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Robbed and vandalised here in Normandie last week!!


Sara
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And then after some time, 30 years or so, after moral standards had steadily declined & blinkered vision had increased, the country became virtually bankrupt due to the flawed concept & unbridled implementation of free market captialism. As initiated by that great visionary Margaret Thatcher. What a truly wonderful success story!

Sara
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Will, I take your point and it's good to hear different experiences. In just over 5 years in Normandy I have had a few tins of paint and some car seat covers go missing from my garage, my own fault because the lock doesn't work. In the 3 years prior to moving, my house was burgled twice, my partner's house was burgled once, I had my car broken into 3 times and a road wheel stolen and replaced by bricks (don't ask - when you have to walk round your car and count the wheels before you set off, something ain't quite right!) and my partner had one motorbike stolen and one set on fire, just for the fun of it I suppose. And both our houses were in supposedly 'nice' areas ...

I also take your point about resentment over incomers, which includes Parisians of course, but I think this is more directed at the 'phenomenon' than the individuals. Once the locals get to know a person, they forget the stereotype and make their minds up based on what the person is like. I was immensely amused when the local stonemason who was doing a job on my house spent a good quarter of an hour over coffee telling me how bizarre the English are, they come and buy a nice house and spend money on it, then you never see them again for years, and then suddenly they reappear and sell up. When he'd finished his coffee I gently reminded him that I was English too. He looked at me as if I'd said something really stupid and said "Oh yes but you're not like 'the English', you're one of us now." One of the nicest compliments I ever had.
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 Sara, you really are never going to know if the lad really damaged your car - you say his fathers car was damaged in the same way - may be there is a third party involved getting their jolly's by targeting both of you - but you can easily address the problem of the Lego - just go and say to the neighbours that your son is upset because he has mislaid the figures and ask if the boys can help by remember seeing them anywhere.......or remembering if they put them somewhere during in a game........

Of course its always possible your son gave the boys the Lego (or they thought he did) to curry favor and now regrets it, but he'll never admit it

It seems a shame to tar these boys with a bad brush at the very start......but if they were making mischief, let them know that you know......

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Russethouse and Euro you make good suggestions and comments in your latest posts. Yes I do intend to mention something to the boys concerned regarding the missing toys on a point of basic principle. I will keep it low key & see what they say. 

Eurotrash, yes my husband has received similar compliments from some of the local French over recent years. I think the stonemason was actually showing a genuine acceptance of you, whilst remaining confused, perhaps understandably, of some of the Franglais he has seen & encountered over the years. A nice compliment really under the circumstances.

I certainly kept an open mind about the boys in the bourg of the village and that was why I invited them into our house & garden to play. My husband did caution me to be careful in advance of their visit. As I say I do try to keep an open mind. Conversely, perhaps, I might have been too trusting? Who knows for certain.

Compared to the problems back in England at the moment we have little reason to bemoan our situation in reality.

Kind regards, Sara

 

 

 

 

 

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Er...hm, I guess I, too, can't think that working class people would have a chip on their shoulders.

What, exactly, is wrong with the working class?  I'd be proud to call myself working class!  I thought they were the backbone of any society?  Where have I got my mistaken views from?

I know nothing about how windscreens can or cannot get broken but I know that, unless I have absolute proof to the contrary, I'd hesitate to accuse anyone of wrongdoing.

Fortunately for me, I have wonderful neighbours, both French and English, and I expect to spend a very pleasant morning on Sunday with them, playing boules.

 

 

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Quote -

Sara, Given your quote "The working class, chip on their shoulder are everywhere!!! " - I think you are hardly a reliable advocate for anti-Thatcherism. Not sure who or what damaged your car, but I guess I have little sympathy. Hope you don't move near me.

Unquote

Quite the contrary I would suggest in the U.K. a huge tranche of working class people have in fact embraced Thatcherism with open arms.. The long term foundations of Thatcherism could be argued to have been built upon such embracement. It has made right wing policies that much more acceptable to the U.K. electorate. Has it not?

As for sympathy or moving..don't worry too much. But honestly I didn't mean any offence by my comment about chips on shoulders. It was just an observation. I think an honest one in reality. Judged upon peoples' behaviour & demeanor.

Best wishes,

Sara
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[quote user="Sara"]And then after some time, 30 years or so, after moral standards had steadily declined & blinkered vision had increased, the country became virtually bankrupt due to the flawed concept & unbridled implementation of free market captialism. As initiated by that great visionary Margaret Thatcher. What a truly wonderful success story!

Sara[/quote]

You seem to have a "blame" mindset.

The whole of this thread reeks of it irrespective of the replies that have been given you have pushed on hoping someone will support your view regarding the damage.

Move on for goodness sake.

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Blinking heck Sara I can't believe you have jumped from one thread to another to bang on about Thatcher, you really need to have a rest, your fingers must be worn away by now. I guess we can blame her for the weather as well? You clearly missed the point with what you call Thatcherism even though it created over 1.3 million jobs taking the people out of the unemployment loop. You certainly appear to me and others to have a chip on your shoulder yet not once have you come up with any type of solution which I think many would like to hear.

RH - This is a typical example of what I said about the UK culture of blame everyone else and never taking ownership of the problem. [;-)]

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I don't believe I exhibit a "blame" mindset at all. Quite the contrary I simply offer a perfectly rational & plausible explanation for a now widely observed & obviously apparent degeneration in social standards & behaviour.

Also I would point out you the post that you quote of mine was in direct response to that of a previous poster. Responding to a more generalised point than the damage my husband suffered to his car. You seem to be quoting this out of context.

Perhaps it might be a good idea for you to dicepher the true meaning & intent of peoples' post a little more carefully in future?

Sara

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Well since you asked....

All I would say is that as illustrtated on the other thread, to which this thread arguably holds some relevance, you have failed to address the specific & fundamental points that have been raised in criticism of Thatcherism & the ethos of fundamentalist free market economics. Not to mention the detrimental effects such an approach arguably has on society.

My suggestion & thinking on how things should be run in a modern capitalist economy I would have thought was obvious based upon my previous postngs. The most fundamental & important change required would be to turn the clock back pre. 1986 and introduce proper & meaningful regulation back into the financial sector. And by doing so perhaps embark on the long road towards creating a perceptible change in the ethos of society..

As you seem to be a fan of fundamentalist free market economics perhaps you might even consider taking ownership, to some small degree, of the problem yourself?

Sara
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[quote user="Sara"]Well since you asked.... All I would say is that as illustrtated on the other thread, to which this thread arguably holds some relevance, you have failed to address the specific & fundamental points that have been raised in criticism of Thatcherism & the ethos of fundamentalist free market economics. Not to mention the detrimental effects such an approach arguably has on society. My suggestion & thinking on how things should be run in a modern capitalist economy I would have thought was obvious based upon my previous postngs. The most fundamental & important change required would be to turn the clock back pre. 1986 and introduce proper & meaningful regulation back into the financial sector. And by doing so perhaps embark on the long road towards creating a perceptible change in the ethos of society.. As you seem to be a fan of fundamentalist free market economics perhaps you might even consider taking ownership, to some small degree, of the problem yourself? Sara[/quote]

So you actually like Thatcher then as it was her who was PM prior to 1986 (Thatcher PM 1979 to 1990).

I did take ownership, I started a business under Thatcher because of the favorable tax incentives which ended up employing 40 odd people of whom 18 or so were previously unemployed not to mention all the employer national insurance I paid for them. The company, although no longer mine, continues to grow and employ people because of Thatcher and her monetarist policies. If it weren't for Thatcher there would be no car manufacturing in the UK either just as a point of interest, it was her who wooed Nisan and Toyota to the UK. Go and compare her running of the country to that of Wilson and Callaghan, there's no way I would want to turn back the clock to those days.

Don't forget that when Brown was chancellor by the way he didn't just do a tax grab on peoples pension pot once but, in one way or another, three times having told people to save.

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I am afraid to say that you are still missing the point Quillan.

Namely, the firm point of contention that Thatcherite ideology, the ideology of the unregulated free market, has been shown to be the proximate cause of the global financial meltdown.

And yes I am fully conversant with the exact years of Thatcher's premiership. However that is hardly the point is it? Thatcher & her government deregulated the U.K. financial sector in 1986. Which, I would suggest, is the point in question.

I say again to people who have a bee in their bonnet over this subject..address the specific point in question. Address the contention that unregulated free market capitalism caused the worldwide credit crunch.

For that is the contention being made.

My husband also thrived financially during this period. Many others did as well. However, I would suggest many businessmen & businesses also thrived perfectly well in other more sensibly regulated areas of the world also.. Areas of the world which are not quite as mired in the smelly stuff as the United Kingdom & the U.S. happen to be at the present time.

Sara
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I am just wondering, because I can't quite grasp where you are coming from, what you believe deregulation actually was, what did it allow banks and financial institutions to do?

By the way Australia (one of the first) and New Zealand, to name just two countries that deregulated, seem to have done OK

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  • 2 weeks later...
I live in ozzi and there are some dark clouds on the horizon. Go with your gut feeling about the window damage ,they are selling up anyway aren’t they .

Just hope for your sake a Australian doesn’t buy it.

(by the way I am Australian)

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