breizh

HMG recapitalised the banks, obtaining an equity stake in return. Previous experience eg when Sweden was forced to nationalise their banks, or the American S&L rescues all state catergorically that the State will fully recoup it's investment, with a very large cherry on top. Privatisation just before the next election, allowing a mega tax personal tax cut? Cynical moi? Must make Gordon weep. He bought the Tories the next election. The UK toxic loan agency is a fully ringfenced private entity, with no exposure current, or future, by HMG, or the UK taxpayer. I agree the ONS Net Debt figure looks pretty eyewatering when bank intervention is included. It would also be a ridiculous agrument to make that 100% of that is taxpayer liability. Current bad debt previsions in the financial sector are 3%, and that is erring on the side of prudence. That would put (real) Net Debt at 60.7%. You can play these silly games till the cows come home. Take France. SNCF have Net Debt of EUR150billion, but it's off the Govn balance sheet (the interest payments are more than it's entire revenue, and so is the pensions bill!!). SECU has Net Debt EUR190billion. Etc, etc. Renault shares are held at a value of EUR80, check the real price! The issue once upon a time with exchange rates it was interest rates, economic performance and data, inflation, etc. The world has changed lightyears from those times. The traders sit London trading trillions. In fact, that is probably one danger for Sterling. The traders all watch UK TV, read UK papers, pretty much like most people on this forum. They don't see French TV, read French papers, and therefore have a pretty unbalanced view of the world!!

Please explain what a is "bank bailout". Recapitilisation? Liquidity? The ECB allows Eurozone banks to borrow 100% against sovereign bonds purchased say, from Greece. Effectively all the toxic bonds now reside within the ECB. Where is the difference with QE? I bow to your superior knowledge of the UK debt situation. Last month PwC's report had the deficit at 5.8%, one of the lowest in the G20. I will forward your analysis to them.

Bless! http://www.leparisien.fr/lille-59000/nord-un-enfant-de-7-ans-tente-d-incendier-son-ecole-08-04-2011-1399543.php Unfortunately he must have missed the lesson where they teach that when committing a crime, don't tell everyone the day before what you're going to do!  

http://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-finance/industrie/agroalimentaire-biens-de-consommation-luxe/20110401trib000612393/marks-spencer-fait-son-grand-retour-en-france.html Could M&S completely shake up the retail market in France. You know introducing alien concepts like, Customer Service, Returns Policy, internet deliveries (that actually work), quality food to go, clean and pleasant stores, etc? All things at which French retailers markedly fail. Looks like they are really going for it in a big way. The Champs Elysees store might be the headline bit, but the strategic plan is much, much bigger. More retail stores. Food only stores at railway stations, airports, etc. Internet. I think the last 2 are the biggies. There will be a BIG budget for all this, there will a strategic plan, and they're been planning it for years! There is almost a very high level of goodwill in the big French cities towards M&S on which to build. They won't be opening stores where the locals all marry their cousins (at best!). Maybe they will do what McDo did with fast food, and totally wipe out the local opposition? Or what Brake Bros have with the local restaurants? Importing daily from the UK seems logical. It bypasses the clout the InterClercs would bring to bear on local suppliers to not contract to M&S. Shrewd move.

I hate French TV. All the dubbed CSIs, the recycled Brit game shows, the celeb galas.I think if you wanted to, you could actually watch CSI 24 hours a day! Unfortunately the only time we get to see UK TV is trips back to my parents. Trips to OH parents are a nightmare. 3 TV all going at the same time, in different rooms, on different channels. My French is good, but I just get total overload. Having suffered TV in other countries, Catalunya was by far, far the worst. Hello-style celeb gossip progs on 3 channels, 6-8pm. That's 6 hours to fill. And no celebs!! Then this came along, and I revised my opinion. It made Big Brother/Gran Hermano look like Songs of Praise. http://www.leparisien.fr/tv/telerealite-faute-d-audience-tf1-arrete-carre-viiip-31-03-2011-1387314.php France wins the krap TV award. Nobody else in the frame! Fortunately it's been dropped, to be replaced, by guess what......CSI!!!!  

Certainly draws a picture my wife and I see, and the national finance picture is easy enough to find if you look.  I get moved around a fair bit by my company, but take my UK salary with me, so can compare directly. I paid roughly 33% tax in the UK and Germany, and 18% in Spain (employer's charges are very high). Working here I pay 35% tax each month. Then the killer is the annual declaration, that is roughly 11% of my annual salary in one hit, that makes a total of 46%. The very low salary levels for SMICards, the taxes, the very low employment rates, 58% compared to 86% in the UK. Certainly it's the most depressing place, with the most depressing people I've ever lived. I've been married to a Frenchwoman for 17 years. She can't wait to leave again. We live just outside Paris. I appreciate this is not the image Brits will see in La Profonde, or as they stroll down the Champs Elysee, but it is the real France of today. This autumn could be bad in the streets, there is a lot of pent up hatred in the banlieue.  

[quote user="bixy"]Whatever the arguments what it comes down to is this: we are once again meddling in the internal affairs of another country, and, just like Iraq, we have no idea how this will all end. If we are really concerned about human suffering, there have been plenty of occasions in the recent past when we could have taken action to save lives, but have done nothing. No, the intervention in Iraq is nothing but hypocrisy and dirty politics - as usual. Patrick [/quote] Maybe some politicians have grown some cojones and understand that the world is interlinked. Regime change in Tunisia means hundreds of thousands of the nastier type of supporters of the previous regime coming to France. They have family here and speak French. Civil war in Libya leads to a mass murder in Benghazi. It must be stopped.  This is the first time the UN has interferred in an internal national dispute. Even an unholy alliance of China, Russia and Germany didn't want to stop the mandate being accepted. Maybe, just maybe, this what the UN should have being doing for the last 70 years. Maybe, just maybe, politicians can act with some honesty at last. 

[quote user="Quillan"] With regards to Libya, I think we jumped too soon but on the other hand did we have a choice, if you are protecting a group of people, the longer you wait the more die. Then there is the claim that we are not after Gaddafi, bit strange that when a cruise missile just blew up his home. Accurate to within two metres they say so I can't believe this was an accident. Why as many others have pointed out, with all the other countries whAlso what about protecting the other Libyans from the 'rebels', don't they have human rights as well?ere people either killed each or other or are still doing so do we just limit ourselves to Libya. Now they are talking about sending humanitarian aid to the people, how much is this going to cost. Here we have a government that is cutting health, public services, police and military to try and pay back this £4.2 trillion debt and yet we can find money for this. As Thatcher said and I paraphrase a bit, ask any woman who runs the house, when the purse is empty (and the credit card maxed out) you have no more money to spend, it's basic economics yet the Tories, like Labour, seem intent of spending money we don't have and leaving it to the tax payer to foot the bill. It's not our fight, we don't have the money, if others want to get involved then great but leave us out of it. Think about all this when the next bomb goes off in major UK city because here we are again killing Muslims and we wonder why they don't like us. [/quote] I thought the Thatcher "household" economic arguement had been totally, and utterly, proven false and only economic simpletons couldn't see through it to realise how stupid it really is. I'll try again. Govn borrowing , and therefore debt, is merely a function of ability to pay interest. The capital is irrelevant as it is rolled over to a future borrowing requirement. No debt collectetrs, no bailiffs, no credit card being declined, no repossession. I'd give Japan as the example of what can be acheived by an OECD country! Cost goes up marginally, but the ball will always keep rolling. But, hey#ho the Tories and their Brit media mates can scare the pants off the people, and do lots of nasty things to lots of people. (but not the pensioners, and rich, who vote for them.) The big figure you quote is the total sum of all the future promises the "baby-boomers", have generously given themselves, loading the cost onto their children and grandchildren. You have my gratitude. In this instance I'd give you France as an outstanding of what can be acheived by an OECD country! I am a pacifist and a liberal. I find it outragous that we in the rich, powerful OECD countries, could sit idle letting people die through our inaction claiming "We can't afford it". It is a morally bankrupt arguement to a question that is merely requires a moral answer. Plus The Dwarf needs the votes. He came badly 3rd. He needs to appear macho against the one issue woman.

Danmark quick off the mark http://politiken.dk/newsinenglish/ECE1227910/denmark-to-send-squadron-on-libya-op/

  For someone who attracts political scandals like dog poo does flies in summer, and survive them, this one will bury him.  If this is true.............. http://www.leparisien.fr/politique/financement-de-sarkozy-par-kadhafi-en-2007-l-elysee-dement-16-03-2011-1361867.php He might want to talk to Silvio for some advice[:D]

I think you maybe confusing France with somewhere else [:D] At a local level, coverage, by the various networks is variable at best. This is not the UK, or Germany, where you can just about guarantee a signal, anywhere. I travel around the country a lot, and carry 2 work mobiles, each on different networks, and sometimes can't get a signal on either. 4G, or 3G, coverage is even worse. Normally, I don't even bother trying to logon via anything other than a wifi network. McDo do good coffee[:D] Strong, black, no suger, for me please. Railway station, tourist info, mairie, biblio, the list is endless. If it has to be a dongle try the various networks outlets in Toulouse. Check the coverage maps very carefully! I'm in Paris, so can't really help.  

[quote user="idun"]Ah but, France had the cash back system, it existed in France well before it was in the UK. They stopped it, probably before it started in the UK, no idea why, but I used to like getting cash back when I got my shopping. In fact we had lots of things in France before the UK. Pin numbers were used in supermarkets from the mid 80's, in fact our village pharmacie was about the last place that I knew of that had me signing when using my card and that was many many years ago.[/quote] Twice Visa and Mastercard came within days of withdrawing all card services in France in the 80s and 90s, due to the massive level of card fraud, hundreds of times the level in the UK at it's worst. Only OECD country who they've ever threatened. I know PIN numbers were the answer to the first threat. I bet cashback stopped as a result of the second threat, when they also withdrew vast numbers of credit cards. (As a retorical question. I've always wondered what the hypers and the grande surfaces have agreed with V&M in order to give CCs to their customers with virtually no checks, or limits. Maybe a very high level of retailer accepted risk?) 

Hand up. I work for one of the big pharma companies (in Finance). Sandwich closing was announced 2-3 years ago as part of Pf corporate restructuring. A bit bizarre it's suddenly news. All the pharma companies are doing it. We've just shut a Hamburg site, 11,000 jobs. The facilities that have delivered the amazing drugs over the last 20-30 years have run out of ideas. Over the next 10-15 years there is very, very little coming. So, the pharma companies changed tack. They now rely on small independent R&D pharma companies to produce the new drugs, then either licence the drugs from them, or buy them out. These small companies are predominantly British. Re the pharma R&D jobs leaving the UK. Precisely the opposite is true. The previous Govn in their last budget permitted the depreciation of drug patents. This is unique, and is a massive, massive boost to pharmaUK, GSK, AZ, Novartis, have all announced huge investmant budgets in the UK. Pity the news stories didn't tell you.

The Chinese are no white knights. They intervene in the bond markets to maintain the EUR and USD rates against the RMB to maintain their exports. Meanwhile the EUR banks buy EUR bonds because the ECB guarantees 100% loans back to the banks against the bonds. Everyone's a winner except the european taxpayer. Interesting perspective from the German media (seems to dispute the previously quoted Deficiet/Debt figures) http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,739351,00.html

[quote user="Gluestick"]In a wise and balanced society, Woolly, the mother ought to have received an OBE. Instead, as so often, the sociopathic problem is protected, at vast public cost, from the would-be public spirited and laudable act of a concerned Mum. Same as shopkeepers sorting out robbers: we protect the miscreant at the expense of the victim. A society truly gone mad: and destined to vanish into its own primary orifice. [/quote] WoW. Parents should bind and gag their adult children. Maybe, that'll stop the missus thinking the British are so wonderful. Assault. False imprisonment. Possibly kidnapping and GBH, and that's OK? (Excuse my English law, I did my degree over 15 years ago) PS nowhere in the story is there proof she was an addict, or what the accused claimed was actually true.

Reuters' report seem to agree with opinions expressed by you. Barrosso is sadly deluded. http://uk.reuters.com/article/stocksNews/idUKLNE4B102220081202?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0 If anyone is under any illusions about the economic health of the Eurozone you should read this article by a German journalist in Der Spiegel (in English). It seems BMW and Daimler (Merc) may need to be nationalised in 2009 comme GM. http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,592658,00.html  

Or you could try http://www.anywho.com/international.html

No worries for you. Sovereign backed pensions are 100% "safe", public sector borrowing or taxes will fund future payments. The reason I put "safe" in inverted commas is the possibility of inflation, or worse still, deflation as the European economies charge merrily deeper into recession. This will erode the value of pensions compared to today's levels.. Being cynical, it is the only means that future governments, particularly in Europe, will be able avoid the crippling social payments they have promised their citizans. by effectively destroying the monetary value of the promises. On the positive side, you're safe, this will be my generation's problem, when I retire in 30 years!    

I work as a Credit Analyst in France, however I also control the International Litigation. I can't comment on Consumer Debt (personal loans, HP, C/cards, mortgages) as I only work with Commercial Debt, our Global Turnover is about EUR 12billion, EUR 750million in the UK. It's Friday afternoon, everyone's on holiday except me, I'm bored, so I thought I'd try to clarify a number of issues. 1 We chase ALL debtors, where ever they are, or to where ever they move. Consideration of the debtor's ability to pay may be taken into account ie if they genuinely can't pay, we will eventually write off all, or part of the debt. Different companies will have their own policies, there is no "standard" policy. 2 Pursuing debtors within the EU is very easy. You obtain Judgement (CCJ in the UK) in your own country, and if necessary, a local court in the EU will be requested to enforce the Judgement with the tools at their disposal ie Hussiers, sanctioning deductions from bank accounts, confiscation of property (houses, cars, etc). In the fact the enforcement tools in most EU countries (particularly France) are very, very tough. 3 Time barred claims are 5 years in Germany, which we use as our model. However if the Claimant can show the Court they have made continuing efforts to contact the debtor (letter, trace agents, phone calls) this can be extended almost indefinitely. 4 Outside the EU life gets more difficult for people like me. However we have retained lawyers in most countries who will act on our behalf, or use one of the multinational collection agencies. 5 It is impossible to simply disappear in the EU. Where ever you are trace agents will find you for EUR 75.00+TVA, the fact that there has been no phone call, or knock at the door, probably means that they haven't got round to you yet. However, I did once draw the line at a couple of Sicilians living in Moscow, I've seen the Godfather too many times and bottled out. NB fraud is nigh on impossible to prove in the UK,as the Prosecution must prove Intent. If the Defendent continues to maintain there was no Intent, then unless there is categorical (written) evidence then the Presecution will fail.

French fiscal residents get a 40-50% credit d'Impot, therefore there isn't much price competition. Also the retailers know that all the residence secondaire owners are around at the moment, and buying things like woodburners, so cheap is out! Speaking from our experience compared to some non resident acquientances, definitely buy the best quality burner you can afford, don't be seduced by the cheapo ones in the bricobodge warehouses. You certainly pay for what you get. For information/recommendations more specific to you Dept/Region try here http://poitoucharentes.angloinfo.com/

The french are all going to IKEA/Conforma these days, so getting old style furniture is dead easy, that's probably no one replied! Most big towns and cities have a Troc, giant second hand warehouses. A good place to start. There will 1 or 2 in Angouleme. Find your nearest one here www.troc.com/, you can sometimes view some of their stock. If you want to be even more french they use a very popular free classified website www.leboncoin.fr/ Hope that helps.  

Unlikely I'll get pregnant. I've been a bloke since I was born! Maybe it's the Egalite bit.

I did this about 10 years ago. It took about 3 months from the UK, I doubt it would be much quicker doing it from France. This was with a GP who'd spent 3 years working in Tunisia, so understood the French systems, a MiL who was the mayor, and who desperately wanted to marry at least one of her daugthers herself. I can understand why lots of French people simply co-habit. Blood tests for Blood Group, AIDS, Toxoplasmosis and Rubella (why!). Chest x-ray (why!). Now we have a Livre de Famille, with space for 10 children to be added. Bon courage!

I must admit I am glad we haven't got children. Nothing to do round here for them, not even a street corner to hang around on! More often than not, no power for me Wii. Now if they did one that ran on cow poo..........

Agreed Cerise and Cooperlola. My BiL is in the Paris Police, places like Epernay are totally unpoliced because the criminals have automatic weapons, and use the police for target practice from the high-rises. The drugs and alcohol abuse in rural areas is totally out of control, presumably because the kids have got nothing else to do. I live in deepest, darkest France, break ins are a fact of life, we've been targeted 4 times in a year, the neighbouring farmer 6 times (and he has several guns and cheins de chasse). Somehow the Brits never see these problems, and the french media only report it superfically. However I will be very sad to leave when my company moves me again.