It's the only way of getting it through I guess. I'll be happy with any deal as it means we avoid no deal and I can have a holiday!
It's nothing to with neutrality. For the last two years the green on Westminster has been ringed by EU flags and people shouting stop Brexit. As a remain voter I can assure you it gets massively on my tits!Anyone else slightly irritated with interviews outside parliament having revoke signs in the background, that blue starred brand image and that idiot shouting stop Brexit. TV is supposed to be politically neutral, apart from the BBC as Jacob pointed out last night on Newsnight.
Where else would they do this other than on the green before Westminster ? The same action would be wasted on the green in Croxley. There can be no getting away from the fact that millions of people are probably having their EU Citizenship forcibly taken away from them, through no fault of their own, and against their will. All of the waffle about trade flows tends to forget this fact - this is all about fighting back against those who feel the need to build walls around themselves (and others).
I have no problem with where they demonstrate or their point of view, just that it is the background to numerous interviews on TV - which should be neutral.
I take your point but you want to see what it's like round there. Would be hard to find anywhere close to the studio without that backdrop and it's where they always carry out the interviews. Shall I see if I can hang a Watford flag up just for you?
I assume there are no Brexit demonstrators there? They are probably all at work as the Remainers should be, unless they are being subbed by some organisation (the EU perhaps?).I take your point but you want to see what it's like round there. Would be hard to find anywhere close to the studio without that backdrop and it's where they always carry out the interviews. Shall I see if I can hang a Watford flag up just for you?
Take a look tonight Scully, and the whole area is filled with UKIP flags.
Frenchie, this is a rather different theme but I have a question which, possibly, only you can answer. Up to the beginning of last year there had been 22,000 ex pats who had taken citizenship of other EU countries (discounting Ireland for the moment). For Germany the figures were 2015 - 622, 2016 - roughly 2,600, and for 2017 around 7,500. Germany appears to make up around 40% of all cases of naturalization. Judging from all the figures I have seen around one in six of British people here have taken German citizenship to date (also including those who did it prior to 2015, and those from last year). The French figure appears to be only a small fraction of that, although, from what I have seen, the conditions for getting French nationality do not appear to be any more restrictive than those in Germany - in fact the necessary time of residence is 5 years as opposed to the 8 years here. So why is the take up so small in France compared to here ? France appears to have about twice the number of ex pats as Germany does so this puzzles me. When I took German citizenship it took about 3 months to get all the documents together - but once the application was sent I ceremonially received the certificate of naturalization only 5 weeks later. Are you thinking about doing the same, or have you applied already ?
For me the actual processing of my application cost € 255, the language exams around € 150 and the only additional costs were in getting documents out of England. The German authorities accept documents in English or in French as well as German. The actual ceremony of naturalization involved nothing more than taking an oath to live by the laws of Germany - nothing more, nothing less. Compare this to the process in the UK. where Germans that we know have been required to pay 1,350 pounds for the same process in the UK. In addition they were required to take an oath to the Queen - something which only high ranking members of the civil service normally have to do in the UK. and which about half the population would decline to do anyway. I too would rather be a citizen of the World (or failing that just Europe) but I'll settle for dual nationality for a start - it just gives me more options.
