Re: Forthcoming Euro elections

x-no-archive: yes

TheMuntDregger2 wrote:

As immigration reduces

Most predictions suggest immigration will continue to rise, partly because of our generous benefits system and partly because they want to live in communities with their former compatriots who are already over here.

There's something of a crisis in our primary schools at the moment because the number of immigrants vastly exceeded government predictions so the government was busy closing schools while the number of kids was actually increasing. And, of course, one in seven of them don't have English as a first language.


Alas, i don't want to as I love Wales and the uk but, in business, you either go
forward or backwards. The current financial turmoil in the uk is reasonably
good for us as we get lots of work. However, its all 'one off's whereas our
Euro stuff is all long term contracts. We're lucky in having quite a few young
people who would actually like to relocate abroad. Sometime this year we
intend to set up an operation in Malaga which is going to be manned full time.
Then it will be a matter of transferring work that would otherwise have been
done in the uk.


nulab have fucked our finances such that tax will be high for at least a couple of decades. Not much future here if your primary markets are abroad.

Its all a crying shame as UK should have been at the heart of Europe and was
excellently positioned in the late 90's to do just that.

No, Thatcher gave up our industry and our coal mines leaving us over-reliant on financial services. The rest of Europe were always likely to catch up on financial services at some stage, and have the added advantage of protectionist markets. At the moment we have nowhere to go apart from picking up crumbs from the table, like Centrica's 20% of British Energy.


Its true that you can do certain types of business, but not at the higher end.
Also, using English puts you at a cultural disadvantage if you're operating a
business on their home soil. Most Europeans will speak English, but they
love it if you try to speak their language and give you great credit for it.

But there's no such language as 'European'. A Frog can do business with a Kraut and a rosbif in English, but a rosbif would have to learn two languages to reciprocate.


Alas, nowadays the world is an economic village. Any country with a
free market capitalist economy is or will be affected.

Not necessarily. The crisis was initiated by poor US regulation of banks initially, and the rest of the symptoms are ripples from the fallout. Any country with a tight rein on its banking industry should be relatively unscathed.

> Similarly, any
country who depends on the latter for major trade. Being part of a larger
economic unit means that capital can be more effectively used to restart
growth.

Disagree. A bigger engine needs a bigger starting handle fullstop.


I know some actuaries who do that ***. :)


Heh! its truly mind bendingly boring stuff. It makes me laugh to think that I'm the
only one in the company with out so much as a maths cse (let alone a degree :).

I do it all by sense of smell alone :) That and fancy fortran subs.


Wow. The actuaries I know have higher degrees in maths.


I've only done short term stuff in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy. However,
I've had an absolute hoot each time. The tendency abroad is to live far more
rounded lives. Hence, entertaining, holidays, breaks, good food, booze, joking
about is the norm. If I had a young family again, I would definitely want to be
abroad.

I think that's a question of attitude. You can have fun in the UK if you set your mind to it.

> Kids are so much safer and everything is much more family
oreintated.
Now, even the health care is better than the uk. After watching my father die in High Wycombe General,

A really really shitty hospital, IIRC.


Too true. The sooner we have a republic, the sooner we say goodbye to
the class system, establishment fuckwits and the fucking waste of time royals.
Its a complete joke that we still have these relics of feudal hierarchy in this
day and age.

To any neutral observer it's obvious that alcoholic, biased, snout-in-trough cover-up-initiating Speaker Mick Martin has irreparably damaged one of the most exulted Commons Institutions. It would be great if it lead to a root-and-branch reform where all the ancient symbolry is swept aside and replaced by a modern, more democratic system of government. Given that the EU is headed in the opposite direction, I don't have much hope.

Evil Nigel


Other than that, I suppose I'm just a grumpy old *** :)


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