it ,and the following 3 into habitable homes,we didn't consider the crime element of UK as a reason for leaving. Having enjoyed the pleasures of this area of Brittany on extended holidays,and shared them with friends and family for 13 years,we decided to make the permanent move 6 years ago so we could enjoy life while still having the health and finances to do so. Having lived in Bournemouth most of our lives we avoided the crime city's often mentioned in the Daily Mail and the Times andTelegraph but note the decline of the area and peoples general quality of life whenever we return. Never read the Sun believe it or not so can't comment on their views. Being realists we do know that France has it's fair share of problem areas but chose not to move to one of them   As we are still UKers.although now classed as Europeans I believe that it is a fairly normal thought process to compare your old life with your percieved new choice?  The main grouse is that the UKers now seem to be paying a hell of a lot more for a great deal less of everything, the only increase seems to be in the rules,regs and enforcement side and the armies   employed to enforce them, with any complaint from the tax payers being swept aside. The Government seem to have lost contact with the plight of the working class,coming out with anything to make headlines as if they are actually dealing with the problems we are all concerned with. .Mr Darlings latest utternace is quite good about looking into the role of the FSA. Bit late comes to mind. Regards.

What do you expect from such a cheap job,only cost £5billion. Regards.

Jowett Javelin. My late father was works manager at Brooklands Aviation and they had 13 of them around the works and airfield. They were I believe the first aerodynamic designed car. They used to canibalise to repair the ones left running.In the end I think there were 3 left and when Brooklands,who also made the Dolphin cabin cruisers, were bought out by some merchant bank and asset stripped, I was asked if I wanted one. Being too young to drive,legally,I turned the offer down. Regretted it ever since, perhaps they still have one at Sywell Aerodrome? Regards.

Haven't heard one mention of HSBC so I'm hoping they are a safe bet at the moment.Anyone heard anything I should worry about? Not in shares I may add only on fixed term cash  deposits. Regards.

Must be the weather! Having picked 6 pumpkins,one weighing in at 10kilos,I notice that several of the new flowers are again bearing fruit[ or veggie,whatever is the correct term ] I was going to clear the old plants but now I hope to get a second lot. Also runner bean plants are flowering again? Regards.