ebaynut

Firstly you don't have to address me like this, eBaynut will surffice. Secondly, IMHO yes. Thirdly, No, thankfully. I like to keep most of the money I earn. Fourthly, I have my own opinion as to how we in the UK could have solved this, but I doubt it would be in line with your thinking.

[quote user="Gardener"][quote user="ebaynut"][quote user="Clair"]I watched images of the "protests" on the  French news and couldn't help but be reminded of the poll tax and Moss Side riots back in the days... [/quote] Moss side, Toxteth, Broadwater farm, all good reasons for the UK to have closed it boarders years ago IMHO. None of these can be blamed on the English.[/quote] It happened in England so whose fault was it?[/quote] The UK governments fault for allowing people from outside the UK to live in the country. The Polices for not stopping it, maybe. As always the Police are big and brave when clubbing striking miners or murdering newspaper salesmen when they are walking home from work in the city of London, but give the UK old bill a race riot, then they are truly GUTLESS.

[quote user="5-element"]Sorry Betty, I understood that you were referring to the casseurs. I would never have dreamt that anyone would think that it is the students who should be ARRESTED for demonstrating - not a criminal offence in France - in fact, the right to demonstrate is embedded into the French constitution. So, demonstrating in France has not yet been declared a criminal offence. Except, of course, in October 1961 in Paris, where up to 200 people were shot, beaten to death, or drowned in the Seine by the police - with a big cover-up after. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_massacre_of_1961   end of parenthesis.   Even Michele Alliot-Marie recognises the right to strike and demonstrate! http://www.europe1.fr/Politique/Le-droit-de-manifester-pas-de-casser-292211/     [/quote] If Betty had to be stopped from going about her peaceful lawful business because she would be in DANGER to do so, then I would suggest that this was more than a demonstration that was taking place.

[quote user="Clair"]I watched images of the "protests" on the  French news and couldn't help but be reminded of the poll tax and Moss Side riots back in the days... [/quote] Moss side, Toxteth, Broadwater farm, all good reasons for the UK to have closed it boarders years ago IMHO. None of these can be blamed on the English.

[quote user="Alpinemist"] I think it's more about the simple life than enjoying life without money. Money causes stress in relationships. When I used to work in finance in th UK so many couples seem to break up due to the stress of meeting mortgage/loan payments etc. IMO the simple life without overcomitting is the way to go. Link worked for our area. [/quote] Actually I think you will find it is lack of money which causes stress. I have yet to meet anyone where too much of it is a problem. I guess if lack of money is the problem, then you have two choices, 1, earn more money, or 2, lower your expectations. If you are of working age and living in France, I guess you only have the latter to choose.

[quote user="pachapapa"] Thanks I enjoyed that clip enormously, these scooters are enormously expensive and are an unnecessary burden for social security contributors. No wonder there is such a high deficit. In addition the types that drive these contraptions are always doing their best to run over my feet in the local Grande Espace. Well finally one of them got his come uppance and hopefully sustained serious injury at least. [/quote] I think it would be your head I would be trying to run over. What a stupid thing to write. It is the fat cats at the"top" taking it all, which is why there is a deficit, not because of help given to people who need it to get around.

[quote user="Richard51"]The post code search didn't work for me but, using the drop down menu for departments, I found the adjacent commune and the mean was €1.530,00.  I know my neighbour doesn't earn enough to pay tax (as I recall their monthly household income was ~€1,000)...hence why family and friends here in the UK pass clothes etc onto them (and other families in the village). Mrs R51 [/quote] I hope you and your friends are fully registered to carry out this activity and that you have the correct insurance incase anyone injures themselves while giving, receiving or using the clothes as they may not be approved for use in mainland Europe.. What is the point in the French government making all the laws and rules to ensure that the population stays poor, and then you go GIVING them things. [;-)]

[quote user="idun"]I have heard from someone recently that 'food in England is stodge'. An english person living in France said it. And a couple of days ago had said to me by a french person living in England 'ah the food, can't get any decent food'. [/quote] Possibly they had been shopping in Aldi or Lidl, and most likely that it was "stodge". If they had been to a proper store such as Waitrose M+S or Sainsbury they may have found it different. And when you compare French supermarkets and their goods to English, well if they cant see which has the better, brighter, cleaner fresher goods and better prices, then good food would be wasted on them anyway.

Winners make the rules. Losers live by them.

[quote user="You can call me Betty"] the out-and-out loser of the leadership contest, Diane Abbott.  [/quote] That's not what I heard on the BBC, they said she had "came fifth"

[quote user="Russethouse"]  I heard that the odds against them being elected next time round improved within minutes of the result - is that the  end of 'new' Labour ? [/quote] What have they gone up to ??  1000-1 ?? [Www]

You can always go up with your next offer, if it's not enough, but never down. I would hate for my first offer to be accepted, I would forever wonder how much lower I could have got it for. You only get one shot at this per house, get it right first time, then happy days, pay too much and forever kick yourself. 

[quote user="allanb"][quote user="Chancer"]Who exactly are the cheats cheating?[/quote] The state won't be getting the initial registration fee, and I suppose they're depriving the CT industry of some revenue every couple of years.  But I sometimes wonder whether it makes economic sense, compared with the UK road tax and MOT inspection fees. Of course, that's assuming that they do pay the UK costs, so that the car appears to be legal. [/quote] It would not bother me one bit if the state was not receiving the "fee", or if the CT inspectors were missing out on a few Euros. What would concern me would be be if they hit anyone and found they were not covered, which would mean the innocent party was not fully compensated.

Why not buy your own container?? They cost about £1000 for a good used one, forty foot long, eight foot high. They can be delivered to anywhere you like for a reasonable fee.( approx £200 in 2007) This was our plan,find a secure and safe site, fill your container with all your items, ( I have a friend who owns a farm and we were going to site it there for a while) and when you are ready to send it to France the container firm or any shipping company will quote for collection and delivery. Three years ago the cost to central France was £2000. So for £3000 approx, you get your storage, delivery to France and a nice forty foot shed to use when you get there. Also no rush to unload when the lorry arrives. If you did not want the container you could always resell I guess. 

Next thing the team will be telling us is they have had a drop of rain back in their home country. [Www]

[quote user="Richard51"][quote user="Bugsy"] What complete garbage ! None of those suggestions will make an iota of difference. 45 billion in revenue from motorists against 8 billion spent on roads (there is a bit of a clue in those figures) Various governments have filled the UK with a population getting on for 63 million and are now having to do something about road congestion (why that should come as a surprise, baffles most people with a modicum of common sense.) The answer is not pricing people off the road.   [/quote] So how come when you drive (sorry crawl) down the UK motorways, 90% of the cars have only one occupant?   Clearly the current tax / pricing structure isn't dissuading people from getting into their cars.  The above suggestions have nothing to do with fund raising but dissuading people from idly and selfishly stepping into their cars every time they want to go somewhere.  [/quote] I personally would never use public transport. Have you seen some of the scum that travels that way. No thank you, I certainly don't wish to get that close to another person other than by choice. Show me someone over fifty waiting at a bus stop and I will show you a loser.

[quote user="Swissie"]Have you ever lived there? I did for 35 years. [/quote] I spent a week there one day. Leicester, "not far from London, not far enough" !!!!!!!!!  [6]

[quote user="Swissie"] There are areas of France where the locals are getting just a little bit fed up with their area being taken over by 'foriners' in droves. [/quote] The same as the local people are in Leicester  no doubt. The French will have to learn to put up with the English and their ways, or do as the white population of Leicester have done and move out to nicer/other  areas. The reason you see what you describe as "underclass" in Leicester is because anyone, white and of means have got the *uck out of there PDQ. [;-)]

[quote user="pachapapa"] Yesterday a bull in Spain jumped the barrier and injured 40 spectators. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n25lF8BovOo [/quote] Please give us some good news and say the bull killed some of the spectators. I would enjoy watching that. [8-|]

[quote user="Renaud"]“They scream, they sing, they fall down, they take their clothes off, they cross-dress, they vomit,” Malia’s mayor, Konstantinos Lagoudakis, said in an interview. “It is only the British people — not the Germans or the French.” Malia is the latest and currently most notorious in a long list of European resorts full of young British tourists on packaged tours offering cheap alcohol and a license to behave badly. In Magaluf and Ibiza, Spain; in Ayia Napa, Cyprus; and in the Greek resorts of Faliraki, Kavos and Laganas as well as Malia, the story is the same: They come, they drink, they wreak havoc. “The government of Britain has to do something,” Mr. Lagoudakis said. “These people are giving a bad name to their country.” They are also hurting themselves in the process. A recent report published by the British Foreign Office, “British Behavior Abroad,” noted that in a 12-month period in 2006 and 2007, 602 Britons were hospitalized and 28 raped in Greece, and that 1,591 died in Spain and 2,032 were arrested there. In Laganas, on the Greek island of Zakinthos, where a teenager from Sheffield died after a drinking binge this summer, more than a dozen British women were charged in July with prostitution after taking part, the authorities said, in an alfresco oral sex contest. New York Times.[/quote] Whoever said that "youth was wasted on the young" clearly did not know what they were talking about.

[quote user="JohnKay"] Thanks for replies everyone. It's been good to hear of so many others having the same familiar go-round with twits though I certainly hope all of you came to successful resolutions. I'm not there any more and just can't be bothered dealing with faceless numbskulls who don't yet seem to have e-mail at their disposal. I know I should never say "never" but at 63 my time en France is over. I bought and renovated two houses since 1991 and though I love France I never want to own anything there again. I can always do a house swap for holidays. Like you good people I've also had my dealings over time with lazy, incompetent and rude government and bank "lifers" who can't be sacked for anything short of being up to the elbows in the cashbox or having someone's knickers down on the boss's desk. Rather than wasting time on the telephone being shunted from one minion to another, all unwilling to do anything save get themselves a fresh coffee, I've decided to let them come to me on my ground if they wish. The sum isn't large so it would be a small claims court matter here and I'm more comfortable in my own language and in a less arbitrary system where I am not guilty from the outset.   Sorry for the rant, I'm heading to the frigo now for a cool one!   Cheers and bonne chance a tous! [/quote] The old saying is so true, "France is a beautiful country, its just the French that spoil it"  [Www]

FYI, its being repeated tonight ( Tuesday 10th Aug.)  BBC 2 7.00pm UK time.

[quote user="PeterG"] Yes, really enjoyable. It is one of the better programmes on TV, instead of all the made up tripe that is pushed out, these days.       [/quote] Fully agree, an excellent program, from the dramatic pictures of the lighthouse and keeper in the storm, to the German submarine base, to the salt marshes and more. It was followed by the first of three, hour long episodes about the Normans, which was also worth watching.

[quote user="Frederick"] When I am in the UK  my work takes me into the homes of a lot of people in social housing .. I see the very elderly mostly women living alone in a 3 bed place that they cannot cope with  as they are frail. . They could not .move without a lot of help even if they wanted a more managable place so will not face up to it. .I also go into flats  where  families are raising children The constant  worry of mothers is keeping the kids quiet in case they get complaints ...Kids need gardens ...old people cannot handle gardens   ...Provided the councils have  understanding staff to help people move as many will not have funds to pay furniture removers . I think exchanges would work out well for people and many old people would also be happier with the security they get in living in flats  with other elderley residents  Many have main door entry systems wired  into the flats .that gives a feeling of protection . .   [/quote] You are correct, this would be a good idea, help these people move if they wish, but they should not be forced to move from their homes. The Government goes on about the "family life" breaking down in this country, but this centres around the home, and with the constant threat of the home being taken, this would make things worst.    

[quote user="misplacedperson"]There are plenty of families on the waiting list for council housing, many of them currently in inadequate B&B accommodation. The fact that this situation exists alongside that of single people living in three-bedroomed council properties is not reasonable. And before you start ranting on Daily Mail-stylee about 'immigrants taking our houses' you should familiarise yourself with the rules as to who qualifies for social housing and where the priorities are. [/quote] No need for me to "rant on" about anything MPP, I have stated the facts as I see them in this case, so what you think is irrelevant to me. Please don't patronise me  regarding the rules on housing in my own country, I am more than up to date regarding them, thank you. BTW, Its the Times for me, not the Mail, old chap. [Www]