Ha ha ha. You could not be further from the truth. Never read the Mail. I joined this forum years ago and stopped following it with others members I knew. We became bored with the tiresome comments and nastiness of some members. Five years on, I got the short straw to do a test run to see if things have changed. I would say they have not. So not for me.
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This forum remains a very useful resource - and if you make statement of opinion be prepared to have your views questioned - there is nothing wrong with debate.
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British people. Those of you who have opted for citizenship arenât statistically significant Iâm afraid, and the difficulties arenât earth-shattering so the government isnât going to be making more of an effort to make things easier - brexit-related admin is a pain for you but that really isnât our problem.
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What was your previous name on SF?
@james @cat
SF is now a very different place to what it might have been 5 years ago. I joined in 2012 and the Team have made significant efforts to maintain the site and bad eggs have been dealt with swiftly and appropriately in all the time I have been here.
Youâre not actually referring to AngloInfo by any chance are you? Now that was really a den of inequityâŚ
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Surely those who have opted for citizenship can pay just as much attention to Brexit as any other Français or Française?
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Of course they can be the emphisis changes because there is a certain feeling of certainty after the feelings of impuissance that brexit has caused.
You have hit a spot. Most of the posters on here left the UK for a âbetterâ life so it is in their interest to compare the UK unfavourably with France, hence the âthank goodness I donât live in the UK nowâ posts. I was very amused by the âgo back home commentâ. That wouldnât have been out of place said to a black person living in the UK.
For what itâs worth I moved to France but just to live somewhere different, not better. Sadly, as we really liked living there, personal reasons obliged a return to the UK.
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The question this raises for me is about you Ronald, not those who prefer France to the UK. Itâs this: why do you see this expressed preference as based on âtheir interestsâ - and overlook the much simpler and more obvious explanation, that one of the reasons they moved was that they preferred France?
Why do you want to locate the reasons for preference for France not in any real difference between life here and the UK, but in some kind of dishonest self-justification or âbad faithâ?
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It doesnât appear that strict in practice apart from most shops and hospitality venues being closed. I travelled back from Birmingham yesterday where I was supporting my elderly mother and the M6 was very congested. It couldnât have carried many more vehicles without becoming a car park.
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You obviously didnât check when I joined Elena, so donât try the prodigal daughter act with me.
Since youâre so disgruntled with Macron Pet, why donât you start a thread something along the lines of âHow good a job has Macron and his team done so farâ?
Then you could post all your Daily Mail sourced criticisms there.
Completely agree with MichaelL The lockdown isnât that strict,there is a wide definition of essential shops ,the traffic isnât much different to normal,people are still out and about
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I think thatâs a very significant difference.
I think the UKâs lockdown is actually spontaneously breaking down now - I spoke to my daughter (who is in North Wales) over the weekend and this was her impression.
My wife says her Mum (in Northumberland) also sees this.
To be fair,where I live most shops are open,as they are considered essential In a town centre it would be different
Here in the UK we do at least have a leader who is beyond reproach - acts quickly and decisively in the national interest, and does his utmost to get the best value when procuring
supplies to fight Covid. When he gets it wrong he tells us so. You cannot fail to admire his honesty and self-sacrifice - so evident in his support for Brexit. Such a caring sole, he appoints good samaritans like Priti and the very best people available for health and education.
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I think that the vast proportion of the medical profession in France are disgruntled with Macron.
He interfered in something for which he had no knowledge, just a deep feeling that the EU had been undermined by the pro-activity of the UK and been made to look like fools.
Do you really want to turn this thread into I have been a Member for longer than you?
To me it sounds really petty and I am sorry to say that Elenaâs comments strike home.
Cat has better things to do than play judge between overgrown kids.
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I hope that wasnât referring to me Ronald?
Given Elenaâs post was just an unprovoked, inaccurate and unsubstantiated attack on Macron, one could assume that sheâs very unhappy here. Since her chances of changing anything in France are zero she would be well advised to consider all her options.
Certainly Macron has made mistakes and itâs worth debating them. But Iâd prefer to deal in facts, not cut and paste Telegraph/Daily Mail propaganda.
I think you make a good point about why people live here. You chose to because you wanted to live somewhere different. Iâve done that too, For example the first time I lived in France back in 1981, then in South Africa and then UAE. All great adventures for my family and me.
But when we bought our house in France in 2004 it was because we wanted to be in France. It wasnât an adventure, it was a long term decision. My late wife had a BA in French, spoke superb French without an accent and we both were, and I continue to be, committed to France.
That doesnât mean I dislike the UK. Quite the opposite. Iâd love to spend a few weeks there now pottering around the villages in my Morgan.
I think the criticism of Johnson and his acolytes is driven by sadness over the damage he has done, not any ex-pat (though I hate the term) schadenfreude.
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His words were probably unwise Jane. But it wasnât just France that recommended not using AZ for the over 65s. For example, Germany still does and Canada announced the same in the last few days. The claim that Macron undermined AZ for jingoistic reasons might hold up if France was the only country to have doubts, but it wasnât.
BTW, the only reason I mentioned how long Iâd been member was in response to Elena, who waved her 2012 credentials around 
Iâve said it before⌠the man who never made a mistake never made anything. The point really is that people should learn from the mistakes they make but Doris seems to be blind to this which is where most of the criticism comes from.
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