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Are There Too Many English In Our Hamlet !


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One of the rumoured changes that Sarkozy is apparently going to make is allowing mortgage interest payments to be offset against income tax. I wonder which sectors of the market will benefit? Probably new build rabbit hutches, but there might be a some price changes in the older house area too.
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Related to this discussion is the plan of a dutch businessman to build a retirement village for northern europeans in a village in the Gers. See the thread in the SW France forum last posting 6.03.07. There has been a lot of opposition from some locals, though the Maire is pro and building permission has been given. But last week there was an article in the Depeche du Midi saying that a judge in Pau has over-ruled the permission, at least to halt it. This would be an extreme example of "too many english in our hamlet." Pat.
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Tag, isn't that similar to the old UK's mortgage relief scheme on the first 30K? It's now abolished but I remember the price hikes it provoked in the late 80s when the double relief was going to be abolished.

Bearing in mind that a lot of French people do not earn enough to pay income tax, I don't see what difference it will make for the poorest. As for the sector of the market, many do prefer newer properties so,  I suppose it could do wonders for Sarko's developer friends catering to the higher earning middle classes.

When you talk about older houses, are you referring to older houses in rural areas? The main issues for a lot of these areas are not old or new but work opportunities to attract buyers who are still part of the active economy.  I think that older houses will continue to interest those currently attracted by them; namely foreign retired, second homeowners from abroad or the Paris region.

If such a relief is not properly targeted at the most needy, it's going to benefit those with means and it will end up being another huge burden on the state.

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I guess younger folk with two salaries will be the ones concerned. Frith knows what will happen to the poorest. I know that one region (somewhere in the North) is trying to bring in affordable housing at one hundred thousand euros.

Talking to a young couple locally who both work but probably don't get much more than the SMIC, they have been offered 150000 euros in loans which should see them settled here. In fact they seem to have found what they want.

I'm sure you are right about the presence of work as a major factor.

Does Sarko have developer friends I wonder? In Uk they are being begged to build more and are quite willing to do so but are held up by planning permissions and the deals insisted on by councils, which is also now the case in France. But I think the jury is out on Sarko on this one still.

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Hi Tag,

I assure you I do know what I have in my own house!  Why on earth would I have white goods made in America?

TV technology didn't originate in America.

America is a capitalist society, I'm sorry if you don't agree with me but it is a fact.

Please don't use the cheap shot "WW2" argument to try to convince me that America is wonderful, 'cos it won't work.  I wouldn't mind German being my first language. 

In France there is virtually no clothing or furniture manufacture any more. If the French farmers need subsidies to keep going then there is obviously not a genuine market for their goods. In that case they would as you say go bust. But if no one needs what they produce why should they not go bust?

The African nation was producing food for their own country, not for export (sorry, musn't have worded it right). The EEC exported their excess food at an artificially low price to the African country, undercutting the local farmers by a mile and ruining many lives in the process. If they MUST overproduce food, why not donate it to parts of the world where people have no means with which to either buy or produce food for themselves.

I don't blame America for all the perceived ills etc etc., but they are a major capitalist influence on Britain and western Europe. If I detest capitalism then I'm hardly likely to like the nation which promotes it so energetically! 

By the way I stand by what I said about McDonalds, but then I live in the country in an area with very low wages and very high unemployment. (By the way I know McDonalds is a franchise, and not just in France) It's hardly surprising that many locals don't want to trave some distance and spend  their hard earned cash on that type of thing.  They're too busy trying to make ends meet! No doubt in larger towns and more afffluent parts of France it is different, as are so many things!

We are all entitled to our opinions, I was asked to expand on my lifestyle so don't shoot me down for being honest enough to do it.

We're way off topic again,

Aly

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I am always rather bewildered by the "evils of capitalism" stance. As far as I am aware, "big business" which is, I assume, the bête noire of the anti-capitalists, was not responsible for the two worst European regimes of the last century, which were Communist and (National) Socialist.

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Perhaps you are unaware of the role "big business" played in

the rise and maintenance of Nazi Germany. 

Perhaps are you also aware that some quite intelligent and knowledgeable

commentators label the Soviet Union as State Capitalism. 

And are you really completely unaware of why people find capitalism far form

the best we can do, globally speaking?  Honestly, with all the publicity

and analysis in the recent elections here where you live, you really honestly still

have no idea why someone might not really be fond of capitalism.  Maybe

you should get out a bit more or have a wider variety of friends.

Its not that I am going to argue with you.  I doubt if it would benefit

either of us.  Its just that I find it incredible that you are bewildered.
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[quote user="monaco"]I have lived in England, Wales, Monaco, Belgium and France and Wales was the only place where I encountered open hostility.
[/quote]

Hi Monaco,  I find this quote a little disturbing.  Believe it or not the Welsh ARE becoming more mellow to their neighbours.  [:)].  Out of interest, what part of Wales did you live?

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We lived just over the border from Cheshire in what is now Clwyd (spellling?) but was then Flintshire, in a town called Mold.  This was some 40 years ago so perhaps things have improved.  In case you think I was imagining the hostility, what do you think of this story?  My daughter, aged 4, was very excited to be invited to a birthday party of a classmate who lived nearby.  We got her all dressed up, wrapped the present and wrote the card and I took her aloneg,  The mother came to the door and said 'Oh, she's not invited' and shut the door in our faces.  Who could do that to a small child? Of course, my daughter had the present, but I will never forget the look of hurt and disappointment on her face.  I have made friends in all the other countries I have lived in and I tried really hard in Mold, but the only firends I made were with some Liverpudlians who were finding the same discrimination.  We were one having a lunch in Wales on a day out and I asked for a glass of  tap water to take a pill, and was charged one shilling. which was quite a lot in 1967.  I was told it cost them that much to wash the glass!  As Dylan Thomas said - 'Wales, the land of my fathers, and my fathers can keep it'.  But it is very beautiful in Snowdonia.  And, yes, it is true that they switch from English to Welsh when you go into a shop.  A tiny proportion of the native population speak Welsh, but it costs hundreds of thousands of pounds of tax-payers' money to have everything printed in both languages, and I do believe there is discrimination in the employment market.

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The best thing about Wales is the M4 and the Severn bridge heading eastward.[:D]

TriezVents wrote:-

"Its just that I find it incredible that you are bewildered."

TW. You find life very perplexing, ce n'est pas ? I should lie down in a darken room for a while and contemplate swans swimming on a lake. Or the smell of scented flowers in the cool of a summers evening.[;-)] 

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[quote user="Logan"]

TriezVents wrote:-

"Its just that I find it incredible that you are bewildered."

TW. You find life very perplexing, ce n'est pas ? I should lie down in a darken room for a while and contemplate swans swimming on a lake. Or the smell of scented flowers in the cool of a summers evening.[;-)] 

[/quote]

Actually its TV, not TW.  Vents, in French, starts with a V and means winds.  There are thirteen named ones in my area.  And you are right, I do find life perplexing, complicated, exciting and utterly fascinating.  I love it.  You never know what is going to happen.  And I really love people, even you Logan, with your neanderthal views, born from a flirtation with a bit of Marxism some years ago, and now bound up in a close-minded worship of a free market that has never existed in recent centuries around here.  But I don't want argue with you, I just appreciate you.  Love that avatar, but I am perplexed by what it says about you.

Oh yes, until you can actually write in the French language, maybe you should stick to English.  "ce n'est pas" is not the phrase you are looking for.   Unless it was some kind of joke.  If so, I don't get it.

Thanks for the thoughts on mellowing out.  You seem such a mellow, laid back guy yourself, I will no doubt take your advice.

Swans swimming on a lake?  Maybe you live somewhere in England most of the time.  And myself, I prefer the scent of herbs on the garrigue, after a rain, when the sun shines.  But clearly we are in the same ball park there.

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Monaco, the story of your daughter is heartbreaking.  I believe in the north (especially around Mold) that they fiercely guarded their culture, although this is not a good enough reason to discriminate in the way which you have been.

When topics such as this thread pop up, which they do quite often, I see the similarities between the French and the Welsh. 

When I was looking to purchase my first house with my OH way back in the 80's, we found a lovely terraced cottage for renovation in a beautiful location on the outskirts of our town.  We heard it was up for sale and a little old lady answered the door and the first words she spoke was to ask us if we were English. 

An Asian closed his shop and moved out of our town about 5 years ago because of the abuse he received. 

More recently, our town has had a huge influx of Portuguese, Poles and Philapinos.  The Asians are also moving in and this seems to be accepted these days.

 

 

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[quote user="TreizeVents"]Perhaps you are unaware of the role "big business" played in the rise and maintenance of Nazi Germany. 

Perhaps are you also aware that some quite intelligent and knowledgeable commentators label the Soviet Union as State Capitalism. 

And are you really completely unaware of why people find capitalism far form the best we can do, globally speaking?  Honestly, with all the publicity and analysis in the recent elections here where you live, you really honestly still have no idea why someone might not really be fond of capitalism.  Maybe you should get out a bit more or have a wider variety of friends.

Its not that I am going to argue with you.  I doubt if it would benefit either of us.  Its just that I find it incredible that you are bewildered.
[/quote]

Well said.....cannot understand the bewilderment arguement either.  I am not anti-capitalist, i enjoy my life and all the things that hard work has brought to me and my family, but neither am i complacent enough to believe that capitalism would duit everyone, and i fully understand that much of what we have in the so called 'First World' has come at the expense of others in the 'Third'.  I applaud people who make a stance on this issue in terms of adjusting their lives as mentioned elsewhere on thuis thread.  My personal choice is not to get involved in a fight that wil unfortunately still be raging when i an dead and buried, so i continue to enjoy my life, and try to provide small scale but meaningful contributions to the bigger picture where possible.

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[quote user="Just Katie "]

[quote user="monaco"]I have lived in England, Wales, Monaco, Belgium and France and Wales was the only place where I encountered open hostility.
[/quote]

Hi Monaco,  I find this quote a little disturbing.  Believe it or not the Welsh ARE becoming more mellow to their neighbours.  [:)].  Out of interest, what part of Wales did you live?

[/quote]

I have lived and worked in Wales for 4 years now and never come across any really open anti-english hostility.  Yes, it exists, but i think there is a general realisation/understanding, that we need each other as nations, and must co-exist.

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And Cheltenham residents towards Brummies; Shrewsbury locals towards outsiders (from anywhere); etc, etc. Not just an international problem.

I have to admit that I have lost my rag a couple of times - when we first moved to Cheltenham, for example, when some of the locals would stare straight past me on the driveway to look at what we might be doing to the house and would completely ignore my "Hellos". It was as if I didn't exist. I found myself pursuing them down the road asking why they were more interested in looking at a building than speaking to the occupier. I thought they were rude; they no doubt thought I was mad. But we were just different.

To some extent, you have to decide how much it bothers you and how far you are prepared to go to change things. Personally, I believe in making a bit of an effort to fit in and to become accepted. It pays in the long run.

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I wonder if us Brits over in France do not want anymore English in their village  because as I understand from a french friend that she thinks its because us brits ruined one country (not us of course guys) and now the Brits are over trying to do the same in France.  Made me think.
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[quote user="trgrant55"]I wonder if us Brits over in France do not want anymore English in their village  because as I understand from a french friend that she thinks its because us brits ruined one country (not us of course guys) and now the Brits are over trying to do the same in France.  Made me think.[/quote]

Cruel but [:D][:D]

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[quote user="TreizeVents"]Perhaps you are unaware of the role "big business" played in the rise and maintenance of Nazi Germany. 

Perhaps are you also aware that some quite intelligent and knowledgeable commentators label the Soviet Union as State Capitalism. 

And are you really completely unaware of why people find capitalism far form the best we can do, globally speaking?  Honestly, with all the publicity and analysis in the recent elections here where you live, you really honestly still have no idea why someone might not really be fond of capitalism.  Maybe you should get out a bit more or have a wider variety of friends.

Its not that I am going to argue with you.  I doubt if it would benefit either of us.  Its just that I find it incredible that you are bewildered.
[/quote]

Well, that's capitalism, communism and national socialism dismissed.  What's left to try?  Nationalism & Racism would seem to have already been included in Naziism.  There is no democratic socialist state that is not also capitalist, so that's obviously out.  I suppose were left with Nihilism, Anarchism, (are they the same thing?) and, perhaps, the new Treizeventism, if only we knew what it was.  A benevolent patriarchy (or matriarchy) perhaps.

Everything will be hunky-dory when Treize Vents rules.  I'm looking forward to the day.

Patrick

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Surely personality and behaviour is more important than your country of birth. I couldn't care less what nationalities people are in my village, I find it strange to believe in this day and age so many people still try to judge people by their nationality. Still with all the integration going on accross Europe, I can only see these boundaries getting diluted.
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[quote user="Thibault"]

I would be interested to know how the Brits have ruined one country (I assume their own). 

I would also be interested in how they are now ruining France.

[/quote]

Oh, come on, Thibault! 

That was a bit of fun, surely?

However, try to place yourself in the position of a French person from La France Profonde, who doesn't know the UK. He meets Brit immigrants who rant about how their country has gone to the dogs bla bla and they have 'escaped' to paradise in France.  Frankly, I'd be afraid that these people had come to wreck my country too.

Cheer up, mate[:D]

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