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Dream Commuters BBC2 tonight


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Well, where to start? It was probably one of the worst programmes I have ever seen, not just selective with the truth but criminally misleading. It trotted out all of the old stuff, even the scare stories about anti-British feeling, and the fact that you can buy a habitable house with a barn and an acre of land for £60,000, and the cost of living in France is so low... Where it got criminal was in its inference (it didn't say so in so many words but if you didn't know how things worked you would certainly have got the impression) that you can work in France, pay your NI contributions in Britain and enjoy all the financial benefits of high British salaries and low social security costs while resident in France. There were so many ways in which the sums just did not add up - for something called the 'Money Programme' you expect something properly thought out.

It was utter b****cks, and irresponsible of the BBC to broadcast it.

Edit - I write the above not only as a cross-channel commuter but as the husband of somebody who stands to benefit from more British people buying houses in Nothern France.

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 Not sure where to start after watching that.

Do camera men have rose tinted lenses ?

Was it coincidence or am I right in thinking that 2 of the partners of the subjects chosen were not British, does that have a bearing, make it it easier to move for example?

Maggie Kelly spoke about the nearest Eurostar station being Calais - is that staying open ?

What about where the commuters stay when in the UK and the cost ? How did the wives feel about the time they were alone ?

Interesting though, better than average IMHO

(after reading Wills comments perhaps I should add it was better as compared with Place in the Sun type programs, for a Money program though I would have thought they could have actually done the sums rather than the broad brush stroke approach)

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As Will says, considering that this was the MONEY programme, it was totally and unbelievably vague regarding the true financial cost of euro-commuting, i.e. the tax and social security implications. I have no idea of the going rate for a farrier, but was surprised that the guy interviewed could claim to have been able to reduce his working hours, pay for a daily commute to the UK via Eurotunnel, overcome the problems of having a mortgage and still claim to be significantly better off. As for the 2 guys commuting from the Lot and Spain to work in Hampshire, I'd have been fascinated to know where and how they paid their tax and social charges. Just a few vague comments about the "quality of life", throwaway figures of £25 or £38 for a return journey, a cursory mention of the uncertain future of some airline routes, and an even more fleeting mention of the environmental impact of commuting by plane and potential cost increases to cover this. No balance at all.
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Well, that was actually a complete surprise.

I had expected proper reporting, as the BBC used to do and it wasn't.  

 

Well, well, well.

 

It was a rallying call to whom, I'm glad I don't live in a cheap area of France, I dread to think what they will be like in the future, little britain won't be in it.

 EDIT:   IF any of you near Calais or in Dorgogneshire or the Lot, well if you are thinking of selling up, looks like you might be getting plenty of takers in the near future.......

 

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As Will said, I don't know where they get those prices. They did ask the two families in France what they paid, one said £60,000 the other £180,000 but they didn't say what year they bought. [blink]  I am not sure about Northern France but pretty sure it would be close to impossible to now buy a property like the one on the Lot river for £180,000.

The whole program felt to me like I was watching an advert.

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Gay, Place in the Sun deals with dreams. The Money Programme is supposedly factual and authoritative. Which it wasn't in this case.

Betty - they actually said that the guy in Spain paid his NI to Britain (they may have been talking about the voluntary Class 2 or 3 contributions that preserve your pension rights, but didn't make that at all clear) They inferred that you could do the same in France (you can - unless a civil servant or similar, or working temporarily abroad, which none of these people were, it's called working au noir and misusing the EHIC). Didn't mention tax.

The other serious cockup was the people who had swapped their 2 bed terrace in West Sussex for a 5-bed place in France. OK, nothing wrong with that, we own a 5-bed house in France that's actually worth slightly less than our 2-bed West Sussex terrace. But I need the Sussex house to live in while working in England. They didn't mention where that chap lived during the week. A sleeping bag on the office floor perhaps?

There was also the chap who had given up his comparatively easy commute in Hampshire. What the programme overlooked was that he had exchanged it for a weekly return journey at peak times from Hampshire to Gatwick. I'm not far from Gatwick and no way is that an easy or pleasant commute. They also didn't mention the cost of parking. When I travel back without a car about half of the cost of my journey goes on parking at Portsmouth. I shudder to think what he pays at Gatwick.

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I liked the none techie chap who lives in Northern France. My sister has a blacksmith, with the same equipment and van as his, visit her every month. He spends an hour at her house sorting the two horses out and then charges her £120! Nice work if you can find it.

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Farriery charges are pretty much parallel here and in the UK - I pay roughly the same as I did in Blighty.  And btw, it's a job you wouldn't want unless you were really dedicated.  It's incredibly tough on the back (many farriers have terrible arthritis problems in later life) and it can be bloomin' dangerous.  Not all horses are that polite!  4 years of training too.  They're worth every penny they charge, IMHO.  (And don't forget the cost of the shoes, equipment, travelling etc.)  They certainly net far less than £120 per hour.  Sorry to stray off topic.
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We've just watched it too and agree with the comments, especially the astoundingly cheap house prices quoted and all those rose-tinted happy families in the market shots, "bet you don't miss Tesco" says the presenter - trying to tell us that supermarkets don't exist in France??

We too thought it interesting that no-one made any reference to where these people lived whilst in the UK. I did a very rough calculation of what it might have cost me to continue my job in the UK, rent a bed-sit and fly back here every weekend and decided that my SMIC job here would net me more money in my pocket at the end of the day than my £25k a year old job.  Obviously I'm lucky in that I can speak French and have found a job here, but even so the alternative of spending 50% of my wages on the commute would be ridiculous.

Lou

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[quote user="Bugbear"]

[quote user="cooperlola"]Farriery charges are pretty much parallel here and in the UK - I pay roughly the same as I did in Blighty. 

[/quote]

Our farrier charges 5€'s a foot to do our donkeys, I kid you not.

[/quote]

Unfortunately for you he's just been on these boards and has decided to up his prices.  [:D]

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