Need some whistle blowers in the OUT campaign HQ. Hoot hoot.
With luck they are waiting until the 'get out' brigade run out of steam.
How about these for headlines and leaders:
US stocks nosedive in early trading amid collapse in global markets
Dow plummets 1,000 points minutes after opening and raises fears that a tech bubble has burst, with Facebook and Apple among the biggest early losers
US markets join global selloff after China panic – live updates
What's interesting given Dashing Daves determination to stay in the EU is the complete lack of anything positive about the EU being portrayed in the media. All I ever see and hear are the reasons NOT to remain in... surely the IN vote campaign should already be working at building a decent head of steam.
http://www.boursorama.com/cours.phtml?symbole=1rPCAC&vue=sem
CAC40 last five sessions ( -11.61%, including -3.19% at Friday closing)
| -0.27% | -1.75% | -2.06% | -3.19% | -4.82% |
The CAC40 VIX was sky high on close Friday, 28%+, so money is still going in here in France. However, it fits in with the whole picture, the Deutsche Börse in Frankfurt is doing similar things and Wall Street is the last place I would stick my pocket money at present.
London is a catch all for funny money, so the story comes as no surprise. My sister has a client in SW19 who she was told by the peron who found her the contract bought his house with cash in a suitcase. Wimbledon Hill houses are (I guess, long time since I left there) in millions. The man pays her in notes out of a briefcase. He is as generous as anybody could be, pays a bit over the odds every month but speaks not a word of English and she not a word of Kazakh. His wife has a personal interpreter/bodyguard who she thinks is tooled up. That is part of London normality so the story seems to be part of everyday life. It seems but yesterday that 'The Archers' were normality...
She thinks he is doing business in 'pharmaceuticals' - as in the gear that does not go through Boots. As far as houses she cleans, likewise company offices, she no longer asks too many questions but large amounts of cash including her being paid in dollars, Euros and even SA Rands is nothing special.
Property-prices in England as well as in Sweden are ridiculously-high. That explains at least partly where the money goes, no weasels popping necessary. The CAC40 is at -5.12% as I write. Anyone with patience and liquid cash is in for a good time. The markets were due for a crash after 7 years, that's how it goes. Banks are not releasing cash which explains the situation a little more. French property-prices are finally dropping, despite the successive governments injecting colossal amounts of cash into the Bâtiments et Travaux Publics sector, believing naively in the French saying, 'Quand le batiment va, tout va.' Higher property-price = higher rental value = higher Impôt Foncier and taxe d'habitation.
As for London : http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/london-is-now-the-global-moneylaundering-centre-for-the-drug-trade-says-crime-expert-10366262.html
If anything, right now I think people might think more about the €55bn that has been wiped off the FTSE 100 as investors panic about what is happening in China right now. Notice that the £ to € exchange rate has gone from 1.42 down to 1.37 and is low at $1.57. Good for buying sterling but actually reflecting where people are hiding money, which looks like London. If a global crisis occurs now the last thing any country needs is to try to stand alone and with a lot of money clearly flowing into the City a massive outflow with the UK leaving the EU will break its back. Economists and bankers know that, so they are now really going to go into overdrive to stay in.
The Conservatives had a pledge to remove the 15 year rule in their manifesto but they now seem to treat it a s a non urgent matter.
I cannot understand this as the referendum result could be life shattering for all of us ex pats who trusted our countries commitment to the EU and did not think our government would have a EU in/out referendum simply as a tactic to beat UKIP.
Please everybody write to your MP and ask for them to push for a fast track for a repeal of the 15 year rule to allow all of us to vote on a matter that is so vitally important to our lives.
Exit could mean - no more French health care, no inflation for state pensions, payment of all social charges - there is a real risk that we would all end up at Dover asking for help with no money as houses would be impossible to sell.
The political establishment is too savvy which is why he has little choice but next year or never. In fact, he can announce a referendum during 2017 which can be held and the EU would be powerless with regard to the decision, however that would make a bad situation worse for the UK because then the agreements the four associate countries have would not be possible, so the UK would have to go off on its own which some of the real right wing Europhobes actually want. I wonder which planet these people are on? The UK has constitutional problems anyway because neither Scotland nor Northern Ireland want to lose the benefits of EU membership. Both receive pretty decent development grants, which is what was omitted in the info on the referendum last September. I used to think that compared with many other neighbours the UK's politicians were quite honest. Now I think they are career politicians with own agendas and if we could see behind those then what we are looking at would appear very different. That is why I wonder where the anti-EU lot are? What is their unseen agenda? I used to shrug off the 53rd state of the USA notion but since (dual national) Boris Johnson came out against the EU and for closer ties with the USA something itches somewhere deep in my mind.
And what if Cameron just chose 'end of 2017' knowing that as of January 2017 there would be a ban on such a referendum?
http://www.iaindale.com/posts/2014/06/02/could-the-eu-block-an-in-out-referendum-in-britain
In fact there are also nearly six times as many French supporting the campaign for full electoral rights in the EU country of residence as UK people. But then there are less UK people than Dutch in the campaign which is a population of 65m against 17m with 2m UK people in EU states against 650,000 Dutch. There are as many Dutch all EU vote supporters. So yes, either MPs for 'foreign representation' in each country or push for an all EU electoral system and the UK to stay in. It is not 'alright Jack' and the the assumption that nothing will happen to UK citizens is complacency as far as I see it. The people who do not turn out to vote as per general election turnouts will be fairly decisive since the anti-EU people will turn out to the fullest for sure. Democracy in action may well be our undoing.
I write on a monotonous regularity to my MP as Formerly of (British Address) as this was the last time by 4 months we could vote in the General Election ...now Mr C has promised to change this situation so we could possibly be able to vote in the referendum...however the reading of bills and all that old tosh is holding it up.....so I do encourage you all to write to your former MP's and as the saying goes squeaky wheels etc.
Interestingly enough there are more young French, (in fact over double!) living in London now than the whole of France with English ... The French now have their own MP from Paris there for their rights...how come we don't have an MP for British expats...
In fact they would get MORE money but could do that selectively. Firstly, there would be no VAT exemptions between the UK and EU, excises on some things would need to be paid, prices could be set without the existing trade agreement rules, grants, subsidies, rebates and all other money given to or give back to the UK would cease. However, that would affect buying from the EU and the other financial arrangements in that direction. If the UK tried putting up prices, then EU countries would be able to look elsewhere, ditto with taxes. What the Europhobes omit to say is that the negatives are mainly in one direction which is why all American banks have said they would move to Frankfurt, Luxembourg and other nice financial centres with the forthcoming TTIP in mind, plus car makers and other industries have made it clear they would go because of the trade and subsidy agreements. Yes, they would want UK money, albeit they are not dependent on it, but at cost to the UK. All of that would mean also that as in the case of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, to have their type of trade agreements the UK would still be entirely subject to EU regulations and laws without having any say in decision and law making, plus the EU could refuse to acknowledge UK regulation and go elsewhere as required. In short, it would be a very high risk and could bankrupt the UK but there are all the downsides for UK citizens throughout the EU where the right of movement regulations would no longer be as free, education, health and social security arrangements would be different, remember it is not just France where people would be affected. There may be people who forget quickly but IDS reviewed freezing pensions for people living outside the UK a couple of years ago and hinted that a freeze would be on the cards ex-EU and even a limit on the number of years it would be allowed.
But OK, for all people who wish to sit back and say 'It won't happen', those of us who are at least thinking and willing to act might turn round and say that we have enough on our plates without helping people who were not willing to even consider anything necessary.
Keep in mind CSG and RDS
- la Contribution Sociale Généralisée (CSG) : 7,5% sur les revenus d'activité ou de remplacement et 8,2% sur les revenus du patrimoine ou de placements,
- la Contribution au remboursement de la dette sociale (CRDS) dont le taux est de 0,5%,
- le prélèvement social de 4,5%, auquel s'ajoute un prélèvement additionnel au taux de 0,3%, sur les revenus du capital,
- le prélèvement de solidarité au taux de 2% sur les revenus du patrimoine et de placement soumis à la CSG.
Take out private insurance, the French companies will be tripping over themselves trying to get the very best deal for expats.
I think we are all worried about an exit. My husband and I retired to France after working all our lives in the UK. We hope to live our the remainder of our lives here in France. An exit would mean loss of our Carte Vitale under the S1 system which would cease to exist. Additionally the appalling IDS will freeze our state pensions. These two things together would mean that financially we would have to return. So Mr Knee-Jerk Cameron will have succeeded in ruining our lives. We will of course lose money, so I for one do have some sympathy for the writer and will despair of seeing the lives of British being destroyed by this distasteful wave of German style nationalism.
I do not think it will make one iota of difference to expats if the UK leaves to EU or not. Certainly there will be some anti British sentiment, but trade is trade and the member states will still want our money just as much as we want theirs.
Too many Rambo movies?
No, war does not come under civil law. There is a whole different system using Geneva and Hague Conventions. If enough people directly affected by the war could raise a case then they could accuse Bliar of course. It depends on whether any of the 74 possible issues in Article 8 constitute either a grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, which apply to international conflicts or serious violations of article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, which apply to non-international conflicts which Iraq may be because despite invasion there was only war within one country. The Rome Statute contains three jurisdictional requirements and three admissibility requirements for which all criteria must be met for a case to proceed. That would be after it went to and was accepted by the prosecutors at the International Criminal Court which is an intergovernmental organisation cum international tribunal in The Hague then passed on to court itself to examine.
The General Election was not a referendum at all, since the case for going to war was not put as a direct question on which to vote to all eligible voters.