Brexit means Brexit means Doom and Gloom

If they think Macron is elitist then they can’t have lived in many earlier regimes in France. He’s probably the least elitist so far. I really, really hope those who can vote in France(of whom I am jealous) don’t make choices that will throw out so much France has that is good for everyone, in the future

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and with considerably less sugar and salt content too :wink:

What is the French equivalent to HP Sauce?

we recently bought 6 “salad” plants from Gamme Vert which were discounted at 1€ for the six plants in total making them 15p (GBP) each… they needed a bit of nurturing but that’s what I call really good value - and with you being a gardener and all… I’m sure it would be in the bounds of your expertise to make such savings by keeping a good eye out :wink:

not sure there is one… but why not make your own…

I don’t think that is the same type of sauce as the condiment which would have vinegar & spices.

I was tempted to try

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Nice article here explaining Macron’s strategic position with regard to satellite technology post Brexit:

The French buy-out that explains Macron’s strategy | The Spectator

Well, England ladies beat the Germans so Brexit was worth it!:crazy_face::joy:

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I’ve seen this posted to Twitter several times these past couple of days, sometimes suggesting it dates from Churchill’s speech in Zurich in 1946. But I can’t find any record of him having said it.

Would it be too extreme to wonder if M Le P could be the silver tongue meant by this, in France? I remember too much her father

If he said such a thing at all, I would bet it was pre WW2, referring to the increase in fascism and fascist sympathies throughout parts of Europe, and particularly the rise in fascist sympathies in the UK as exemplified by Oswald Mosley and the Daily Mail (or Daily Heil as it became known)

@Fleur , Thankyou very much for that link. I subscribe to the English edition of Le Monde, (2.99 monthly first year and which also has an option to read the articles in French so good for the learning process!) and after some searching found them under “Summer Reads”. The articles provide an interesting and perspective commentary on France/Uk and wider Europe.
I also subscribe (my extravagance) to the FT and I keenly follow Simon Kuper who writes a good column in the Saturday FT magazine, one of my favourite columnist so read him weekly.
You might like to know he has just published a book “Chums” an excoriating critique of Johnson and Chums who were at Oxford (as was Kuper) in the mid 80s, and how they grasped power before and since Brexit. If you or anybody is interested in the uk in last 10 years worth reading.

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Not sure if it’s Churchill - he is so frequently misquoted - but it is similar to many similar warnings - such as Upton Sinclair’s “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross” or the confusingly similarly named Lewis Sinclair: "The worst Fascists were they who disowned the word ‘Fascism’ and preached enslavement to Capitalism under the style of Constitutional and Traditional Native American Liberty.”

Brits, like Americans. always conceive of fascism as something that ‘can’t happen here’ - it is inherently foreign - so in a sense these warnings make a very obvious point: that inside any culture fascism presents itself - and obviously appears to many people - not as something foreign, but precisely the opposite, as being ‘the real Germany’ (or UK, or US. or France).

But having actually experienced the reality of fascism, I do believe countries like Germany and France are more resilient to this misrepresentation. In France, LePen has had to travel a very long road to detoxify herself - in the process watering down almost all her policy positions - and has still not succeeded - probably never will; Trump and Johnson had no such struggle.

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My favourite Churchill quote is:

“The problem with quotes found on the internet is that they are often not true” - Winston Churchill

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I don’t think he did, early on he even admired Mussolini.

The text of the September 1946 speech is here - https://rm.coe.int/16806981f3, the above words do not figure.

What does figure very clearly is the intent to create a “United States of Europe” - just in case anyone is thinking of ressurecting the argument that the UK voters were conned in 1975.

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But he didn’t really see the UK as part of it…

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No, perhaps not (neither did De Gaulle, for that matter), but the point is that the idea that the project would b more than just a “common market” not only was explicit in the 1970’s, it had been explicit even before the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community in the early 50’s

But (continuing in my ‘devil’s advocate’ vein) the idea of a ‘United States of Europe’ would have appeared much more viable then, in a world dominated by apparently highly politically successful and coherent federations of states like the USA and USSR, one of which has now fallen apart, and the other facing severe internal stresses (as is, you might indeed argue, the UK).

The phrase ‘ever closer union’ was used in the, I think, Lisbon Treaty which UK signed up to for better or for worse, which may well have been the cause of Brexit.