Hummm
They have!
Communities over (I think) 60k people have a police force and Nicolas Sarkozy (bless his cotton socks) after a run in with the Gendarmerie when he was Interior Minister swore he would get even with them and he did so as President when he took control away from the armed forces minister and handed control to the interior ministry.
So Jane, unless I am mistaken, your wish was granted…
I didn’t know that and it seems a lot of my french friends don’t either.
I think it was when he wanted to issue an instruction to them as interior minister and they effectively told him to do one as they only answered to the army.
He’ll hath no fury like a president in waiting lol
Hi again Graham, I hope you are well.
St Junien used to have a Police force (11000 inhabitants approx) but the bureau was closed down about 15/20 years ago due to the low crime rate. The old Gendarmerie was consequently made into flats and more modern buiding with housing constructed.
Cluny could do with that.
If they haven’t enough crime they persecute motorists by saying you did not stop long enough at a stop sign etc.
What exactly is your point Anna? Quite antagonistic?
What they wished for, well what exactly did they wish for?
We have now become a nation of mindreaders it seems.
TM trots out the wish of the people, but that was then and she is totally avoiding the fact that public opinion has changed now we know just what is involved and how it will affect the ecomomic future of the UK.
Both of the major party leaders are blatantly putting the future of their parties before that of the country and should be totally castigated for it.
The fact that Parliament standing up for the people is the only redeeming feature in this whole fiasco.
I’m not sure public opinion has really changed that much, the polls indicate that a second referendum would be very close.
If there was another campaign and the real truth came out things could be very different.
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The likely effects of Brexit are now known but the polls are only showing a slight Remain lead -
https://whatukthinks.org/eu/opinion-polls/euref2-poll-of-polls/
Well, trying to think back to what my post was a fortnight ago when I posted that… I guess I felt that claiming that moving to France is “No different from moving within the UK, other than having different health and tax systems” was disingenuous, to say the least.
Firstly, moving to a different country makes you subject to an entirely different set of laws - everything from different national speed limits and priority à droit, tapage nocturne and restrictions on when you mow your lawn, how often you get your chimney swept, to very different requirements in terms of building permission, to different inheritance laws. You have a learning curve that you don’t have when you move from East Sussex to Surrey, and if you ignore that you risk getting things wrong in blissful ignorance which is no defence, nul n’est censé d’ignorer la loi.
Secondly, as a Brit you have the unconditional right to move around with the UK. As an EU citizen exercising freedom of movement you have the conditional right to move around within the UK. You can move from NE England to London to look for a job and even if you don’t find one you can carry on living there and claiming benefits. Freedom of movement between EU countries doesn’t allow you to do that.
Sorry if it sounded antagonistic, maybe it does sound a little impatient and after all this time I can’t remember exactly why I phrased my reply as I did. Maybe I felt it was being too dismissive of what FoM is all about, and I do have a bit of a thing about that because I happen to believe that the general lack of understanding and lack of respect and lack of appreciation amongst Brits of how the EU operates, including how FoM operates, had a big part in Brexit. There are Brits who genuinely believed that FoM meant carte blanche to go and live anywhere in the UK with no strings attached. I’m sure Jane isn’t one of those but implying that anyone can move to France and live exactly as they did in the UK apart from different healthcare and tax arrangements, there is no need to adapt to different law and a different culture, seemed a strange thing for her to say. So I invited her to clarify.
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Well said Anna - looking back, there was also the discussion about the status of ‘immigrant’ - the ‘concept’ that the apparent lack of ‘registration’ for UK nationals on arrival in France somehow absolves one from the tile of immigrant 
They voted for the current mess unfortunately.
Not clear what you mean by this - but if you are trying to say that no-one could have predicted the present situation and that the current state of political incompetence amidst radical polarisation of views then I would disagree.
Yes, people were being bamboozled by promises of £350million a week for the NHS (money which never existed and was about five times overspent if you add up all the promises the campaign made), threatened by claims of 90 million Turks waiting to flood our shores and promised that there was no conceivable downside to pulling out of the EU.
But amongst all that it was very clear during the campaign that the Leave side had no idea how to achieve Brexit - multiple models were suggested, multiple contradictory claims were made. But at the time it was clear we had the following basic options
- clean break. No FoM or ECJ but no SM participation either
- retain membership of the EEA but accept ECJ jurisdiction and FoM
- remain a full member
The middle path, of course retains most of the obligations of membership without representation so is a bit pointless leaving a “clean break” as the most obvious path to choose - but it was clear from the outset that there was no plan and getting a plan together with so many opposing views would be difficult.
Admittedly I failed to fully comprehend the issue of the Irish border and just how much impact it would have - or the degree to which May and her advisors would follow the superficial logic to “clean break” without the in-depth analysis that should have been done first.
But ultimately it was clear there was no plan and that a vote for “Leave” was a vote for years of arguing about the manner of doing so.
Polling suggests that it is very close - it is hard to say if there is a majority for Remain, or that Remain would win if there were a further referendum.
Quite agree on that ione.
There is no redeeming feature in this fiasco.
Obviously there is a different legal system.
There is one in Scotland too.
There is a different culture in France, in fact, there are different cultures throughout France and within different classes of people.
That is the same as in UK.
The biggest difference here is in the amount of red tape and the fact that in France the tax authorities seem to be the most helpful.
In France when asked if I am English, I say no I am a British European, which goes down well in this neck of the woods.
When I had my run in with the law, I was told that I was now one of the villagers, because I had now become a victim of the lady who made the complaint.
She is well known for causing trouble and our Mayor went to the police to say so.
He was told it was too late.
By the way, her husband was an ex gendarme.
So much for a fair legal process here.
We have never been made so welcome in any of our moves within UK as we have here.
If you want to feel like an immigrant, please do so.
We have friends who are helping us with our application for citizenship and then there will be no doubt.
Well it depends what you mean by “feel like an immigrant”.
If you mean, feel like a stranger who doesn’t belong here, and who has to be helped to do things, then no.
If you mean, feel like a relative newcomer who hasn’t grown up here and who has a lot to learn, get used to and adapt to before they can stand on their own two feet, and who is doing their best to do just that, then yes.
To me, the very fact of feeling that you’ve been made welcome, is what differentiates immigrants from natives. When people visit my home they’re visitors and I’m the host and I make them welcome. When I visit them they’re the host and they make me welcome. But however welcome they make me feel, I don’t imagine that it’s my house and I respect their house rules - if it’s their policy to take their shoes off at the door and put slippers on then that’s what I do, if they don’t have teabags in the house then I don’t demand tea.
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I’m an immigrant…because I have chosen to leave the country of my birth and move to live permanently in another country. Early in married life, we planned to emigrate to Canada… and there, again, we would have been immigrants.
When people (on hearing my accent) ask if I am English… I give a variety of replies… depending on the situation/tone of conversation… etc
eg:
Yes, I am English
No, I am Russian
D’origine Anglaise mais presque Française
Un quart Français
So, I have never used the word immigrant to describe me… but that is not deliberate… it is just how the chat flows.
Folk never ask if I have emigrated or if I am an immigrant… but they do ask if I live here permanently???.
That is an important question and one which many folk ask… and they seem pleased when I answer with a resounding YES.
(and why I say English, rather than British… is due to my stubborn streak. Being born in Scotland… one is Scottish, in Ireland one is Irish… in Wales, one is Welsh… I’m sure you get my drift. Born in England… makes me English, no matter what my passport says)
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Thanks for your explanation! X
I have never described myself as an immigrant but I know that that’s what I am. I personally differentiate between expats and immigrants and although my definitions might not be precise they do for me.
In a past life I have experienced what I consider to be an expat life, I worked abroad on a fixed term contract alongside my fellow countypeople. English was used for most of the time. There was a comprehensive social life based around British traditions and in so many ways life was more British that it had been in the Britain that I’d left. For many social life and alcohol had a particular importance. Most of the people I mixed with shared a common language with me but very little else. Home meant the British Isles. There was very little need to meet the locals or speak their language although those opportunities were always there.
My life in France is so very different. Here I mix with my friends and neighbours who are the people I have things in common with and a shared language is not high on the list. My life is more like my French neighbours’ than any one of the British families who live nearby. I very much live in France. I am well aware that there is a thriving expat community close to where I live, I know that I could step into that life very easily if I wanted to but I choose not to do so. I want to spend my time with people I like, whose company I enjoy and who have the same interests, not to seek people who are very different but speak English. I sometimes dip into that other life, through my interest in cars or like yesterday when I was invited to lunch in a British owned restaurant but I rarely feel comfortable and am always glad to leave. For me life in France was a free choice and I chose my rural location because I wanted to enjoy life in that environment warts and all. It’s been a success. I’m accepted by my neighbours, I’m pleasantly surprised when I discover that the office I need to visit is open on a Monday morning and I’m happy to accept the laws and traditions of the country I’ve moved to. Home to me is the C17th stone cottage I bought almost a quarter of a century ago.
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Wow… you are a gad about… 
so, due to the Brexit mess, I have renewed my CdS, got it in November, and tomorrow will be posting my application file for French Citizenship by Decret (47 pages). It is to the Marseille prefecture. I have been in France for nearly 40 years (over half my life) so they can’t kick me out. If my dear French wife had not passed away last October my application would have been by marriage, but unfortunately that is not to be.
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