Morning all, grey and overcast at present, but the sun should appear later. Think I am lined up for some cement work this afternoon, so I would like it to be warmer Our present government has decided that the 1982 decentralization bringing more local input into how the country is run was not a good idea. Too many local decisions have been made that suited the people but not the powers that be. We are now going to be grouped together with two other regions, Aquitaine and the Limousin creating a huge part of western France. Already we see towns having monies withdrawn to go into the towns that are more likely to vote for this President and I can only see this getting worse.
Morning...... we off for a long w/e tomorrow...... Mme will be interested in seeing the grape harvest... and I will be left with gardening etc.... However we expect a woodland stroll down to our local Auberge and some good wine tasting
Morning all Having moving from the big city to the country 5 years ago the problems of governing rural areas are much more in my line of sight. We have a parish council with no money and no powers, a local authority based 20 miles or more away in Winchester and therefore very Winchester-focused and, to cap it all, our parliamentary constituency, for no logical reason at all, lumps us in with the Meon Valley (which we are not in!). Little wonder that people in the village often feel powerless.
Morning all, it is cold here as well and the forecast suggests it will stay that way over the next few days. Already we have seen some cranes migrating south to their winter quarters which is not a good sign. Last year the early ones didn't go over until the middle of November, with the bulk of them waiting until early December. I hope it is not going to be a long winter.
They have said it's going to be a long, cold one! But I don't know how they know much past next week! Lol
Sæl öll from the Graham Taylor Breakfast Nook. Tea and coffee, donuts and fruit are on the bar. Half and half coffee for Brian Black coffee for Bragi Flat white coffee for Yorkie Frothy for W_Y Café Allongé for OFH We have 4C and clouds. Little Ak has found a university in Buckingham as well, so we could lose her to England. She should feel alright as Buckingham is smaller than Akureyri! She wants to studt Business Management and Spanish, so she will have three languages and will not work here.
So far as we can tell, spending the summer mostly in the Charente (Dept 16) money is being spent everywhere in France all the time. Judging by the number of times we encounter 'Route Barre' whilst on our bicycle, every road, village, town is having something done - it's not all due to the new TGV line! Your analysis seems rather more sophisticated than mine, so I'll look out next year to see what is happening.
Afternoon all Busy today getting everything together for a big weekend ahead. 28 friends and relatives gathering in a country house to celebrate my birthday. Old gitdom beckons... The wine and champagne industries should be the ones celebrating my considerable investment!
Quite right, it is being spent on a grand scale. Quite a lot comes from the EU, then the national purse, then the region, followed by a small contribution from the town or village. Much of the work undertaken is an attempt to get unemployment figures down, without any success. It seems that as fast as this government tries to save a company from disappearing another one joins the list. SNCM is one of two ferry companies running from mainland France to Corsica. They went bust last year and it turns out that they had received €300m in loans from the government, which is illegal. Air France is trying to reorganize itself and the government is the largest shareholder. The company wants to change conditions for the staff, but workers physically attacked managers, so when the President goes to say he is on the side of workers his Prime Minister is saying that the company must be supported to protect the government investment and the workers must behave. I could go on at length about what is happening, but while it is good to see the improvements to towns and villages, it doesn't seem to make sense to keep on spending with an economy that is on it's knees.
This is what left wing governments do, a la Gordon Brown. The left in the UK is against the government running a surplus, this means not attempting to pay back the 1 and a half trillion pounds which we have borrowed. Are they not concerned about future generations?
