Planning a river cruise next year. Was considering France, but (although cutting off my nose to spite my face) have decided not to go to a country where fellow citizens are blocked off and attacked with manure queuing to use the tunnel and air traffic controllers strike every bank holiday. Will do Prague/Vienna instead.
Looking forward to tonight, echo everyone else by saying EARLY GOAL PLEASE!!!!! If they score in opening 10mins could be very uncomfortable.... I'm confident though.
I understand your sentiment, but I bet you'd enjoy the life style and pace Fran. It is a beautiful country. On an aside, I asked my French colleague who was here this week if he had heard that our opposition leader had asked the PM to seek compensation from the French government for the effect on local businesses in and around Kent. He laughed and said the reverse has ben said in France. They say it is the fault of the English for being too soft and the French should sue us! If we weren't so soft and made it easy for people to stay in the UK, then there wouldn't be so many trying to get across. I didn't know what to say.
I know an early goal for Vitesse does not mean certain defeat, the end of the world and administration, but try telling my heart that.
Undoubtedly our fault that we are such a soft touch...we have brought this trouble to France's door. Australia's stand has much to recommend it.
Charente, comme d'hab. It's why I want us to get Bordeaux if we get through the qualifiers. Should be a hoot.
Just booked flights to Paris in September. Picking up a car at the airport and driving to our friend's house near Langres. We wanted to go by train to Dijon and drive back up, which is what we've done before, but the risk of the Eurostar being delayed and us missing our connection in Paris was too great.
These problems are not new....my secretary was 2 days late back from holiday because of strikes in France...thirty odd years ago!!
Is this an early Test refernce? We have three faults. One we don't have ID cards; two is we speak English (!); three is the government seems incapable of getting after the gangmasters who control the black economy. We could solve number one, nowt we can do about the fact that our language has become the international language, but as for the third it is in our control. Australia has a lot to commend it - mysogyny, racism, homophobia. All good stuff!
France, Germany and Sweden all take far more asylum seekers than we do. There are about 2000 desperate human beings at calais trying to get across here. We could take them and not even notice it. Meanwhile thousands are being washed up on the shores of Greece and Italy everyday. This is a monumental humanitarian crisis, partly of the UKs making - we destabilised the region following a disastrous adventure in Iraq. I don't see much evidence of us being a soft touch-more a case of labelling desperate people as a threatening swarm to justify doing nothing while they suffer
Dare I mention Watford in league cup. 4-0 up after 1st leg lost 7-1 in 2nd. Not taking anything for granted until the fat lady sings
Have we strayed off topic here? Yes, but sod it. Totally agree, but our inability to tackle the problem of human exploitation is a driver for the gang masters and people smugglers. Like you I hate the Daily Mail "soft-touch" label. Thousands of desperate people wish it was!
1-1 tonight I reckon. With them scoring first to rattle our nerves a little. But in the end, a fairly comfortable night.
