Gluestick

Wasn't suggesting you invest in the UK; directly. Nor in Sterling Denominated securities/Investments. However, do please consider this, See here: The pressure is rapidly building upon the ECB: a majority of the bonds Draghi has been swapping for cash in his crazy QE (Quantitative Easing) program are "Junk! i.e. pretty damned worthless. Will all end in tears............. Shortly.

Excellent article and yes! Tappin affair: Liliane Betteancourt: Society General: Mayor of Bordeaux; Chirac when Mayor of Paris and his unholy alliance with the arch sloth, Fayed (Ritz and Windsor's house in the Bois de Boulogne, plus the Elf Aquitaine scandal; etc, etc, etc.... We KNOW absolutely most Maires in la belle are bent as, well a banana. (Apols, Woolly, nothing personal).

[quote user="lindal1000"] In fact we've just started the first phase of our own Brexit plan to ensure we have less of our income from the UK and more of it from France. [/quote] Hope you don't mind a wee bit of advice, Lindal. At present, with global capital markets roiling in uncertainty, I would suggest you firstly take financial advice from a cross-border tax specialist reference being fiscally based in France but holding capital outside. Why? Since if I was liquidating all UK assets to move permanently to another fiscal jurisdiction, as it would be costly to reverse, post facto, perhaps better investment base/s might shelter you from the coming mess for the Euro and the core EU states - France included - as both are presently living in cloud cuckoo land... If you review the Pound-Euro exchange rates, then you will see how the pound plummeted in 2007-08: why? Since the Sub Prime Mortgage crisis and the associated chicanery caused foreign exchange investors to have a flight to the Euro as a supposedly safe haven against US Dollar and Sterling. It did not mean the Euro and the Eurozone economy was suddenly brilliant and booming: in fact, quite the reverse. France faces some troubling times; the forthcoming presidential election either way will cause instability. Added to which, the weak and troublesome twin problems of dire unemployment, will worsen. As will any further desperate attempts by Mario Draghi at the ECB to stimulate the economies of the eurozone member states. Be careful and cautious!

[quote user="Loiseau"]So come on guys... What on earth is a shill, or even a schill, bid?[/quote] Interesting one this, Loiseau. See here: That's probably the best all round explanation and reference set. Often erroneously thought to be from Yiddish. At trade auctions, car traders used to ask chums to "Shill" a car when it went through the "Ring". Just look very interested, open the bonnet, look underneath and finally look really keen and take out their Glass's Guide (The Trade price bible) and feverishly thumb through it! Market traders, particularly "Swag men" (Guys who sell anything and everything with a loud "Spiel" - sales pitch - ) often use shills to make their stall look busy. So do tailors, dress shops and material shops. Casinos often employ shills who regularly win: except it isn't their winnings; it's the casinos. Pour encourager le autres. Being so absorbed by the English lexicon, and having being involved in the internet since its founding days, Bulletin Boards - the precursors to Fora - it's interesting to me how the medium spawned a whole new usage of otherwise common words: a "Lurker" is a member who never posts or joins in but sneaks around looking. A "Troll" is a disruptive fool who acts as a drive-by poster and tries to annoy and alienate regular users, etc.

Well, I for one are very proud of you for doing it, Gardian! [:D] Halloween, is of course a Satanic right, aimed at countering All Souls/Saints Day festival, an important calendar date in the Christian faith. As Western society has regressed into effective atheism, and thus having become lost, spiritually, lost people lacking foundation and purpose and above all hope, tend to adopt a range of alternative foundations. These have and currently do include, turning to other belief systems, including Druidism, focus on the occult, black magic, supernatural nonsense; spiritualism, Witchcraft, Wiccanism, saooth saying, necromancy, and so on. Perhaps the very peak of human stupidity must be Scientology. A Californian writer called L. Ron Hubbard, wrote a SciFi book in the 1930s; from this he created a concept he called "Dianetics". And, thus was born in the early 1950s, yet another new "Religion" called Scientology..... California invents at least one new "religion each week. [:D] What's next I hear you ask? The new Church of Trekkies? When "adults" jet around the globe to Trekky beanfests and dress as their favourite characters, then, really, all hope is lost for humanity. Halloween is a Satanic event, which actually entails killing a young child and scattering their blood over a sacred Christian church altar and leaving bits of their body scattered over the churchyard, desecrating graves in the twin hopes that Satan will pop up for the gathering and/or, dead people's spirits will manifest themselves. Lovely. Naturally, the great marketeers, Chavda, Tesco et al have been leading the charge in flogging Gothlike rubbish, which braindead parents buy for their sad kids.

[quote user="EuroTrash"] Absolutely - I worked for TOTAL in the UK, and the company ethos came direct from the French parent company in terms of management style, honesty and transparency, access to training, working conditions, employee benefits etc. After previous UK employers it was like a breath of fresh air.[/quote] I have known a number of ex-TOTAL employees who have espoused the same view. There were a number with an identical ethic, for just one example, Hewlett Packard. Once a week at ALL HP facilities, globally, HP held a meeting for 30 minutes, prior to official opening time. ALL employees were there: from the CEO down to the cleaners. They were paid overtime for being in early. Coffee, soft drinks and doughnuts whatever were provided by HP. Everyone was encouraged to speak, with comments on the company; problems and ideas for new products. HP's Mantra was "Doing things the HP Way!" Then the company was run by recruited execs, after Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard retired, having firstly ensured they endowed their kids and grandkids to ensure they could afford college etc. The bulk of their common stock they gifted to the HP Foundation, for charitable purposes. Then the company came "Into play": venal market parlance for wonderful money making short-term Wall Street games..... And was effectively destroyed by idiots such as Carla Fiorini, with her greedy eye on the main chance; personal mega-millions..... Which these value destroyers amass by stock options and obscene exec pay, plus "Golden Parachutes": clauses in their contracts which ensure once they have ruined the business and the board fire them, they receive massive separation payments... [quote]The problem is, how are small companies in France ever going to turn into big companies when they're being stifled by the public sector. The government pays lip service to wanting to help them grow and to be fair it does have a few subsidies available to encourage firms to employ more staff, but I don't think the trust is there - what happens if you take advantage of the subsidy, expand your workforce, and then the initiative is abandoned and the incentives and subsidies vanish and you're stuck with more staff than you can afford to pay the social charges for?[/quote] Aha, ET, the nub! Mega-corporations tend to grow from tiny companies, or if you like, tiny SMEs... Apple; HP; Microsoft; JCB; Dyson; Ford; Chrysler; etc. And more so where tech is concerned. I have written much on this and am still banging the drum and trying to reason with brick walls! Point of fact, is, ALL Western governments are utterly ignorant and suffer from Megacorp Myopia © PDD (R) Ltd 1989 thru 2016.

It is mainly the fast buck outfits that treat workers so appallingly. Interesting how extremely stable and long lived companies, treat workers well and are so very successful... JCB as just one example. John Lewis as another. (Sir Anthony) or Tony as we used to call him in motor racing days of yore, the founder, Joe's son has built on his later father's creation, eschewed going public and has built manufacturing plants in India and Brazil, amongst other locations. When heavy plant manufacturers were posting huge losses, years after year, JCB have never ever failed to make profits. They are also the most roboticised  manufacturer in Britain and one of the leaders in Europe. You can thank the City of London for this short-termistic venality and corporate myopia. France: number of public servants: check Eurostat online. [quote]That is what France needs to slim down first, because that in itself would help the private sector as the business charges could then be reduced.[/quote] Could not agree more! However worth remembering, M. Le President Wobbly Jelly Hollande expanded it as one of his first steps!

Since a MAJORITY of French "businesses" are SME, and many are what are classified (BY the EU no less) Class Sized Zero - or One Man (or Woman) bands -  then it just demonstrates what muppets the French are, then. Perhaps it is an overhang, mentally, of the Revolution? [:D] Still as Dubya Bush once quoth, happy and wallowing in his objective and linguistic ignorance, "The French don't have a word for Entrepreneur"........... [quote]it was all about how the company had identified a product, intended outsource production to the third world, undercut its competitors, make a quick profit and then sell the company to one of the competitors it had damaged[/quote] Bit tricky for Joe the plumber? Or Fred the painter and decorator? Some years back I carried out an intensive market survey for the software company I founded. Most interesting of all, I found a majority of the 15 original EU states and would you believe the USA too, accorded to the baseline. Copyright: SSSS Ltd 2001 to 2016 inclusive: 1.        Market Statistics: (Excluding Agriculture)  Europe: Total businesses: 18 million with 112 million people  employed USA:            ditto                   5 Million          100  ditto Europe: 2/3rds of Total Employment in EU created by SMEs'. In the USA, enterprises with less than 500 employees, accounts for over 50% of employment.In Europe 55% of total turnover of 17, 586 Billion ECU, (i.e. 9,672 Billion ECU) is created by SMEs' SMEs' create more jobs in Europe than the large companies. % of Total Enterprises % of Total Employment % of Total Turnover Size of Enterprise in Employees 0.1% 34% 45% Large: >250 0.9% 14% 19% Medium< 250 6% 19% 18% Small: 10 - 49 41% 23% 14% Very Small 1 - 9 52% 10% 4% No Employees*   *Sole Traders/Proprietors only   Source: Eurostat   This it will be seen, that our prime target market, equates to businesses employing a total of 58.24 million people and representing 47% of all EU business! ©

The word "Business", is a generic, EuroTrash and intended to encompass all capitalist activities in which the core focus is profit. You are, of course, spot on in your conclusions. It is mainly, the SMEs (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) who create most of European nation's wealth and employment. Not the tax-evading mega-sized multinationals, courted by government ministers on a pan-European basis. Socialism is, from its earliest days, the ideological political and socio-economic concept of sort of tolerating - not encouraging or courting - commerce, which includes banking, but trying to reduce all economic activity to a state-owned reality. i.e. the Labour Party's original Clause IV. "To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service." In other words, State Ownership of all capital earning activities. Dr Karl Marx, of course, actually concluded early on he would need to include the bourgeoisie in his plans to wrest control of capital for the benefit of those who earned it: which included the bourgeoisie. Read more Here:  Cristobel Columb (Columbus) was the World's very first Socialist. When he set out, he didn't know where he was going; When he arrived, he didn't know where he was. And when he returned, he didn't know where he had actually been! And he did it all, on other people's money!

It was my wife's birthday, soon and I decided to buy her a Freudian Slip as she adores feminine lingerie. She utterly refused to wear it as she felt Freud was a sexual deviant and a nut. [:D]

Reuters: See Here: Loved this particular bit! [quote] Hollande was elected in May 2012 on a promise to tax the rich and help the poor while also declaring a war on finance. But many voters have been disappointed by his shift to a pro-business stance in 2014 and an attempted security crackdown that was ultimately shelved.[/quote] Typical bloody "Socialist". Owns a villa on the Côte d'Azur reputed to be worth €1 million. Sniffs some corporate cash and he's off like a dammed dog chasing a bitch on heat! [:-))]

I feel, at this stage in the heated debate over  Brexit, it might be very worthwhile to consider  precisely what the UK lost, when Heath lied and  the media blitzed the public with bias and pure  propaganda in 1973... 1.  British Fishing Industry: Decimated. and  before anyone says "Ah but the waters were  horribly over-fished!", the net result was  hordes of French, Spanish (eventually) etc  factory fishing fleets, hoovering as much as  they could. An essential source of valuable  food was lost: 2.  The Commonwealth and the preferential  tariff agreements. Britain used to export vast quantities of  "hard" goods to Australasia, South Africa, etc.  In return, we enjoyed dairy products from NZ,  lamb (all organic); beef and wool from  Australia etc. Wheat and dairy from Canada  (Anyone else remember the stonking Canadian  Black Diamond Cheddar? Fruit and canned goods  from South Africa, etc, etc. Overnight, this  was destroyed: 3.  CAP: In the 1950s onwards, British agriculture  benefited from Government's urgent need, caused  by the Battle of the North Atlantic and the  convoys, to be as self-sustaining as possible France; Germany, Holland suffered from a  farming industry, wrecked by German invasion. CAP allowed other E.E.C. states to rapidly ramp  up their farming industry at Britain's expense. The sheer nonsense of huge subsidies caused the  Beef, Butter, etc mountains and the Wine Lakes,  remember? Core problem with such interventions  is inertia. When it is clearly perceived an  ideological concept has gone horribly awry,  then it has become rather the same as an  out-of-control road roller running amuck  down  a steep mountain. It becomes difficult if not  impossible to stop. To change the lunacies of  CAP, meant a unanimous vote in the E.E.C/EU. as  we have just seen from the EU-Canada Treaty,  one rebel little outfit can upset change. 4. The Imposition of VAT; "'cos it was a  Europe-wide tax", quoth Heath. He further  stated, "One simple tax at one low rate!" Yeah, right! As an accountant I assure you, VAT is now one  of the most complex and difficult taxes in the  Tax Code. The "One Low rate" has escalated into  six or seven. Low rate: 10% escalated into  eventually 20%. VAT is perhaps, alongside  Capital Gains tax the most iniquitous and  punitive taxes ever. Mainly since it taxes  people's LABOUR: their sweat. Heath's err, "Justification" was VAT replaced  Purchase Tax: "...a horribly complicated tax",  he stated. Rubbish and arrant nonsense! Purchase tax applied ONLY to new LUXURY goods.  Soon, of course, VAT applied to second hand  goods, etc. 5. The creeping reality of a Federal Europe; EU  laws have been covertly imposed with nary an  impassioned bleat from the political class,  irrespective of party. What many people do not  realise, is EU Law is Paramount; it overrides  and supersedes member states, own laws. Worth perhaps reading this. Here: And this: The Founding Fathers of the EU:

[quote user="idun"] And as with the way the election is going in the US we all may soon find out how business runs every day life. [/quote] It already does, idun! Forget all the politicians' blather about "Democracy", American politics has been driven, controlled and funded by big business interests for many a year. The USA and increasingly UK; Germany and now so sadly, even France, are all corporatist states. In Washington DC are zillions of "Law Firms": and most are in fact thinly disguised lobbyists, pushing Special Interests. Some years back the US election laws were changed, to try and prevent vast sums of cash being used to determine elections (Congress; Senate; and, of course, President). So what happened was the special interest groups set up PACs (Public Action Committees); funded by the same venal out-of-control businesses, yet pretending to act "in the public interest". With multi-millions, these PACs can afford to deluge media with advertising, ensure "product placement" strategies on popular TV shows, pay for strategists, lobbyists, oodles of admin staff, IT experts to blitz social media, the whole schmear. Thatcher emulated this spavined concept: major ministries and Treasury, plus No 10 were stuffed with "Special Advisers", all culled from top management consultancies and paid huge sums from the public purse, in order she could enjoy thick report documents "proving" - "How well we are doing!"; even when the truth was the absolute reverse. Political lobbying rapidly expanded; remember Ian Greer's dodgy outfit? The duplicitous Neil Hamilton's wife worked for Greer... BLiar and his equally reprehensible coterie of incompetents, charlatans and rogues, simply carried on with this charade; even extending it with scores of QUANGOs and NGOs, all sucking hundreds of millions from the public purse... One might have thought a Socialist administration would have brought the City to heel; not on your life! Indeed, they all became City Luvvies. France, so sadly, has emulated this process; Sarkozy even accepting millions from one Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Gaddafi........... then we have the Bernard Tappin affair (still not resolved) and Liliane Henriette Charlotte Bettencourt etc.

[quote user="lindal1000"] At various points in my life I have voted for every political party except the Conservatives and UKIP. Now I am a tactical voter.[/quote] mmm; let's see... Whigs; Liberals; Tories; Ulster Unionists; ScotNats; Lib Dems; Monster Raving Loony Party; Referendum Party; Labour Party; Respect; Democratic Unionist Party; Sinn Fein; Plaid Cymru; Social Democrat and Labour Party; Traditional Unionist Voice; BNP; Green Party; People Before Profit Alliance. To name but a few... here: Quite staggering, actually, to realise just how many there are and were. Cor! lindal; you must have been damned busy over the years! [:D] Just jossing. [blink]

Andy: [quote] because we think the UK electorate do not deserve the right to decide if they should leave the EU once the most likely conditions have been set out - something that the be-leavers never set out at all, let alone in outline?[/quote] They did, actually. See the Bruges Group website. The problem was and is, the majority of electors are not too astute; neither are they well informed in terms of economy, politics and etc. Therefore: any political party must, with media puffs and manifestos "fight fire with fire" and simply hone-in on major areas. As Churchill one stated: "It only takes a five minute conversation with the average voter to realise why democracy is a bad idea!" Try discussing, say football, EastEnders, Coronation Street, Strictly Come Prancing and pretending you can Dance like a Pro": celebrity, etc, then one will receive many more answers... PD: Agreed, in principle, sort of... Andy: (Later post). [quote] However it is becoming clear that what people thought they were voting for is not what is going to be or can be delivered. You could say more fool them for voting as they did without understanding the possible consequences. [/quote] Agreed. However, both sides lied and lie; from the Wilson referendum in 1975 onwards. Heath lied through his copious teeth in 1973. Indeed, I have on file (paper archive which I am presently in process of sorting through, junking much and scanning a few which are important) a letter Sir James Goldsmith wrote me when he founded the Referendum party (precursor to UKIP) sent to Heath by a Tory Grandee by then in the Lords, saying (I paraphrase) "Ted, you are wholly misrepresenting the true facts to the electorate and our party will, in the future, suffer as a result!". Heath waffled aound this and contiu=ined lying through his teeth and misdescribed the E.E.C. as simply a "Free Trade Bloc". Yeah right... Whereas, from the get-go, the architects of the union, particularly, Jean Monnet, and his cronies, knew precisely wehat they are aiming t achieve; one federal state, with its own currency (Called EMU - Economic and Monetary Union), where every member state would surrender its own tax laws, legal system and laws, central bank, etc to become one homegenous entity. It is ALL in the Treaty of Rome 1957; to Which Heath and the spavined Tory government, acceeded in 1973 on... PaulT: [quote]The problem I have with the referendum, and this is irrespective of the outcome, is the damn lies put forward by both sides. If it had been two companies promoting their services they would have been stopped using the 'facts' put forward. [/quote] Ably assisted by wholly biased media sources, particularly, BBC, Guardian, Independent (hah hah! Oh that it were!!); Call Me Dave, Gideon Osborn, Mark Carney, OECD,the EU itself; Goldman Sachs; J P Morgan and Co; and uncle Tom Cobbley and all. Still, as Mark Twain (a newspaperman) wrote so profoundly; "The man who does not read a newspaper is misinformed. The man who does read a newspaper is ill-informed!" Chessie: Wholly agree! Three cheers for some comprehension and clarity. PaulT: [quote] Surely, tactics will figure largely in the Brexit negotiations. Is it a case of May saying she wants a hard Brexit intended to say to the other EU countries 'Britain will look to other countries to trade with, we do not want your goods'. So now the other countries are on the back foot. Renault, Citroen, BMW, VW group to name just one section of industry would have to find another market for their vehicles. So pressure on the other EU countries to keep an open market? [/quote] Smack on the ol' button! German manufacturing exporters are already, covertly, advising Merkel of their misgivings; and pressurising her to act sensibly. Holland, another idiot blobby sabre rattler, is out of his depth. This is the core problem with ideologues: they simply hate it when more and more people are clamouring for sanity and socio-economic stability My hope and belief, is an adult, non-political dialogue will transpire, where Britain gains almost all of its necessary and essential objectives and access to the free market: and the profligate overweening ambitions of idiots in Bruxelle are brought to heel by their electors. It is clearly in the interests of the major manufacturing and exporting economies in the EU which are reasonably successful. Watch this space, we shall see......

[quote user="woolybanana"]Sorry, PD, you clearly do not understand our democracy. In essence the dictatorship of the majority is NOT what happens, rather a balance between the interests of the majority and the minority. [/quote] Oh I really do wish it might be thus, Wooly! I and many other professional advisers and business organisations, are girding their loins to vehemently agitate against the UK government's latest spavined brainchild with HMRC. Under the sobriquet of "Making Tax Digital", Treasury and HMRC are trying to railroad through changes which entail (both sole traders, partnerships and limited companies): 1.  Filing Four quarterly Tax Returns each year: 2.  Operating accounting software in all cases, instead of paper records and using (e.g.) an Excel or similar spreadsheet. Plus other bits... SME businesses generate circa 47% of UK (private Sector) GDP and create and sustain circa 48% UK employment. A majority are small and the largest majority are what are called Class Sized Zero; which unscrambled means a sole trader with no employees. The level of their computer literacy is frankly, dire. However, despite the usual "Consultation Process, sic where all opinions are to be welcomed" those of us who have been around the block a few times (I, for example, led for my previous professional body on all consultative processes; which were numerous). Utter waste of my valuable time! Government, will decide and proceed on their course which clearly, is already set; the consultative process is merely another whitewash - like them all - to try and assuage public opinion, whereupon when they introduce these crazy changes, they will say: "We sought opinion and input from all concerned blather, blather, blather and we listened, carefully, and took not of all representations". Since the UK supposed "democracy", as Norman has graphically espoused, is now driven by the corporatist state where ministers and the head honchos of the supposed civil servants, are puppets to massive globalised multinationals, take their coin in various ways, and do precisely what those venal self-interested corporations tell them exactly what to do. This achieved by high powered lobbyists, back handers and the promise of top executive jobs when they leave government service. perhaps the very best recent example is the once upon a time Marxist, Barroso (Finance minister of Portugal and long-term minister) whop demonstrated his prowess by assisting to drive Portugal to the edge of fiscal bankruptcy and economic disaster, who has recently been awarded a nice top job by the Vampire Squid; AKA Goldman Sachs. The delightful so-called Investment Bank, who advised Greece and Italy on how to err, "Fudge" their fiscal numbers to succeed in joining the Euro mechanism. They also assisted Boris The Boozer Yeltsin in re-orientating Russia to a market economy. Leaving millions starving and in destitution in the vacuum of their wake. These were the same honest people who were flogging MBSs (Mortgage Backed Securities), as AAA class investment, whilst meantime shorting the bonds to crash... Mario Draghi? Ex-Goldman: Mark Carney? Ex-Goldman: keep on going.......

[quote user="chessie"] Gluestick - nice to see your posts;  presumably recovered from the 'horse fly' damage ?   [/quote] Thanks for asking, chessie. It still itches a bit here and there and still has a hard lump under the skin. Never known anything like it! [8-)]

Easily found on Eurostat. Here: However, remembering the profound words of Benjamin Disraeli: "There are lies; damned lies; and statistics!" One must collate base stats from a variety of credible authorities and arrive at some average idea.

Idun: I couldn't have put it better myself! Despicable object. Anyone else noticed, the mad megalomaniac eyes are increasingly more pronounced? I actually met Cherie Booth in her chambers, prior to NuLab's sweeping victory in 1997. She was quite small and delicate then and as sharp as a razor. It was pretty clear to me, Blair's political launch was identical to what a cynical old American political columnist stated about the Clintons. We now have a blow-waved turkey in the White House and the Billary Clinton presidency. Both Cherie and Hillary were the power behind the throne, pulling the puppet's strings.

[quote user="cajal"][quote user="Gluestick"] I am always rather amused by these "Statistics" government departments seem to clutch from thin air![/quote] Here is the report/article I gleened the figures from. Pick the bones from it if you wish. regards cajal [/quote] Not a biased report, naturally... [url=http://cool-smileys.com//rotfl-smiley][img]http://www.cool-smileys.com/images/10.gif[/img][/url] Unfortunately, there are no "bones" to pick, old fruit; since this "analysis" fails to actually detail quite where all the massive economic expansion and jobs creation emanate from. This is simply propaganda, pure and simple.

[quote user="cajal"][quote user="mint"] Actually, Cajal, I don't think she has achieved anything yet.  Let me know when she does, won't you? [/quote] OK here goes. Following on from the goverment clearance for the construction of the 3rd runway at Heathrow which is estimated will create up to 180000 regional jobs and £211 billion in economic benefits, [/quote] I am always rather amused by these "Statistics" government departments seem to clutch from thin air! [:)] Apparently:- "How many employees at Heathrow Airport? Many more people are employed directly on site and indirectly and, in July 2013, HAL produced an estimate of 114,000 local jobs supported by Heathrow of which 76,600 were directly employed on the Heathrow site." Figures estimated, 2013; yet by 2014, HAL (Heathrow Airport Ltd),:- "Heathrow cutting 200 jobs (20% of total core staff) due to CAA restriction on landing charge rises" Source: Now, one extra runway means, in terms of pure mathematical reference, an increase of One Third in pure capacity terms. However, with the massive concentration of traffic over LHR, is that tenable, without also, beefing up ALL component services (ATC et al)? probably, not. Even with beefed up support services, traffic density would suggest otherwise. I love the bit about "£211 Billion in economic benefits"!! [:D] No doubt, the hordes of Chinese and Gulf States billionaires, rushing in, to hoover up the few remaining bits of priceless British assets, not as yet hoovered up, previously. [:@]

See here: Following on from the anti-democratic forced second vote, over the Lisbon Treaty (the "New Improved" EU Constitution - which failed), now Blair a prototypical Islington Champagne Socialist, demands a fresh vote on Brexit. On the presumption the electorate "...voted the wrong way"! One must dare to mention how Proportional Representation, was a core plank of the first NuLab electoral manifesto. After a landslide result in 1997, when quizzed about this and when NuLab were going to introduce PR, Two Jags of the copious chins, responded "We don't feel it such a good idea!" What is it Blair and the rest of the shambling homo sapien political class do not quite grasp on "Democracy"? Seems their definition might expressed as: "Democracy is when the voter does precisely what we tell them to do". Zu befehl, mien Fuhrer!

See Here: Unt zere is me zinking ze Krauts have ze smarts! Clearly nein! Story in Bild, concerning a Syrian male refugee who obtained asylum in German, who has 4 wives and 23 children and is receiving €390,000 per annum in social benefits. Claims he is far too busy visiting all his families to be able to work! [:'(]

Just a little more on this topic. Seems the Nobel Laureate Economist (and one of my heroes) Joe Stiglitz, shares the gloomy analysis of any continuum of the Euro and the monetary system in its present format. See here: And Here:

[quote user="woolybanana"]Oh ET, you seem to be getting Gloostuck's bad habits. Please tell me what exemplars are, what sygollisms is, what conflation is (I imagine reverse flatulence) and whomthe heck wears the breeches in that family?[/quote] A Syllogism oh yellow one is an Elizabethan desert delicacy, with leeks added. Con-flation: is when Government tries to blame price hikes on inflation. An Exemplar is an example of a Plar. Plars are small niggly creatures who burrow into the dead part of people's cerebral cortex. Endemic to places such as The Palace of Westminster, football teams, soap opera casts and their viewers ...