dragonrouge

Dear Tina I know exactly where you are coming from but unless and seriously you get this right it is like the lady with a beard at the circus or someone exposing their wounds and injury for money. There is a human story here but seriously I am of the opinion that we might be degrading everything by putting people up to the lenses and saying how much I need the cash and the like. That is the way I think it will come across. I am of the opinion that the law is with us and that is what we should argue. However I might be wrong in all of this. regards

We did it the other way around the Clinic first then the optician with the prescription. Generally I would agree that their standard of care here is good and I say that as someone who had a detached retina plus a hole in the retina and which they fixed in Normandie. However our experience is different and I think there are others on another forum who would support the argument that the computer based examination can be somewhat doubtful. As to Specsavers the do it the old fashioned way as well as checking the overall health of ones eyes. I am sorry I dispute what you say as for six months guarantee on top of the range glasses. Would you call 900 euros top of therange? Then if so the optician in Percy did not want to know and blamed the specialist who blamed the optician. As a matter of interest do you know where the lenses in their base form come from? Yes you have guessed China so who is making the profit here?

thanks passed this over to my wife to organise. thanks again

Here I am in a world I know nothing about TV wise that is. Our friend who lives some distance from us wants us to record the British Lions games. Ok we have recorded on our SKy + box. However how please do we get it from there on to the tapes that he has given us. Please no shouting I really do not know anything about this. My wife indeed says that my knowledge span on most things is negligible.

Partnerships has always been the way to progress provided of course the partners are equal. I come from the valleys of South Wales and whilst the wives provided for their husbands who were down the pit and looked after the children essentially they ran the home. If my Father stepped out of line then a quiet word and equally to the sons of the marriage and we made sure our Mother was protected. We idolised our Mother. I do find France difficult from that point of view. My wife has her own identity own bank account own income stream and all those good things and we each respect that but of course united you stand divided you fall. Final point I am much the better cook! But ironing is beyond me.

For and examination of the UK situation look at Barclays Bank v O'Brien and the cases it spawned. Our approach is totally differing to here in France. Indeed I was in front of the Court of Appeal on a case that flowed from the O'Brien case. In the UK we go out of our way and rightly to protect what is perceived to be the innocment party.

Margaret know nothing sorry I am from wet Wales although its warm here in the Vendee but not 90! However is Bize where that lovely olive oil cooperative is?

Both here and in Normandie we obtained ours from the Local Clinic and where you find the specialist hang out! He gives the prescription. Word of warning but simply on a personal basis here in France they tend to use a computer based programme for eye testing as against say the tried and tested approach in the UK. We and others have had let us say some bad experiences and we both returned to the UK with our glasses and prescriptions to Specsavers and where we had been clients for years. They were aghast at what they had in front of them. We now have new glasses and can see!

Being in the law I have let us say a view. My view is despite all of its warts and the like the UK system is much much better than here in France. Its codes are lost in time and the system takes for ever to make even the most limited progress. Here there is no such profession as a Solicitor and Avocats I have seen better cattle. Of course have a go at our system and its limitations but it has stood the test of time and our case law and common law approach and precedent is I still maintain a good system. It is entirely a differing view as to our Judges and here I am not to be quoted.

Hi I have drafted some responses for Mr Moran through Tina and I am sure Tina will let you have the precis! As to the legislation and how it is applied I am presuming here that he means the leglislation prior to the ECJ and the recent Upper Chamber decision? I truly believe that these guys do not know the law and it will take a Tribunal for them to sit up and take aboard what we are saying. If other cases are considered on an individual basis what are the basic considerations. If it were me and it is not I would respond with comments and against 'email of 14 may I would ask what perameters are applied to the decision making process. Are there checks and balances applied in such decision making processes. Is there essentially a template basis in arriving in the decision making process. Can you confirm that your decison making processes comply with Wednesbury. Do not quote the 'header' for Wednesbury. He will not have a clue what it is about but it will make him ask others. Those are the sorts of questions I would pose in respect of your response.

This year and as we do not spray have bought all grafted types. Seem slow here in the Vendee.

Dear Benjamin I have been absolutely amazed at what I hear on a daily basis. I feel strongly about it too and we keep on hearing that the best way to punish these guys is at the ballot box. I do not think that would work. I tell you what will work and what will concentrate the mind is for someones collar to be felt. You know that I am in the law and my best friend is a very senior and recently retired police officer SB and all of that. We chatted for hours the other day on the question of having claimed for interest on a mortgage when there is no mortgage. He would interview and charge and I would prosecute. We think five years. Why does someone not have the wedding gear. Please believe me an interview room for eight hours without light is unpleasant but not as unpleasant as the things we are seeing and hearing.

I scanned this posting simply to see what this honeysuckle is all about. Used google and it is indeed lovely. Our neighbour has put up on top of his wall a structure of alu and plastic sheeting and I need to cover it. I have been in France for far too long to argue with this type of neighbour and who is not like in the village. I can buy on line and from someone that I have bought from in the past a mature specimen and it can be delivered shortly. What sort of support structure does Halliana need please?

Avignon is great as is the Pont Du Gard nearby and is a Roman structure as is the one in nearby Orange. Of course you are then in the Cote du Rhone vineyards. Lots of hotels around Pont du Gard and we stayed at St Pierre Begud or something similar it had a/c which is a bonus at that time of the year. Nearby Uzes Nimes and the like are also worth visiting. For my mind you could spend two weeks basically around Avignon. You might even consider going to the wonderful Sunday market at Isle sur Sourge which must be one of the best for miles.

Dear Benjamin only your mind will tell you in the finanl analysis what to do. However if it were me and certainly it is not what you have in mind let us say at best does not match the spirit of the law. You will have once more to try to establish a UK identity and then if successful reverse the process. Whilst currently I have placed a low value on the DWP/DLA guys there are no ones fools and I think you will come unstuck and may have to pay for this error of judgment. But it is not my call it is yours. Think about the MP's who flipped first and second houses to avoid (note the use of this word) CGT. Your approach is way down the list when compared to what they did but as I say its nothing whatsoever to do with me. What is to do with me is not to establish for those on this forum an entitlement to DLA is to obtain reinstatement of what was already granted and then taken away for we dared to move that fifteen miles across the channel. Simple really. There might be those on this forum of disagree with the benefit system and see all of those who have need of it in one particular light. They are not!

Sorry I forgot one issue. In your letter you must stress that you do not wish a DM to review his or her decision. You wish to move immediately to a Tribunal. Having regard to the DM reviewing his or her decision you must stress that the Public View has been jaundiced as best towards a body reviewing itself. Thus you now have the Independent Police Complaints Commission the Bar Standards Board and the Office of the Supervision of Solicitors and now of course the new Statutory Body to look after MP's thus you are not inclined to allow the DWP/DLa to investigate themselves its against the rules of natural justice and the only place that such matters should be heard is initially at the Tribunal then before the Commissioner and then a Judicial Review. Obviously use your own words but with respect try to use some of the pointers! rdgs

Dear Barebackrider, have just sent Tina some thoughts on sickness benefit et al. No doubt Tina will let you have it. kindest regards

Perhaps it would be good bedtime reading for you to read the judgment and the judgment in the Upper Chamber. Its available quite easily. Do not rely on whatever anyone else say make up your own mind.

You have patently failed to answer the question on benefits per se so I think I have my answer in you remaining silent. However we knew that it was not exportable but however having some legal brain I appealed and the Tribunal found for us and so exportable. This argued before legally qualfied chair. We do not rely upon DLA it does not even qualify on the radar in the whole scheme of things for it is 48 years of work has provided the framework financially. But what is important is that those individuals who do need it should have it and that is what this is about the fundametal rights that we all have as individuals. I respect your rights to comment and your right to hold the views that you do but I do not agree with them and never will. It would be an interesting discussion face to face. I do not benefit from DLA and you should do well to remember that it was not the ex pats in France that managed to get HMG in the dock it was the ex-pats in Spain so presumably you have a problem with them as well? Enough of this I will let you get on with whatever you do all day to keep you amused in the area in which you live.

Dear Mr Avery The DLA would be a shambles be it a Conservative/Labour/Lib Dem/BNP/Plaid Cymru Party that would be in power. I make no apologies for saying that you know nothing about the system the hoops that people are going through. It is not floating duck islands or moats this is for people who properly qualified for DLA and when through all of the hoops in the UK (and please believe me there are many) before they left for France. You left the UK for France apparently without penality why should others have the right for free movement and not those with serious medical conditions and which UK law has recognised or do you have a problem in this area per se with people having the support of our benefit system? For hugely personal reasons I will not expand further as to my wife's illness but she has suffered from it for 38 years and I would take it as a very personal attack if you were even to dare to say to me that she is not entitled to the DLA. Forget the hoops forget the medical investigations forget the Tribunal look at the lady then you have your answer. I would again say with respect that you might find it difficult to either read of comprehend the judgment or indeed the recent appeal to the Upper Chamber. I go further and say that the way the DLA is interpretating the judgment is not what the intention of the ECJ was. I would stake my reputation on this and that I do not give away glibly and certainly not on a public site and equally not to you. The law is entirely different. Finally I can say that I have now the ear of a District Judge in the Tribunal Service where the questions of inordinate amounts of delays (since 2007) is under consideration. When this matter is resolved and it will be no doubt we can then have a further chat and you will demonstate at that stage more compassion perhaps.

When we lived in Normandie we re-roofed huge amounts of roof space and indeed the gable end against the Atlantic weather. We were faced with real slate or fibrous. The difference in price in our opinion was not huge and we opted from real slate and from Spain. I am Welsh (and there are people on this site who do not like Wales and its people so please do not rely upon what I say) but we roofed the world!

I think your clematis might be Nelly Moser

Clematis traditionally like their heads in the sun and their feet in the dark so deep planting with lots of manure and the like is called for. There are various (obviously) clematis and they fall into three types of pruning and which tends to confuse everyone. However my advice would be to prepare a new site prepare it well. There is a specialist grower in the Loire Valley whose web site is www.clematite.net I think it is called their range is huge. They ship all over France and their web site has lots of cultivation stuff on it. Look through it and treat yourself to a present (I do not have any financial involvement with these guys) Clematis also suffer from wilt and the best thing is just simply to cut it backi to within inches of the ground and then feed them well.

I know nothing about electrical work but just simply that someone has or does not have a siret number does not mean anything whatsoever. Before we did any work either here in the Vendee or when we lived in Normandie we asked around did our research asked at the Mairie and our neighbours as to who is good who is not and the rest of such stuff. Then we uttered a single prayer. But to date we have not been let down save for here in the Vendee and granite worktops but that is another problem totally. My suggestion is to get someone else in having done the research and see what he says then take a viewpoint. I am in the law back in the UK and there if any problems obviously you have some pretty strong consumer laws to protect you. But as in everything I believe it is better to resolve what is between you. I would write to your guy and by recorded delivery and keep on making yourself a nuisance but nicely. If then no response think but only briefly about going to the law. Here I can tell you it takes forever and costs a heck of a lot and it jmight be simpler to pay for the work to be done by someone else.

many thanks