ausibattler

We have learnt to our financial disadvantage that under French law unless the agent/broker is advised 2 months or more prior to renewal date the insurance is automatically renewed - pay up or else" We are about to sell the property??

Russethouse has a valid point for consideration. Compulsory enrolment for federal elections in Australia was introduced in 1911. Arguments used in favour of compulsory voting Voting is a civic duty comparable to other duties citizens perform eg taxation, compulsory education, jury duty Teaches the benefits of political participation Parliament reflects more accurately the "will of the electorate" Governments must consider the total electorate in policy formulation and management Candidates can concentrate their campaigning energies on issues rather than encouraging voters to attend the poll The voter isn’t actually compelled to vote for anyone because voting is by secret ballot. Arguments used against compulsory voting: It is undemocratic to force people to vote - an infringement of liberty The ill informed and those with little interest in politics are forced to the polls It may increase the number of "donkey votes" It may increase the number of informal votes It increases the number of safe, single-member electorates - political parties then concentrate on the more marginal electorates In the 2005 UK Election statistics show the majority of Constituancies " north of the Wash" managed a turnout of less than 50% of the national (61%) turnout. Governing the "will of the people" in the South it would appear ???

Wrong, your misleading the lady .....it.is a vulgar Spanish word for testicles, denoting courage; it corresponds to balls in English. ...

All's quiet on the western front, but where are the betting pundits on the British General Election that will influence your lives for the next term of office!!!!

Australia's former bilateral social security agreement with the United Kingdom was terminated by Australia with effect from 1 March 2001 because the UK refused to index pensions it pays to British Expats in Australia. Australia was effectively subsidising the UK National Insurance System The UK acknowledged the inequity of its policy, but was unwilling to index because of the high costs this would involve!!   Australia has for many years since tried to persuade the UK to change its position and amend the Agreement to provide for indexation. The UK has refused, and continues to refuse, even though it indexes the pensions of former UK residents living in a number of other countries.  People have the right to plan for their retirement without the threat that the rules and goal posts will be changed at a time in their lives when they have little capacity to change their circumstances or structure of their income support arrangements.  

Of the 1.1 milion expat British Basic State Pensioners worldwide no less than 545 thousand have their pensions frozen at the level at which they started to draw them in their country of residence. The other 565.000 who reside within the European Union or 15 other countries, including the USA, with whom there is a reciprocal agreement, have their pensions indexed annually, as if they were resident in the UK. This is against all that Britain has stood for over the centuries in terms of Morality, Justice and Fairness. All expat recipients of the Basic State Pension as British citizens lived, worked and paid their mandatory contributions to the National Insurance Fund in exactly the same manner as recipients resident in the UK. They are therefore surely equally entitled to full British Basic State Pension rights. It is commonly held that migrant recipients of the British Basic State Pension do not pay UK taxes and are not contributing to the UK economy. How many of them would actually have an annual income over the tax threshold ? In reality British Pensions are paid out of the contributions made to the National Insurance Fund in each working year. During their working lives expat pensioners paid their full share towards the cost of all pensioners of their day in the full expectation that they would receive the same treatment when they retired. Frozen:- Canada,Japan,New Zealand Indexed:- USA, Germany, Philippines Where is the logic in it?  

Local media in Australia confirmed today  that more than 250,000 expatriate British pensioners have lost a legal battle to receive the same pension as seniors living in the UK. A ruling by the European Court of Human Rights means that state pensions from Britain will not rise despite a cost of living increase and a decline in the value of the pound. Joint pensions are now locked in at 150 pounds per week. The British Government is being accused of being miserly betraying hundreds of thousands of people entitled to a full pension rise. Whose next?

My former UK employer has advised the BOS Taps service will end on 31 December 2009!!

Alice in wonderland?  I don't think so!!! Be what you would seem to be, or if you'd like it put more simply: "Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise."

Norman H Why is it that other peoples life (style) has to be judged against the lowest common denominators one can dredge up? Incidentally was is an RMI? Surely a weekly rather than a daily ( British Style) shopping practice is more cost effective and  surely no matter what the finacial cost is to feed  a family of 5, it was to a standard they were use to. I would also suggest the example of a quoted particular shopping bill, as with anyone else, would vary significantly from week to week. I would also suggest that the cost of feeding a family in France with supermarket food is expensive by most (G8) country standards regardless of currency conversions.  

Should read : "the reality of the cost of living in France" holiday home or not.

Got your point RH -- 3 times in fact!!!   Some thing you choked on no doubt?

I’m with you Will. They ventured and explored their dreams’, the reality of living in France was their downfall. They didn’t fail, by the opinion and standards of others; they fulfilled and had an experience most people can only envy. The truth is, they were not inextricably trapped in the web of their dreams and  could, and did, escape back to reality. Bon Voyage

One would assume that regulations are devised to provide guidance primarily for safety reasons. For EY to infer that they should be ignored and  not complied with as "someone elses problem'! is surely irresponsible and trite in reply to a serious post. Presumably he still uses a cut throat razor and no longer has hair to blow!!!!

Time for a game of tiddlywinks or a bet that it will reach 1.25 by 4 July!!