idun

 As I keep saying, this does not bother me. Otherwise, all those years when the fisc took their pound of flesh I would have felt aggrieved. I can get on my high horse about lots of things, but never was this one of them, ever. IF I had been upset, would I have taken that flag of convenience of taking french nationality???? Because that is what it would have been, but  I am simply not french, in spite of my life taking on so many things and ideas 'french'. What surprised me was that so 'few' have signed the petition, as there must be an awful lot of expats all over the EU.

I was disenfranchised after 20 years, and accepted it. I chose to live abroad and I realise that  other countries give rights to their ex pats, just mine has a time limit. Surely not many are very concerned by this, with so few signatures.

I suppose that the question is, why are we not oppressed and live in a fairly 'free' society???? Please do excuse my spelling as I do my best and am rather dyslexic, and sometimes look up a word to spell and am so wayout, that even the thesaurus cannot hazard a guess. Not lack of vocabulary, just the way my little brain processes spelling. So my theory is that our ancestors, the oppressed the villeins to surfs, simply the peasant class fought back, bit by bit and bit by bit our lot got to this amazing place in history. So why do  the young men especially,  flee their countries that have despots and wars. For me they should be getting their own country on the right tracks. I realise that they would be  risking their lives, well, but as we see, they are prepared to do that to get to Europe anyway, why not their own country???? but apparently better to hitch a ride on people's that were brave enough to fight for their rights. And what of our rights?? I feel like they are now being diminished as people move and want all as it was in their country of origin. And I am  fully aware of that, having moved to another country myself and trying to integrate as much as I could. It was simply respectful. Re My comments about Palestine, they  were my fathers as it was said, that we should listen to those who were there. Well I listened and remembered and even got him to record his 'life'. However one views his views is unimportant, as he is no longer here to discuss it. And good on the people of Hong Kong who are fighting for their rights, I reckon that China will not put up with much more, but they have my unadulterated admiration.

The clue was in saying that we were not the worst, and there has probably been as bad since WW11 and the absolutely horrific little man, look at Cambodia for example. Look at Daesh, they are monsters. Going on about decisions that happened many years ago does not help the future. Awful decisions are being made now, we don't really learn. What is there to pat ourselves on the back about as humans. Especially as  we are currently poisoning our planet  and over producing humans. Think about it, has there EVER been humans who have started such destruction, never mind what we actually do to one another. which past generation has done that so blindly. I know all about history, I am sick to death of politicians apologising about things done in the past. There is enough for them to be getting on with without such things and where will it end? Romans apologising to christians about them being thrown to the lions, or the scandanavians apologising about the viking raids. We are the terrible blip in time at the moment. I hope that when we are gone ( I mean humans), that the planet regenerates and just has animals fighting it out. Just proper nature at work.

I have no idea why on here so many state the history of the british empire and the likes of Churchill as, it feels like, being the most despotic in history. We weren't, there had been worse, there will be worse. We were just a country who pulled our selves to the top of the pile and acted like top dogs do.  It is simply what happened, no more or less. And judging historical figures........ by what right or moral high horse should we mount to do that, in our plastic ridden over populated world. At least in the past, they didn't put the planet to death. Humans are basically vile, voilant, uncaring and generally not very nice. And in western europe we are all pretty much secure in our lovely little lives, our little bubble, and do not encounter the horrible world around us and the atrocious things that are happening. and this is just another point of view.[blink]

 I shall never understand what recklessness is in anyone's psyche to do that. Round the bend, literally and putting other's lives needlessly at risk.

  I just think that from day one he believed he had been elevated to the role of some sort of emperor and no one close to him has had the foresight to disabuse him properly of that idea. Let's face it, it is apparent that he has not read the constitution of the USA, in fact, does he read anything anyway???

We have too many 50mph areas in this region of the UK and it is a mind numbing  speed. No wonder there are accidents and more deaths, wouldn't surprise me. Even worse is 70mph on a motorway...... how do people concentrate when on a long journey???? Too slow, just too slow. And yet, there are some roads where I would have the limit down to 20 mph and enforced, because, as always, it depends on where.

 really richard51, is this all going to lead to one of your 'sermons'??? What I will tell you is that he absolutely HATED being there, and he admitted that he respected the jewish population and the differences between the two populations was radical, as the jewish farms, quarters, were well ordered as opposed to the arab areas which he found disorganised and the men lazy. And bear in mind that british troops were being attacked by the jewish restistance movement.... and yet, he still had that respect for what he always considered a hard working people. For R&R a few of the soldiers went to Egypt, to Cairo, and that simply enforced his view of the arab world. Nothing to do with religion, just how people live and treat women. And I add that, because, in spite of my having friends who actually had fathers who would have as much washed up, or cooked or cleaned, as cut their own throats. My Dad was not like that, he did everything to share the household work load and so I was brought up to expect equality. He had no religion, but believed in fairness within households. Incidentally, he was based in Gaza. He was also in Jaffa and Jerusalem.

And my father was a soldier in Palestine too. It is best left unsaid the stories he told about the place, and would really get you going Richard51. So I won't say any more.

I agree about UK property prices, but in comparison to France it is only 'little'.  And the dark areas in the UK. well, they are often 'beauty spots and second home owners etc have inflated prices horribly so that the locals have problems buying. I don't need to get  started  about UK property prices, they are disgraceful, disgusting and I am so terribly sorry  for the young.

  OK, so if you were not on a government pension, ie an ex: teacher, armed forces, civil servant and surely other departments of the government I cannot think of for the moment, then you should only be in the french system. and have informed the UK tax authorities that you were a french resident, and just declared in France. How, anyone could get round what I call 'government' pensions, I have no idea, as the pension people involved know that they are taxed at source, no matter where anyone lives. The same applies for say a retired french teacher moving to the UK... their pension would be taxed in France, then they would declare that in the UK when they do their taxes, and pay any difference. I am sure that what you have now must be right, it's a long time for it to be 'wrong'[:)], so when you arrived in France, had you informed HMRC and your pensions of a change of country residence. Incidentally, single people in France also think that la fisc hammers them too[Www]

[quote user="mint"]Quite right; you can't "choose" as such but you can, of course decide to either live in France or in the UK.  If the former, then obviously you pay taxes in France [/quote] But not if it is a UK government pension then that is taxed in the UK, as french government pensions are taxed in France even though the recipient lives in another country. Not our case, as we have bog standard pensions.

Yes, I think that it is beautiful too. I could hang something like that in my house to be honest. So not only beautiful, but it really 'highlights' population density[Www]

 yes, but that is a lot further east and traditionally China has never wanted a satellite state be independent of it. So no surprises for me that they are now doing this. I truly thought that they would have done it sooner, but there you go. I am sorry for the people of Hong Kong though.

 I truly thought it was just my PC playing up again so had not realised.

 I don't understand your post Mr Wiggy. I did not know that one could chose where to pay, I thought that tax regulations said that there were rules as to where one was resident and where one paid, but if you managed it, well,  OK.  We have no choice in our income tax payments. When we first moved back to the UK we paid income tax in France and then did our uk declaration and included mention of our payments made in France which were deducted. Since the french pension started, we only pay in the UK, there is no choice as it is a basic type pension and not a french government pension and there were french social security payments made from those pensions  too until the UK state pension started and then these SS payments stopped as did the french S1. On this board, our situation is unusual. That is all I can say. As we lived in France a long time, with the intention of moving back to the UK upon retirement and that idea never left us.  IF Brexit affects the french pensions then we would have to perhaps move back to France. It would not be difficult for us we know how to do everything we need to in France, language no problem either, but frankly I would rather live in the UK without a moments hesitation.

I do so hope that this photo will show up, as I find it fascinating. It shows population density and why so much of France is 'rural' and explains property prices too.

Well, I had not thought that leaving NATO was also part of all this..???? is it?????????

 This is the thing isn't it, the wonderful fresh french bread that is 'made' by the local baker, when it isn't always. A friend's brother opened a boulangerie and she was shaking her head and glancing upwards as she was telling us about it. As he is not trained or a boulanger, he had to buy all the doughs in and only had to bake it..... and that was a very long time ago, twenty odd years, and this Idun, who was obviously very naive at the time was very shocked.

We are in France an awfully long time. And who knows we may reluctantly end up in France again!

We had a french S1 until the uk state pension kicked in, and then it stopped. And until that point we were still paying some contributions in France too, but they also stopped. IF we moved to another EU country, we would have to have a french S1 again, and restart french contributions, ie moving to Eire. And if we moved back to France would be, should be, straight into the french system again. When we moved back to the UK we had to ask for a french S1 immediatly and they were literally months and months and months issueing it. I had Newcastle calling me regularly to ask what on earth was happening as they wanted it.

In some ways that was what was bothering me about the french pension, that there would be no upgrades in the future, BUT frankly it didn't go up for several years, at all, for anyone, then it went up  for those who were receiving the most, but not for us. And it has gone up a few euros a month over the last couple of years, next to nothing to be honest. What worries me, rather than bothering me, is them simply not paying out any more, to be seen. And if they were going to do that we would have to move back to France.

 Not just us forreners who get snowed under by french paper work. I have just had my DIL (yes she is french) on the phone and she is so fed up.  A death in her family has been a nightmare, to sort out. Elle en a marre and said that all she wanted to do when all was sorted, se barrer de la France. She is sure that just about any where would be better. So when you don't understand the what and the why about the paperwork, then french people suffer too, especially from fonctionnaires and notaires, who sadly are too often completely incompetent , but I am sure, that you will all be pleased to hear, that they will have ALL passed their necessary exams..... just too many cannot actually do their jobs!

Sadly it is just like that. You pay for that year, during that year.