L00b

Transylvania takes some beating, and there’s something about receiving those “there’s a bear on the loose” SMS geo-alerts whilst sipping an Urus…but the people are better still 😉 The closest to Yorkshire folk in spirit, work hard/play hard ethic and genuineness that I’ve ever met, yet.

The EU Parliament isn’t. Still just as center right as before the election. Macron is gambling a ‘conquer and divide’ drive: if RN score seats (not a given in a GE in France), by 2027 they’ll be wearing the consequences of Macronism with the French electorate together with LREM. Smart. Risky, but smart.

1 here, in France. 96-97, had to go back and do it or would have been put on arrest warrant and then spend it in military nick. Very much a waste of time.

Personal politics of the French tend to be more nuanced than the polarized "if you're not with us you're against us" politics pushed by populists like the LePens, and in more recent years by Trump/Bannon, the AfD and all the others ; but still with hard backstops about extreme politics, borne from long memories of, and about, the German occupation (with, as you note, a higher incidence in areas of France that suffered more than others). Luxemburgers, Alsatians and Mosellans with a family tree stretching back to the 1940s will all still know very well, how Nazi policies affected their elders ; even more the case for those with a family tree stretching back still earlier, whose elders experienced the full force of extreme nationalism and its logical consequence (1870 war & annexation into 2nd Reich ; later on WW1 with relatives ending up made to fight against each other). For all the others, the place is not short of memorials and plaques about who resisted, got caught and ended up being beheaded (a popular execution method in Germany for high-profile resistants). Save for some isolated areas with a (locally-) large contingent of recent immigrants attracting a correspondingly-large xenophobic vote (this area of France has always had large waves of immigrations : today's Centrafrica immigrants, were north African immigrants a generation ago, and Polish and Italians immigrants two generations ago <etc.> : same causes, same effects), people there, likewise in other regions with a strong resistance at the time (per Longcol) have long memories and no time for parties with extreme/fascist agendas. LePen senior's Front National party, in its early years (1972 est.) until Marine took it over, was long full of ex-Vichy types, so this explains that. It was also long full of ex-legionnaires types, ex-army types, Catholic ultras, <etc.> and still is. The rebrand away from Front National noted by peak4 started only in 2018, but it is just that, a rebrand - the family business is still the same : maintain political relevance through populism to sustain some political power and capacity to attract financial backing, but stay well back from getting elected into positions that would require getting down to brass tacks and delivering the benefits promised with the snake oil. Hence, if you care to cast your history research far enough back, the regular-as-clockwork major gaffe or outrage, delivered to temporarily kill off political popularity when a LePen is in danger of getting elected 'too high'. Likewise, the weathervane-grade opportunism and whataboutery when external events threaten the current position : to this day, Marine still can't do enough to make those Putin loans , that became so highly-inconvenient in February 2022, disappear from the public eye and consciousness. This just now with the AfD, is simply more of the same.

More to do with (France prison van attack: 'Unprecedented' manhunt for escaped prisoner (bbc.com)) than identity politics.

Nice ride, Chekhov. A very good friend of mine has long had a Robin Hood with a very tweaked Pinto in it. Last week I received the 2024 car tax notice : €25! After 22 years of ownership, that's it, she's officially a classic! 🙌 Topically for the thread , many cars owned both before that MX5 and meanwhile, from the mundane (AX, BX, Brava, Imprezas (non-T), V50, C220) to the extraordinary (CX GTI T, Delta HF T, Imprezas WRX). Aside from the Brava and V50 (late Friday shift-built), I have appreciated them all, but the current family wagon is the best by a country mile: First car in 22 years to start holding a candle to the MX5, in the smiles-per-mile . Always been a petrolhead, and of course there's been many cars I wanted or had opportunities to get, but did not (e.g. original M3, *any* TVR) and these days I'm getting a lil'old to be lusting after Porsches, Ferraris and whatnot. Not sure what to replace the XE with, if I were to ever part with it. Another RWD 6-pot, if anyone still makes any by then.

Closer to 48% (LUSTAT Data Explorer • Total population, Luxembourgers and foreigners, of usual residence in Luxembourg by sex (statec.lu)) AFAIK Lewis Hamilton still lives in Monaco, much much tax-friendlier to the wealthy, than Luxembourg which is not that much friendlier than others (Luxembourg Tax Rates & Rankings | Luxembourg Taxes (taxfoundation.org)) Spent some time in the UK a couple weeks ago, visiting my offices in Surrey and Greater Manchester, then friends and family in South Yorks. So one of those visitor/business visas could have been mine, though it certainly wasn't printed (or, if it was, then I never received any copy). Not the best time of year for that trip, unfortunately. Hugs and Kisses to all 😉

You do realise of course that, by the very example that you quote, clearly EU membership had no bearing on a country’s sovereign choices about its Covid-mitigating policies? Literally every single justification for Brexit put forward by Leavers since actual Brexit, follows the exact same logic: EU membership never prevented the UK from enacting or pursuing its chest-thumping policy choices since 2021. Pity you didn’t catch the irony of your post when you typed it. Edit - on the topic of Poland and Hungary, mentioned lately. https://www.dw.com/en/rule-of-law-eu-reprimands-poland-and-hungary/a-66165982 Small example, there are many more. You start playing against your own club on the field, you soon get benched and fined. Who’d have thought, <etc> Of course, it’s your everyday Hungarians and Poles, not really the Orbans or PIS types of this world, who suffer most from those measures. But well, Hungarians, Poles, etc. keep electing those populist autocrats. So, well, usual f around-find out dynamic. Like Brits, Tories and Brexit, really 😆

It was always going to happen, once UK mobile corporates were relieved from the EU trade rules-based obligation to implement and maintain free roaming intra-EU. We are now a good few years past proving, beyond any reasonable doubt, that any promises or assurances by Leavers in 2016 were, at best and to put it charitably, uninformed drivel. Moreover, and after all, any trade/economic counter-arguments made by the Remain side of the debate on the basis of facts and logic were, both before and after the referendum, steadfastly shutdown by Leave-quoting useful idiots arguing that Brexit was about sovereignty, not the economy, and that taking the economic hit was worth achieving Brexit. No point linking outside SF, there must be hundreds, if not low thousands, of such posts over the years, in the original ‘How will you vote’ Brexit-themed thread, and then the various ‘Consequences’ threads since. example: For the sake of your blood pressure, maybe better get used to consequences like the loss of free roaming already. You’re still only at the very beginning of the ‘finding out’ phase.

Good grief, are you guys still arguing about who said what 7 years ago? After 7 years, no one is ever going to convince the Brexit zealots or the idiots. Their cognitive bias is 6 feet thick, of solid titanium. Leave them where they’re happy to be, ignore them and let old age do the work for you. Brexit is done. The UK has been out of the EU for over 2 years. Nobody but the UK press and government gives a damn much, anymore. And positively noone outside the UK. The UK is where it is, and consequences continue to accrue because of it. Move the discussion on.

Some of us did explain, nearly 8 years ago now, and with added emphasis 6 years ago after Theresa May’s Lancaster speech, how Brexiting would affect- (i) the UK’s services sector-led economy: no UK policy focus *whatsoever* pre-referendum, nor at any times since, *ever*, on services (cue banking, asset management, insurance, legal, etc services all gone from the U.K. to Ireland (Dublin mostly, hence Irish GDP effect in more recent times), the Continent (Paris, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Amsterdam) and the US (New York mostly)) and (ii) supply lines used by UK ‘manufacturers’ (whose business model of offshoring all manufacturing to China and Vietnam, already old by then, would run afoul of the EU’s rules of origin) in and amongst so many other fully-predictable economic consequences of hard Brexiting. But well. Farage and Leave’s snake oil rubbish, “Project Fear”, “has enough of experts”, German car manufacturers, “they need us more than we need them”, “it’s about sovereignty not the economy” and all that mountain of other cretinous slogans peddled by the right wing media, found its audience alright. You weren’t helped by your political leaders. Lest we forget- https://x.com/AlexTaylorNews/status/1068080900037099522 You still haven’t been since, either.

How much food on British tables and roofs over British heads does the Eurovision song contest bring? Trade, on the other hand…

Trade-wise, in these post-Brexit days, it is so, more than ever before: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/25/ports-france-ireland-brexit-cherbourg-rosslare

Why was freedom of movement a big issue for the UK? Looking at the sheer volume of Brits moaning at the personal consequence of losing FoM when eventually experiencing it at the coal face in their jobs, holidays, retirement <etc> as related by the MSM (mostly the right wing press, irony of ironies)…most people still don’t seem to understand it now, 7 years on. Edit - example #2457: https://x.com/Seven7Kevin/status/1701573699667726436?s=20 400+m EU27 citizens did not lose FoM. They ‘lost’ the UK as 1 of 28 opportunities. 67m Brits lost FoM, completely but for the historical CTA with Ireland.

Ah, so it’s ‘or something’ then. Best leave it there with you, I’m told it’s not nice to mock the afflicted. Came to this thread for a look-see, thought I’d post some benefits. Look what £75m of your hard-earned tax money spent on German manufacturers bought you: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/sep/11/bmw-u-turns-on-plans-to-move-electric-mini-production-from-uk-to-china 👍🏻