Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Does anyone here really think there are 600k
+ jobs available?

fossy - we all hear incessantly (rather like tinnitus) about what you think of our current gov't, so what's your opinion of monsieur hollande? ..... surely he stands for all your socialist ideals that you spout on (and on and on and on) about, so why are you not singing his praises? ..... for sure, many if not the overwhelming majority here would vote for you to go and live in france, or better still, in the kerguelen islands

try answering some questions put to you, instead of blathering and griping about what a rotten job the present gov't is doing - which i would remind you, you helped to vote in by default

PS.

Manuel,

Didn't realise the mantle of State Interrogator or Inquisitor had fallen on you.

You infer I disperse too many opinions and then you ask for more.

Try to be consistent.

Remember, that even I have the right to claim the 5th amendment, or have the rules been changed.

============

By the way, I doubt that many who know me would consider me a prig and my family and friends often freely point out my failings and weaknesses and some of the “sins” I commit and enjoy.

Again, I think you are confused when labelling the presentation of critical observations, challenges and views, when they do not coincide with your own highly self-held opinions as pompous and priggish.

Perhaps, you don’t realise that others and myself are in your language “taking the piss out of you”.

But, I would never use such language.

so incapable of answering a fairly simple question then ... or at least one would have thought it to be for one of your undoubted superior intellect
PS - i still think the adjective "prig" fits you to a T

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/franois-hollande-heading-for-crisis-as-he-fails-to-deliver-his-promise-to-reduce-unemployment-9026278.html

François Hollande heading for crisis as he fails to deliver his promise to reduce unemployment

The French President staked his political credibility on a fall in the number of unemployed by the end of the year, but the figures are not going his way. What now for France’s increasingly unpopular leader, asks John Lichfield

Thursday 26 December 2013

President François Hollande suffered a blow tonight to what remains of his credibility with news that he had failed to deliver his promise to reduce unemployment by the end of this year.

Anxiously awaited jobless figures for November showed that the number of people without employment in France had increased by 17,500, almost wiping out a modest a reduction in French dole queues in October.

Tonight’s news made a chilling close to an annus horribilis for Mr Hollande, whose approval ratings have fallen faster and further in 2013 than for any head of state since France switched to a presidential system 50 years ago.

So is he 1,2 or 3. lol

prig -

1. A person who demonstrates an exaggerated conformity or propriety, especially in an irritatingly arrogant or smug manner.

2. Chiefly British A petty thief or pickpocket.

3. Archaic A conceited dandy; a fop.

I don't understand your post #34645

What is the point you are trying to make?

Has Call Me Dave done any better? Cos the social security bill keeps getting bigger!

I do and Fred does :-)) France have tried to spend their way out of recession just like our Labour party suggested but to no avail. Barley out of recession and unemployment not being reduced. They are now in the same predicament as we would of been in. Fred had this debate about labour months ago with me. France have spent millions of euros on infrastructure to help the economy and unemployment ? With very little growth predicted on the horizon.
Starting to show the Cons were right not to go recklessly spending on credit.

Go on give us a load of wind Fred ---------------------------------------

That is why our DEBT is getting bigger!

France W/S.

Rubbish

Twisting answers again. :-)) Politicians do that, never answer the question put to them and just waffle on.

Wait for it, a lot more wind forecast -------------------------

Our GDP is increasing!

This is France

French GDP shrinks in third quarter
Wednesday, 25 December 2013

The French national statistics bureau Insee on Tuesday confirmed a negative performance of Europe's main powerhouse during the third quarter of the year on weak exports and poor investment.

For the July-September period, France's gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 0.1 percent, compared to a 0.6 percent growth for the previous quarter, the agency added.

Investment in the eurozone's second largest economy declined by 0.4 percent with cash of non-financial firms down by 2.1 percent for the third quarter.

French exports fell by 1.3 percent after having expanded 1.9 percent in the second quarter while imports grew by 0.9 percent, contributing to a negative trade balance.

The growth of households' expenditure slowed by 0.3 percentage points to stand at 0.1 percent in the third quarter, the report added.

Insee lowered the 2013 full-year growth forecast of the French economy to 0.1 percent from a previous estimation of 0.2 percent, adding more pressure on the government to recover with rampant unemployment exceeding 10 percent.

MailOnline - news,politics.. Saturday, Dec 28 2013 3AM

"

fossy - now tell us your views on hollande and explain how his wonderful left-socialist policies are so brilliant and are benefitting france

Typical pathetic "Con" party tactics of desperately trying to deflect the "evidence" away from themselves, from the usual suspects alert!

Britons ready to welcome migrants from Bulgaria and Romania, poll finds

Ipsos Mori survey shows 72% of people aged 35-44 support rights of east European workers to live and work in UK


Daniel Boffey, policy editor


The Observer, Saturday 28 December 2013 19.15 GMT

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/29/bulgaria-romania-migrants-uk-poll


Romanians and Bulgarians coming to the UK on New Year's Day will be welcomed by more than two-thirds of Britons if they integrate and work hard, a new poll suggests ahead of restrictions on them being lifted.

In spite of a surge of anti-immigrant rhetoric from leading politicians, British people are happy to accept migrants from the east of Europe who learn English, get a job, pay taxes and become part of their local community.

As many as 68% of those asked said they would be happy for migrants to come on those terms. That sentiment was particularly strong among people aged between 35 and 44, with 72% supporting their right to come to live and work in the UK.

The Ipsos Mori poll for the thinktank British Future comes in the wake of an intervention in the Observer by the president of Bulgaria, Rosen Plevneliev, who warned the British government not to abandon its traditional tolerance of immigrants in favour of isolation.

The business secretary, Vince Cable, responded to Plevneliev by accusing David Cameron and members of the Conservative party of adopting harmful "populist" immigration policies, such as a potential cap on EU migration and a proposed block on taking in migrants from countries with a GDP less than 75% of the UK's.

Yet, despite a barrage of negative publicity about the arrival of migrants from Romania and Bulgaria, the new poll finds that only one in four Britons (24%) believe that restricting the free movement of people, while staying in the EU, should be one of the government's priorities. A similar proportion (26%) said leaving the EU should be a priority if it does not change its rules on allowing people to come to the UK.

Nearly half (45%) said that enforcing the minimum wage was one of the most important ways of stopping business undercutting British workers by paying European workers less. Around one in five (22%) believed in the importance of managing the impact of immigration by, for example, giving more support to areas heavily affected.

The polling also showed that, while a significant majority did want a tightening of the welfare system (63%), just 2% of those asked believed that there was nothing migrants from Romania and Bulgaria could do to be accepted. This compares with 69% who said that learning the English language should be a priority for migrants, and 64% who said getting a job and paying taxes were among the key things to do.

Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, said: "I think the findings show that Romanian and Bulgarian migrants coming to work and play by the rules are welcomed; that coming to work, and not claiming before they've paid in, seems more important to people than rewriting the free movement rules or getting out of Europe, though both are legitimate long-term debates."

Meanwhile a YouGov poll of opinion leaders, organised by the all-party campaign group British Influence, also found that 81% did not feel that Cameron was talking enough about the benefits of EU membership ahead of a possible referendum in 2017.

Lord (Geoffrey) Howe, who served as chancellor and foreign secretary to Margaret Thatcher, said: "Sadly, by repeated concessions to the Eurosceptics, the government made its own position on Europe, and in Europe, more difficult."

The Bulgarian minister of labour, Hassan Ademov, told the Observer he believed the prime minister was being led into nationalistic rhetoric by the popularity of the UK Independence party. He said he did not believe there would be an influx to the UK, but revealed that the Bulgarian and British governments have agreed to work together to ensure that companies registered both in Bulgaria and the UK are prevented from exploiting the potential for cheap labour. They have also agreed to clamp down on any potential welfare fraud in a new "letter of intention" signed by both governments.

Ademov, who met employment minister Esther McVey this month to discuss the terms of the agreement, said the UK government's attitude to Bulgarian and Romanian citizens so far had been "categorically unacceptable".

He added: "My view is that the main explanation for what has been happening is that it is party election rhetoric and there is a race between the parties. God and the European commission between them have given Bulgaria and Romania the honour of having the transitional controls lifted just six months before the elections for the European parliament."

http://www.britishfuture.org/

As the public see Wavey Davey and crew,