The Canary Dave

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oldfrenchhorn said:
Morning all. Grey and a steady but light drizzle here today. Enough to water my plants, but not enough to refill the water butts. Been to the bread machine and arrived early enough to still have a choice. It is stocked up at 9.00 am and if you are a bit late getting there all the popular loaves have gone. The bread is very good and people are coming from quite a few places to buy it. Most days the baker could probably sell twice as much as the machine holds. It is handy for me as I can get on my bike to go and collect, not when wet like this morning, but the nearest baker is 8 kms away up some very steep hills, and the bread is not as good. So fresh bread, brie and Branston pickle at midi. Have a good day whatever is on your menu. <ok>
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mmm.... tasty.... luckily the sour dough baker in leeds has reopened for us.....bit of a trip but worth it..
Wet morning here... much needed though..
Have a good day considering the upcoming fixtures!
 
Morning all. Damp and dreary still at the moment, but the sun is expected this afternoon. Despite the letter from the town hall telling us to expect roadworks this past week nothing has happened. The cars have been parked away from the house just in case they turned up. People keep asking just what are they going to do, but no one seems to know, and with the town hall still shut you cannot go and see any plans. Oh well, what is the rush? Have a good day whatever you are doing. <ok>
 
Afternoon all. For the first time since lockdown began I have a real hankering to go to the pub and have a pint of draught ale. Just thought I'd share before I go have a shower and put that thought out of my head.
 
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Morning all. Much better weather today. The sun has returned and the wind has departed. It seems that there is a sudden influx of visitors in the village today. It is the French Mothers Day, so that probably explains it. Mme has been given a lovely bouquet of flowers by our daughter, so she is happy. Have a good day whatever you are doing. <ok>
 
Morning all. Sunny at present, but cloud around and the forecast suggests that we might have storms this afternoon. The roadmen have arrived, and heaps of sand and gravel have appeared. My neighbour who was a member of the council until he was thrown off for being English has as much knowledge as I do as to what the plan of action is. Someone must know, but when it first appeared as a very large sum of money in the council budget, I asked what it was for, and simply got a vague answer that it was for road repairs. We will have to wait and see what happens. Life will continue here however. Have a good day whatever is in store. <ok>
 
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oldfrenchhorn said:
Morning all. Sunny at present, but cloud around and the forecast suggests that we might have storms this afternoon. The roadmen have arrived, and heaps of sand and gravel have appeared. My neighbour who was a member of the council until he was thrown off for being English has as much knowledge as I do as to what the plan of action is. Someone must know, but when it first appeared as a very large sum of money in the council budget, I asked what it was for, and simply got a vague answer that it was for road repairs. We will have to wait and see what happens. Life will continue here however. Have a good day whatever is in store. <ok>
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Can he actually be 'thrown off the council' Frenchie ? Similar things to this have happened here - there was actually a Scottish lord mayor of a small town in Schleswig Holstein who had this problem as a result of Brexit. But the consensus is that they cannot be removed in the middle of an electoral term - the same applied to British in the Euro Parliament. All that happens is that they cannot stand for re election. There are a couple of EU countries (I think Portugal is one of them) where all foreigners can vote (and be candidates) at local elections - not just those from other EU countries. There doesn't appear to be a standard EU procedure on this.
 
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colognehornet said:
Can he actually be 'thrown off the council' Frenchie ? Similar things to this have happened here - there was actually a Scottish lord mayor of a small town in Schleswig Holstein who had this problem as a result of Brexit. But the consensus is that they cannot be removed in the middle of an electoral term - the same applied to British in the Euro Parliament. All that happens is that they cannot stand for re election. There are a couple of EU countries (I think Portugal is one of them) where all foreigners can vote (and be candidates) at local elections - not just those from other EU countries. There doesn't appear to be a standard EU procedure on this.
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You are right that there is not a unified approach to this, and many other things. He was barred from standing in the town council election that took place in March. Firstly he was told he could stand for reelection, then after all the candidates were announced the English were told they couldn't stand after all. A French law change would have been required, but by then Covis had taken over all parliamentary time. Some towns have seen long standing English mayors having to stand down, and there has been quite a few rumbles about how well they have served their communities. The Gallic shrug is something I have practiced at length, so whenever asked why England wants to be different, the eyebrows and shoulders go to work.
 
oldfrenchhorn said:
You are right that there is not a unified approach to this, and many other things. He was barred from standing in the town council election that took place in March. Firstly he was told he could stand for reelection, then after all the candidates were announced the English were told they couldn't stand after all. A French law change would have been required, but by then Covis had taken over all parliamentary time. Some towns have seen long standing English mayors having to stand down, and there has been quite a few rumbles about how well they have served their communities. The Gallic shrug is something I have practiced at length, so whenever asked why England wants to be different, the eyebrows and shoulders go to work.
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I mentioned earlier that about one in seven of the British here now have German nationality - so I would presume that amongst those who are actually involved in German politics that the ratio is far higher. For somebody to become mayor of a French town implies that their command of the language is perfect, and that they are highly integrated - so why is the uptake on naturalization not occuring to the same extent in France - is getting a French passport really more difficult than getting a German one ? From what I have seen regarding conditions for this, it appears to be easier in France. And if all else fails (and you are young enough) then you can always go into the Foreign Legion and get seriously wounded in action - in which case they give you the nationality <doh>
 
colognehornet said:
I mentioned earlier that about one in seven of the British here now have German nationality - so I would presume that amongst those who are actually involved in German politics that the ratio is far higher. For somebody to become mayor of a French town implies that their command of the language is perfect, and that they are highly integrated - so why is the uptake on naturalization not occuring to the same extent in France - is getting a French passport really more difficult than getting a German one ? From what I have seen regarding conditions for this, it appears to be easier in France. And if all else fails (and you are young enough) then you can always go into the Foreign Legion and get seriously wounded in action - in which case they give you the nationality <doh>
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I think that many English, like me, when they arrived as residents asked about having a carte sejour, a permit to say that you live here full time. The prefecture who always had the power to issue them said that they were not needed as we were EU citizens, and had all the same rights as a French national. Not quite true as we were barred from voting at a national level, but could vote for our town council and in EU elections. What we have seen in the Brexit shambles is that EU law is not an invading influence as it has left individual countries to retain their own sovereignty over voting rights and most other things. Because of this desire to leave countries free, there is now a problem with the EU as a body granting people from the UK citizenship. Currently there is no separate EU citizenship, you are firstly a national of your country of birth, with additional rights. To alter this would require treaty change, and what with the virus and Brexit there is enough going on. People seem to think that there is a huge workforce in Brussels which is wrong. They employ about the same number of people that a city council in England does. Here they have tried various systems to hand out carte sejours, and the next one will be coming out next month, a sort of normalisation of our situation. I will await the details.
 
oldfrenchhorn said:
I think that many English, like me, when they arrived as residents asked about having a carte sejour, a permit to say that you live here full time. The prefecture who always had the power to issue them said that they were not needed as we were EU citizens, and had all the same rights as a French national. Not quite true as we were barred from voting at a national level, but could vote for our town council and in EU elections. What we have seen in the Brexit shambles is that EU law is not an invading influence as it has left individual countries to retain their own sovereignty over voting rights and most other things. Because of this desire to leave countries free, there is now a problem with the EU as a body granting people from the UK citizenship. Currently there is no separate EU citizenship, you are firstly a national of your country of birth, with additional rights. To alter this would require treaty change, and what with the virus and Brexit there is enough going on. People seem to think that there is a huge workforce in Brussels which is wrong. They employ about the same number of people that a city council in England does. Here they have tried various systems to hand out carte sejours, and the next one will be coming out next month, a sort of normalisation of our situation. I will await the details.
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That's fair enough Frenchie - I know that there is no such thing as a separate EU citizenship, but this doesn't answer my question as to why people who want to be politically active in France aren't prepared to take up French citizenship - which, in contrast to some countries, allows for dual nationality.
 
colognehornet said:
That's fair enough Frenchie - I know that there is no such thing as a separate EU citizenship, but this doesn't answer my question as to why people who want to be politically active in France aren't prepared to take up French citizenship - which, in contrast to some countries, allows for dual nationality.
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Maybe some do, but most of the local mayors or councillors do not stand under any political banner. Many of the small towns and communes have trouble finding enough people willing to stand anyway. I faced elections in England, but refused to ever stand with a label. Of course many said that Independents were Tories in hiding, but the councils that I served on worked better in my opinion with councillors who didn't feel that they should stick to a party line. When I see a load of sheep in Westminster doing what the whips tell them without exercising their own minds it reinforces what I believed.
 
oldfrenchhorn said:
Maybe some do, but most of the local mayors or councillors do not stand under any political banner. Many of the small towns and communes have trouble finding enough people willing to stand anyway. I faced elections in England, but refused to ever stand with a label. Of course many said that Independents were Tories in hiding, but the councils that I served on worked better in my opinion with councillors who didn't feel that they should stick to a party line. When I see a load of sheep in Westminster doing what the whips tell them without exercising their own minds it reinforces what I believed.
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This is different to Germany Frenchie - I think nearly all councillors here are members of political parties, and this certainly applies to mayors of towns. I understand what you say about party politics but have problems with imagining a free for all system of independent candidates. Of course I could stand anywhere as an independent - but if I did so I would need to pay for my own election campaign, or I would need sponsors. Such a situation either means politics is restricted only to those who can afford to engage in it - or it would strengthen the hold of sponsors over candidates. American political parties do not pay election expenses for their candidates and we can see the results of that - namely political functionaries who are permanently cap in hand to their sponsors. Whilst party politics is not perfect, I distrust the alternative. Of course I must toe the party line to an extent - if I am elected on a Green ticket, and at their expense, and by their voters, and under their manifesto and then represent something completely different once in office then it is nothing short of fraud. But adhering to a manifesto does not mean that I cannot also think for myself. Of course any political party has different strands within it, and, ideally, everyone can contribute towards steering the party in the direction they would like - in the end maybe you agree with only about 75% of their programme.
 
colognehornet said:
This is different to Germany Frenchie - I think nearly all councillors here are members of political parties, and this certainly applies to mayors of towns. I understand what you say about party politics but have problems with imagining a free for all system of independent candidates. Of course I could stand anywhere as an independent - but if I did so I would need to pay for my own election campaign, or I would need sponsors. Such a situation either means politics is restricted only to those who can afford to engage in it - or it would strengthen the hold of sponsors over candidates. American political parties do not pay election expenses for their candidates and we can see the results of that - namely political functionaries who are permanently cap in hand to their sponsors. Whilst party politics is not perfect, I distrust the alternative. Of course I must toe the party line to an extent - if I am elected on a Green ticket, and at their expense, and by their voters, and under their manifesto and then represent something completely different once in office then it is nothing short of fraud. But adhering to a manifesto does not mean that I cannot also think for myself. Of course any political party has different strands within it, and, ideally, everyone can contribute towards steering the party in the direction they would like - in the end maybe you agree with only about 75% of their programme.
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I think that a big difference is that local government is very much a nuts and bolts job here. Our commune has a population of 160, the nearest small town 900, but both have their own town halls and councils. Go up to departmental level and it becomes different with people standing on party platforms, but then I don't see the English wanting to go there. Many have said that it is inefficient and expensive to have so many small councils, but it does provide a really good service for the locals.
 
Some interesting stats from the John Hopkins University Coronavirus Centre - the global resource centre which receives its data directly from the Government of each nation. The UK government apparently provided the following:

1st June …. 276,156 positive cases, 38,571 deaths.

8th June..... 287,621 positive cases, 40,625 deaths.

So testing during the first week of June saw 11,465 new cases, and a total of 2,054 deaths.

How does that information lead Johnson to conclude that "the UK has beaten the virus" - what is it about the figures that could prompt him to say that he is "proud of the achievement"? And now, because of that 'success', he has apparently ordered an accelerated end to lockdown. <doh>

https://www.politicshome.com/news/a...d-to-lockdown-to-avoid-millions-of-job-losses
 
Bolton's Boots said:
Some interesting stats from the John Hopkins University Coronavirus Centre - the global resource centre which receives its data directly from the Government of each nation. The UK government apparently provided the following:

1st June …. 276,156 positive cases, 38,571 deaths.

8th June..... 287,621 positive cases, 40,625 deaths.

So testing during the first week of June saw 11,465 new cases, and a total of 2,054 deaths.

How does that information lead Johnson to conclude that "the UK has beaten the virus" - what is it about the figures that could prompt him to say that he is "proud of the achievement"? And now, because of that 'success', he has apparently ordered an accelerated end to lockdown. <doh>

https://www.politicshome.com/news/a...d-to-lockdown-to-avoid-millions-of-job-losses
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You might want to continue this discussion on the designated thread.... :emoticon-0148-yes:

Of course.... it is all about the economy now......
 
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