26th June 2016

Have you signed it yet?   https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/131215 
Everyone says you have to accept the democratic vote of the people. But, was it democratic when up to a million living in Europe for 15+ years (like war-veteran Harry Shindler) were denied their vote - something no other democracy does?  Just think: if Harry and all those others had cast their (probably Remain) votes, that would have changed the whole ball-game!  Well, the above petition is growing exponentially on the internet, getting more than 1,500,000 signatures a day, a rate of c.1,000 per minute. It reads  'We the undersigned call upon HM Government to implement a rule that if the remain or leave vote is less than 60% based on a turnout of less than 75%, there should be another referendum'. Current no. of signatures 2,800,000!  A parliamentary debate must therefore  take place, by law.  Before Clause 50 is triggered, an enabling act by Parliament needs to be launched which grants leave to a new PM to do just that. Once the Votes-for-Life Bill is tabled and passed, those excluded British citizens would be given a new chance to voice an opinion in a referendum which demands a good majority. Will the government wriggle out of it? Let's wait and see.

29th May 2016

Suppose everyone has weeks like this.  The French strikes didn't help. Every time we needed to go out, would the petrol stations on our journey have any fuel at all?  And over on the referendum front, Harry Shindler - a WW2 British veteran - suffered another setback when his top-flight lawyers lost the final battle with the UK's Supreme Court of Appeal to allow British expats away for 15+ years to vote.  But no, it was none of these things. Him indoors slipped and fell in heavy rain, breaking his knee and spraining his ankle so severely the whole leg was hot, red and swollen. After several trips to the Urgences in Albi, he now has a plaster cast and must learn to use crutches for several weeks. Didn't help that, on return from hospital, one of our 'wonderful' neighbours left a phone message that our dogs, in the cool cellar, had been barking!  Good thing the annual visit by son Jon has helped to keep me sane. Amazing help. And me? I've learned the French for crutches (cannes anglaises!) and that the nurse wasn't injecting Him indoors against stones (cailloux) but against blood clots/phlebitis (caillots)!  You see how dangerous it is living with another language? Oh well, next week things can only get better.......

15th May 2016

Democracy. A wonderful thing. Yet it's only now we're seeing the risks. The possibility of someone like Donald Trump as US President, and potential war and global economic meltdown with a Brexit. It's the last few days to register to vote in the referendum and in a few weeks I'll be posting my vote, but as with everything it's not easy. Morally, academically, globally the obvious thing to do is to vote In. But economically I have 2 choices. Shall I vote, as I should, to maintain the status quo in Europe?  Seems clear, doesn't it?  Yesterday the Bank of England set out its Brexit assessment: a sharp fall in the £. However, nothing in life is clear. For personal reasons we have our French house on the market to move back to the UK, and looking at the euro:£ exchange rates at present (with money rates' uncertainty) and the likelihood of even parity with the £ after a Brexit, we'd get more pounds for our euro if everyone voted Out!! Some people use songs to register their opinion like Ukraine did in the Eurovision last night. But, like Topol in Fiddler on the Roof, I've always been a '..but on the other hand' kind of person. It's all too difficult. If I were a rich man, just think what I could do.....

28th February 2016

Merkel and the battle of EuroCo.......
Ironic really. Mama Merkel, in her moment of subliminal zeitgeist, opened all the floodgates to let in impoverished refugees. Only to find that thousand upon thousand arrived, perishing and struggling to find the European land of milk and honey. And then what happened? EU countries started closing the 'biblical' Schengen gates, thereby wrecking the very utopian ideals that the EU was founded on.
And then came Celtic Britain with its ancient head in the sand, reliving old, colonial glories. Why should we listen to 27 'insignificant' others?  Didn't we fight Hitler to maintain our glorious past?  Didn't we fight to help Warsaw, Brussels and Paris from the jackboot of Berlin? So, says Britain, it's time we left. We're all right Jack.  Never mind that we've been free from war in Europe for over 70 years.  And France?  A certain Mme Le Pen is rubbing her hands in glee. If Britain votes out, that'll leave her free to campaign for exactly the same situation for la gloire de la France, and for herself of course.
.......and the walls came tumblin' down.

14th February 2016

Valentines' Day. Noticed that David Cameron didn't come back from Hamburg yesterday with red roses from Angela Merkel; rather, waving a piece of paper Chamberlain-style. What do Ladbrokes say re Brexit? The odds of Britain voting to stay in the EU have fallen from 4/7 to 1/3, while the chance of Brexit has risen to 9/4, from an all-time low of 5/4. So, I asked my local bookmaker, i.e. Him indoors, what all this meant since as a boy he used to scrawl the odds on a blackboard in his uncle's betting shop. He says it means the chances of the UK staying in the EU are now 71%. Will this change once the politicians get their campaign in full swing, as with the Scottish referendum? And, what do Ladbrokes say about the likely referendum date?  June 23rd this year. Are bookmakers ever wrong?  What do other British expats say? Some demand answers now on matters which will have a direct impact on our lives, whilst others insist no-one can negotiate anything until an Out vote is actually confirmed. And me on this Valentines' Day? The only thing my heart's all aflutter about is this stupid vote and why Cameron ever agreed to such a dangerous thing for the UK in the first place.

3 May 2015

A new birth. No, not mine - too late for that - but for Britain. They say the new Princess will be a boost for David Cameron. What is it about William and Kate that everything they do and say is so very perfect?  They even manage to produce babies in the 'correct' order, at the right time and they all look so handsome.  Unlike them, officialdom is sometimes shown to make a complete ass of itself. With the British general election coming up on Thursday, I'm pleased to see that James Jackson, a retired, British civil servant from Carcassonne has paid a £500 deposit to stand against London mayor, Boris Johnson. Mr. Jackson knows, of course, that he can't win. The point he'll show brilliantly is that whilst, like him, expats are banned from voting after 15 years of living outside the UK, he is allowed to stand as a parliamentary candidate! How stupid is that?  So, good luck on Thursday James.  But for the rest of us in the EU:  if Thursday's vote gives us a referendum, let's hope there's a subsequent massive IN vote.  Now that would be a wonderful EU re-birth.

1st July 2012

July. Hot and sultry here.  Sometimes all you can do is close the shutters, switch on the air-con and watch TV. And for sport lovers, what a spectacle.  Yesterday at Wimbledon - at last a worthy British player in Murray. And today's the Euro football final between Spain and Italy.  Looks like it was their week too in politics. Not only did they get together to scupper Angela Merkel by threatening to block everything unless she agreed to do something re all that financial pain, but it actually worked without a drop of blood being spilt.  Ah, what would Churchill have said?  To jaw jaw is always better than to war war.  Yes, yes, yes! No more ridiculous bloody wars like the 100 year war between England and France.
So, as Cameron deliberates whether to agree to a UK referendum on the EU, he should think long and hard.  Joe Bloggs on the red double-decker will undoubtedly vote to come out of the EU. But, the common man doesn't always see the wider picture.  Whether it's tennis, football or summits between european nations, all that democratic aggression joined together peacefully in contained settings is far better for settling differences.   Ultimately that's the test. Why else has Europe been without war for so long?