13th January 2013

I'm feeling unsettled. And the British news doesn't help.  Half the British public believe that the UK should withdraw from the EU if Cameron can't negotiate things in his favour.  But Merkel and Hollande would never agree to opening up this Pandora's box:  every EU member would then want to tinker in their favour also.  Cameron received quite a shock this week when his greatest ally, the US, told him not to be so silly and to stick to the status quo in the EU.  So, Cameron's stuck between a rock and a hard place:  should he pander to the man in the street (i.e. the voter) and have a national referendum (probably the biggest gamble of his life and which would cause we expats to shiver in our beds), or heed wise old owls like Lord Heseltine and even Obama by pledging to stay in the EU. Either way Labour are odds-on to win the next general election.
Yet more news arrives to make us expat pensioners in France clutch at our purse-strings. A wonderful, bigger flat-rate pension is being unrolled tomorrow by Cameron. At last, the full amount for all pensioners including expats. Hurrah? Well, not for us. Those already in receipt of a British pension won't benefit and must stick with their original, smaller, payment - the lowest in the EU! Him indoors says all this is a mere EUphamism.
Hurry up sun - this is supposed to be the south of France. In every sense I'm feeling chilled.