Agentimmo

Not surprising to read about "typical" Oz attitudes a country that still has brands such as Coons (cheese) and Golden Gaytime (Ice lollies) on their supermarket shelves.

Yes. A good initiative. And a vote winner imo.

I'm sure they were aware.....but greed got the better of them. I used to listen to these IT contractors all the time, saying how stupid others were (employees and umbrella / paye staff) for not doing like them. The warnings that hmrc would come knocking one day were laughed at. Well, guess what....?

He'll be waiting a while in France. A "gilet jaune" march in my town on the Riviera had 30 of them surrounded by police. 30 out of 80k people. You do the maths. It's fizzling out as the hard core extremists highjack it for their own ends. I expect the police will clear the roundabouts and autouroutes by end of Feb....otherwise the locals will do it themselves.

I was back in the UK last month for a quick visit. Went to Wagamamas with friends at lunchtime. Years since I had last been there. What a dispappointment. A plate of noodles with some spring onion and some cut veg. £11 Friend had the katsu curry. A bowl of rice upturned onto her plate, 6 thin slices of chicken, badly cooked plus a thimble full of sauce was £12 !!! Add in the staff, who were badly trained and looked like they had just arrived in the restaurant from a 3 day rave party. No doubt on min wages..... Last time I will visit the place. Looks like private equity has destroyed a once decent place.

:) No French President / Prime Minister is ever popular if he tries to implement reforms in this country. Hollande / Sarkozy / Chirac / Mitterand etc. Especially this man, who has a crushing majority in the Assembly. With a weak opposition from the traditional left and right parties, he's got a free ride. Polls reflect this. However, to extrapolate this to thinking 75% of France supports the GJ movement is incorrect imo.

Indeed. You are correct. Plenty of people here in France are afraid that if they are at a roundabout or at an autoroute pay toll barrier without a GJ on their car, they will be targeted. Showing GJ support makes it easier to get through the traffic queues, nothing else. In my family and friends circle, not one person agrees with the movement. Maybe a few had sympathy in first 2 weeks, but that has dropped. The GJ movement is now seen as a small bunch of extreme Left anarchists linked to a majority of disillusioned Front National supporters - OAP's for the most part. Strange bedfellows. In my local town of 80,000 people, about 150 GJ's are blocking the roundabout, autoroute entrance, burning a few cars, attacking the odd shop with tear gas , etc. General loutishness. It's far from a popular uprising. Media-fuelled, imo.

Totally agree. I know of 2 people who have left the UK and taken work abroad (IT contracts) in the last quarter. I personally won't take work where I am obliged to pass via a UK based company. More revenue lost for HMRC thanks to these stupid laws. Lobbied for , by the big IT Consultancies , for the last 10yrs or so. They give big pay checks to their political friends. HMRC would have spent its time better , chasing these big consultancies for their tax dodges. Much more tax to be clawed back from them, imo. That's before they even start to look at the FANGs of this world.......

If the authorities weren't worried about riots , interest rates wouldn't still be < 1.5% and their shills wouldn't be in the press every week telling us all what a disaster it would be for the country if they go above 2%..............

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/593477.stm This article has been posted before , on other threads over the years. Oh for the days of the bubbly 2000s ;) I like to look at it to remind myself just how MAD the whole HPI narrative has now become. The message from the VIs never changes. From then:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ant_and_the_Grasshopper This Aesop fable is still told today in French primary schools. Maybe a reason why France still has a relatively high personal savings rate.....

Touché.

...you're a pretty poor one tbh. If you were defending me I'd be expecting the Chair.....

They've had 28yrs since the fall of the USSR to tackle it but have passed laws to facilitate money laundering not hinder it. Any measures that are announced to the public are meaningless as they are never truly enforced. Also....a good number of MPs as well as the parties themselves enjoy this Russian money and its patronage. They aren't going to give that up easily. It would mean shutting down the London Evening Standard and getting rid of Chelskis owners for a start........ Watch what they do, not what they say!

No political party hoping to have power will have the cojones to seriously tackle this problem. We are whistling in the wind to think otherwise imo.