velcorin

As Norman says, you can't let for that length of time. Minimum contract (furnished) is 12 months, so you couldn't get him out if he decided to stay put. If it's unfurnished, it's 3 years.

I have FT Deutschland, Bloomberg, Reuters, AP, FT London. PwC and Accenture subscription services. The quality on the analysis and data is light years away from the free populist stuff. I would pay for it myself, without question. The free stuff, is to be honest, aimed at a market, a market that is by definition, a mass market, and therefore the reporting is at best populist, and at worst very so superficial, as to be misleading.

Yes. Always have done. If you want, information, data, news, unfiltered by journalists and editors with their own personal bias then you have to pay, fortunately the company picks up the bills. And I will never understand why the BBC internet site is free. They are a broadcaster, where in the BBC Charter does it say that it should pay journalists and then put their articles as content on the web for viewing by the whole world for free? And why should Google think it can take other people's work for free, and make an obscene profit from advertisers on it's site, and not share that profit with the content providers. That is why the news companies are starting to charge. The only free ones left will be the loony tunes pedalling their bigotted view points. And the dear old over financed BBC[:D]

Your pension funds hold the majority of the shares. If YOU don't want shareholder acceptance of the deal, simply tell your pension fund. The Funds will be hacked off, because it's a really stupid price for a sweet company, but they are obliged to do as directed. However, it may affect future pension payments, something to bear in mind.  

Accepted Ali-cat...........I was going off my internal reports which list Aerospace, etc as individual discrete catergories. 'spose that's the Germans for you, they like counting things, and it keeps people out of the "Reading Room"[:D]

Unfortunately brianagain "Aerospace" is not within the scope of the "Manufacturing" catergory, so officially is not considered "Manufacturing" ! Bizarre, I know, that was my point in an earlier post. UK strengths in Defence, Aerospace, Pharma, Petro, Plastics, the hi-tech, hi-value, areas of an economy are not considered (internationally) as "Manufacturing" which is just low value metal bashing, inorganic chemicals, etc. The definition needs dragging into the modern world.

It would also help if some of the lazy journos got off their fat****s and didn't just use each others stories as research material, BBC included. When was the last time one actually went outside the M25? 3 months ago, at CIA conference, in Burton-on-Trent, I had one tell me "Of course you're all wasting your time, Britain doesn't make cars anymore". He was stood, 10 miles from the biggest carplant in Europe, which on it's own turns out more cars than Fiat, or BMW, or Audi,,,,,,,79% of which go for export. Stupid, ignorant, p*llock. If you add the hitech Pharma, Defence and PetroChems to the old style metal bashers, suddenly the UK becomes Europe's biggest manufacturing economy......................by far. Source PwC-The Future of Manufacturing. But, hey, some lazy journo knows best.  

Cheers Clair, I guessed it would be you! She's already picked where she's going..................

There was a family discussion over Christmas regarding my MiL planning to move into retirement accomodation sometime in the future, but no date has been fixed yet. Things got a bit "fraught" (loud), when she wasn't there, regarding this. Basically, under the French system, she has to pay for everything herself, until she has no money or assetsl eft, then her children have to pay. Arguements ensued, it seems they expect my wife and I, to pick up a large part of the cost, because we could afford it. My wife was adamant this wasn't going to happen, which seems to have somewhat upset what little relationship she has with her sisters. I am hoping someone may be able to point me in the direction of an idiots guide (French or English) which deals with the financial side of retirement homes in France. I need to research this for myself before I discuss it with my wife, personally I don't have a problem with subsidising her sisters' contributions, as they are less able to afford the costs, but I need to be well prepared before talking to her. I've tried the people at work, but haven't had any sensible answers.

Quillan (from memory) on average 70% of national heathcare budgets are spent on the over 55s. Could be the answer as to why there will be a switch from areas with a young population to areas with aging populations. A few years ago I was involved with a PFI project. The levels of NHS expenditure in places like Torquay and Worthing was 10-15 times the national average, due to the age profule of the population.

I have a BiL from Corsica, of whom I can't understand one word. And (I hope she doesn't see this), my wife speaking English grates on my English ears. On differing accents, after a few months in Barcelona I started to realise Juan Carlos had the Castillano equivalent of Phil Mitchell's accent. Most bizarre, but probably explained by him not living in Spain for the first 30 years or so of his life.

Absolutely agreed as a Uk taxpayer criticise to your heart's content. However please be aware, you will get exactly the same critical analysis from French people and media of their health system, and services. On a more positive note we how have 4 French nephews and neices, who have moved to the UK in last 6 months for work, and they have nothing but the utmost praise, for the NHS, and other services, compared to their experience of the French equivalents.

Yes. The the State picks up the cost, rather than the heathcare system paying compensation, though ministerial statements suggest this may change in the near future, and compensation will be paid by insurance companies, with the premiums loaded onto mutuelles.

Or 10 people could be brain damaged due to a medical error, caused by language mistakes. Lifetime care, GBP 5.5million, either paid for by the State, or by compensation obtained via the Courts from the NHS. Someone has to pick up the bill. Net gain zero.

GBP55 million, that's nearly as much as I'm paying for fresh flowers for Carla every day, are you sure that's all? Mmmm, my calculators had a bit of a fit, but if the NHS budget is about GBP90 billion, that's about 0.0006%.

15 years married to a "realistic" Frenchwoman, with a very large family, and 6 years of living in Paris, in 2 spells, makes me "realistic", rather than anti-French[:D] (Oh, and a residence secondaire in Creuse, just to show I'm just like other Brits[:D]).

As someone married to a foreigner I remain eternally grateful to the NHS when dealing with a serious condition my wife developed when we lived in the UK. She has 2 degrees, English from Brest, and Spanish from Rennes, taught English in France, French in the UK, but there is no way she could have coped with the vocab, when talking to a doctor, which an English speaker would take for granted. She would have died, but for the translation services offered. Maybe the skyhigh French hospital dead rates would be helped by a similar service[I] Tegwini, you may wish to start praying that you never need any for of public services when you are in France, you are in for the surprise of your life, and a very large dose of shattered illusions. Hopefully, you'll never find out for yourself what Cooperlola is talking about. Most of the services you take for granted, but so decry, simply don't exist here. Watch the French TV news, and read the papers, don't let some lazy DM/BBC journalist spoonfeed you myths about France.  

As a former resident of Wooden Bucket, I think it absolutely appropriate to hold this protest march, why not? there is a large muslim population. It is just a which is just a dormitory town for Swindon, all 70s and 80s Wimpey and council housing estates. I've not seen any coverage on french TV, so can't comment on what the media shows, but speaking to friends who still live in WB, all they moan about is one big media scrum, more cameras than mourners, every time more stage managed than last one.

NormanH. One day I aspire to be you. Keep telling it like it really is for us wage slaves. Don't let the b*stards grind you down.

This is just a personal opinion, but over the last few years have had to answer questions many times to colleagues as to what my academic qualifications are for my job. Sometimes when the person is wound up, sometimes when they are genuinely curious. I know that the French love their bits of paper, but I think it goes deeper than that, I think there is a genuine lack of knowledge of education outside France in HR Depts, the generally poor level of French secondary/tertiary education, and genuine xenophobia. I get parachuted into a country when it is failing in my particular speciality, I have a Law Degree from a UK Uni, ranked 23rd in the world (there isn't a single French state Uni in the top 100), 5 top grade A Levels and 15(?)top grade GCSEs. To people here that means absolutely nothing. I haven't got a BAC+4! Ergo I can't do the job. I never had this problem in the UK/Spain/Germany. Hence my conclusion it is a French reaction. None of the BAC+XXX highflyers I've come across would I allow to price up in Tesco. They just refer to Page Y of the text book, zero lateral thinking, and SO ambitious as to be dangerous to the company. Fortunately the results continue to role in, and they can't touch me..........yet! Various newspapers have tried to highlight the racist angle. Indentical CVs submitted using "French" names and "Maghrebi " names. Zero responce to the "foreign" CVs, lots of interviews for the French names. I would suggest that unless you were being spefically employed to deal with clients, in English, face to face the response maybe would be the same. Having said that, my wife did it, though French she has an English surname, which no French person can actually pronounce, as there is a "TH" in it[:D]  

Frenchie, have you got 2 spare places? No Oysters[:D] I dream of meals like that. My wife has never been able to explain befor the French have cheese BEFORE dessert. It just seems so wrong. Can you explain?

I concur Theodore. We're a big German multinational, and the company language is English, which means all work related stuff is in English whatever country you are in. The drinks cooler gossip might be in French, but that's where it ends. Having said that in order to apply for a job, locally here in France, you would have to get past our local HR Dept. In 3 years I have never seen a CV from a non-white, non-native French person.............something which would not be tolerated elsewhere is just accepted as normal. No Africans, Maghrebis, etc. The only non-natives, are people like myself who have been seconded here, that's 8 out of 1550. Germany or the UK it is not.[;-)]  

Depends on where you are, my wife's family are Breton. So it's 500 (seems like) oysters each (YUK), followed by something the FiL shot (bambi/pigglet), followed bouche de Noel (YUK). Various cruditee, cheese/salad dishes interspersed. Sorry, after 15 years, I'm sick to death of it. The fleeting appearence of a vegetable would be nice. Apparently huitres remind them of the Cote. That's because they've saltwater still in them[:D] Sanglier reminds them of the Argoat. Personally, they remind me of sn*t and tractor tyres, respectively. The wine's always good though as my MiL was a restaurteur, even had Michelin 1 star. Extra information, the chef from that time, now heads "development" for the company who supply the sandwiches on the motorways, he cheats......gets all his inspiration on twice yearly trips to the UK [:D] (He's my BiL)

Panda, you could also add the quality of the UK food items being so much better for the average shopper, not just the price. Try getting free-range, bio, pork in a French supermarket at price less than the CMU debt [:-))]. The EUR2/kg stuff on promo is straight out the intensive pig sheds in Brittany, even that stuff is normally about EUR8/kg----no thank you. French agriculture is the biggest user of chemicals in the EU (one of our divisions loves French farmers[:D]. I don't)-------the concept of organic (bio) is slowly arriving. I am very pleased with my transfer to France, it has let me see my wife's culture, and understand why (sometimes) she thinks they way she does. However, the demands from her about when we can leave are getting LOUD. Switzerland fell through. I think in the new year, I'll have to push for a move, probably to the UK to make her happy. She just loves Britain, and for the first 20odd years of her life dreamt of nothing else, but living there.

Absolutely 100% agree with Stan Streason. Globally, year to date I've dealt with 290 insolvencies, but none in the UK this year, totalling about EUR28million. It has not been a good year. I've had a crash course in various countries insolvency laws and practice. Give me the UK system any day. In France a judge will grant a 2 year standstill order, whereby the current Management (who got them in this mess), gets 2 years to rip out every penny they can for themselves, then formally wind the company up. The creditors are guaranteed to receive absolutely nothing. Bear that in mind when you deal with an SA or SARL. In Germany a judge will grant an order which allows the banks up to 6 months to sell whatever assets they can find to cover their debt, the company is then wound up, and the creditors will get absolutely zero. I've always found UK insolvency practitioners 100% scrupulous and honest, the directors absolutely divestated by the loss of their life's work. Maybe the Mail and the BBC has managed to find odd cases, but I haven't seen one, in 15 years. In general I would prefer that I deal with management that has been to the bottom, and come back, they know.  My worse case scenerio is the old family firm, employing management that has the "right" genes, where the good managers with the "wrong" genes all leave because they won't get the top jobs, and the "family" all pay themselves well, for nothing. Probably the reason why 90% of this years insolvencies have been in Germany[:@]