Harnser

Assuming that there would be a vote or referendum in each EU country on this, would France vote as it did on the referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, held on 29 May 2005 to decide whether France should ratify the proposed Constitution of the European Union? France was the first country to reject it with a resounding no vote with 55% rejecting the proposal on a turnout of 69%.

it's apparent that there has been an overspill of detritus from forums that have shut down or binned forum trolls who have joined other forums in order to be unpleasant, disruptive and cause trouble. Perhaps there should be a common register of IP adresses of troublemakers that all forums could access to stop the worst of them?

Trying to cut to the basics of the personal motivation of the aforementioned candidates here. Macron - a purely personal ego trip to achieve a second term before swanning off to be the president of the EU. MLP - A difficult one to fathom - It could be just the continuation and tradition of the Le Pen family business with her. Or she wants to be the first female president? Maybe she has realised that the Le Pen name carries too much baggage to be elected as president but would settle for PM in a Zemmour government? Zemmour - Possibly he sees it as his duty as a jew and a frenchman - a job that needs doing maybe? Or to prove that he can outwit the establishment?

Zemmour is polling at 18 - 19% , Macron is at 24% Le Pen at 15%. The director of Harris polling in France said that he has never seen a little known candidate as Zemmour was, advance so quickly in the polls. I'm getting the impression that MLP is maybe losing her taste for presidential politics, and might she consider withdrawing from the first round in favour of Zemmour? If that comes to pass, Macron is toast And MLP could be his prime minister. How do you like them apples? Zemmour is very intelligent and should not be underestimated, he might just outmanoeuvre the french establishment and their poodle media. An example of Zemmour's thinking and presentation was when he was addressing a rally and he said that of course the establishment machine will have the election all sewn up - but all it takes is a grain of sand in that machine to bring it to a grinding halt. The crowd roared and applauded, shouting "you are the grain of sand". He replied to the crowd saying "No - you are the grain of sand" Rapturous applause. He's working a very old reliable sales technique there. YOU we i

"The EV vehicle to grid will also provide much needed battery capacity going foreward and the UK grid has already given details of how this will work" Have the UK grid given any details of the rate of payment to EV vehicle owners for providing this refuge from reality for the the UK government?

Do you have any idea of the impracticality of using battery storage to prop up renewable energy sources? "The 300-megawatt facility is one of four giant lithium-ion storage projects that Pacific Gas and Electric, California’s largest utility, asked the California Public Utilities Commission to approve in late June. Collectively, they would add enough storage capacity to the grid to supply about 2,700 homes for a month (or to store about .0009 percent of the electricity the state uses each year). https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/07/27/141282/the-25-trillion-reason-we-cant-rely-on-batteries-to-clean-up-the-grid/ (0.0009 percent is nine ten thousandths of one percent) To power the state completely by batteries you would need 111111 times that battery capacity. And if the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow, for how long will the charge in the batteries last? California dreaming!

The contamination could have come from banknotes. "Forensic scientists have said that around 80% of all British banknotes contain traces of drugs. A 1999 study found even higher levels of contamination in the London area; of 500 notes tested, only four had no traces of cocaine.[16] Most of the banknotes showed only low levels of contamination, suggesting they had merely been in contact with contaminated notes, but 4% of the notes in the study showed higher levels, which the researchers suggested was the result of either being handled by people under the influence of cocaine (which is excreted in skin oils), or by being used directly to snort the drug. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminated_currency#:~:text=-dollar bills."-,In the United Kingdom,had no traces of cocaine. And that was in 1999 - which was 22 years ago, it's probably ten times worse now! Or possibly - The source of banknote contamination in London IS the House of Commons??? You chose!

You may already be conversant with French succession law having read up on it. You may or may not be aware that there were some changes applied from 1st November 2021. https://www.stoneking.co.uk/literature/e-bulletins/important-change-french-succession-law

" I fear though that France is going to suffer another Macron term" I am not a Macron fan, but if he achieves a second term what policies is he likely to adopt, given that he will not need to worry about his popularity, as he currently does? The one sensible plan he has put forward recently is to propose a program of building more nuclear power stations to bolster France's energy security, instead of wasting money on renewables.

Our youngest daughter in the UK is a hospital manager in a large hospital in Manchester, she reported a couple of days ago about thirty covid patients with one or two in ICU. Virtually all are unvaccinated, so not too much cause for concern she said.

"Sorted for you, Harnser. Whenever you encounter such problems, simply copy the text, paste into Notepad, re-copy and past into the body of your post, prior to posting. Notepad dumps any annoying formatting" Yes I'm well aware of that procedure, but I usually use Wordpad which for some reason doesn't sort the formatting from the Telegraph.

Smugglers shot a scared migrant in the kneecaps after he refused to board a boat on the same night 27 people died trying to cross the English Channel. Volunteers in the Calais jungle migrant camp rushed to the aid of a 20-year-old man who was “quickly losing a lot of blood” after a smuggler became frustrated at his refusal to board the vessel and drew a gun on him. The smuggler felt he had “lost out on easy money,” volunteers said, as the gangs are believed to only receive the full fee for transporting migrants once they have arrived in the UK. The assailant is on the run, according to French media reports. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/11/25/bit-like-drowning-scene-film-titanic/?utm_source=POLITICO.EU&utm_campaign=1db8212c2a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_11_26_07_09&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_10959edeb5-1db8212c2a-190801596 (Sorry about the font - tried to change it but didn't work)

He hasn't got off to a great start if this is anything to go by;- https://www.ladepeche.fr/2021/10/15/la-police-tue-on-vous-explique-la-polemique-entre-poutou-et-les-forces-de-lordre-9854960.php Perhaps he would be more use to the country if he went back to screwing gear knobs on Ford gearboxes except he can't because the factory closed in 2019.

Thanks for trying to help, we have now received a full printed bank statement via email from the bank, showing all the bank logos etc- which you don't get if you just open your statement for that month online, it's just the bare figures and looks like you could have generated it yourself. If we get harassed further we will send them that as a finale.

No problem with the delivery - it was a DHL c*ck-up by the look of it - no UK vat charged by UK exporter - numerous emails from DHL informing that the consignment had cleared french customs at 4 am in the morning with no demand for vat or DHL handling charges - delivered here 2 or 3 days later. The invoice for the vat etc turned up in the post about 3 weeks after the delivery.

Briefly, We received an invoice in the post from DHL express for payment of import VAT and their handling charge of €47.50 We duly wrote a cheque made out to DHL Express in the correct french format and posted it off by normal post- there was no option to pay by card. We have since received threatening letters from DHL's debt collector - called Overland - demanding payment. We sent them an image of the cheque which we had saved, and a redacted printout of our bank statement showing the cheque no and that the cheque was paid. We have also sent the same to DHL customer service. (Redacted meaning all transactions on the statement were blacked out apart from the relevant transaction) We are trying to obtain from our CA bank the details of the account name/number of whom the cheque was paid into. but being CA it's like trying to swim in treacle. They say that the evidence of the cheque and the statement is enough to prove that we paid DHL. Overland continue to send threatening emails -I checked up on them with DHL and they are genuine. Question. Does anybody know definitely if we are legally in default or is DHL just trying it on?

Frontex, the EU border and coast guard agency stated that:- "A total of 11,150 people attempted to reach European countries in an unlawful way through its external borders in June 2021" "The agency has revealed that the number of illegal border crossings at Europe’s external borders reached more than 61,000 in the first six months of 2021" So by definition if you enter a country illegally, you become an illegal immigrant don't you? https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/frontex-11100-people-attempted-to-enter-europe-illegally-in-june/

The soft touch scenario is an attraction, add to that the fact that most of then will have some english to a greater or lesser extent, as opposed to french, and that there is no requirement for personal id or registration in the UK and if they desire they can just submerge into the the twilight world of the black economy, usually working for other immigrant employers who turn a blind eye to the fact that they are illegals, and pay then less than the minimum wage on account of that. Then there is the widespread beds-in-sheds accommodation going on. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/tens-of-thousands-of-people-living-in-beds-in-sheds-across-the-capital-report-shows-a3723786.html Add to all that, free medical treatment anywhere on the NHS - no questions asked. Why WOULDN'T you want to get into the UK anyway you could?

Maybe, but I still retain a Visa credit card to be able to occasionally purchase items from the UK and benefit from Section 75 protection.

I think that has more to do with hiding the contents from potential thieves during transit - what the eye doesn't see it doesn't covet etc.

This probably does not affect that many French residents, but it's as well to be aware. "As a result of Visa's continued high cost of payments, we regret that Amazon.co.uk will no longer accept UK-issued Visa credit cards as of 19 January, 2022," an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement. https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/amazon-stop-accepting-visa-credit-cards-issued-uk-bloomberg-news-2021-11-17/

Danny reports that their current car is only doing about 11000 km per year and that they have never lifted the bonnet in 3 years. An electric car would suit the distance driven better than either a petrol or diesel model. But presumably you still need to top up the screenwash reservoir?