Category: Current Affairs

The fight is on for expat representation in Parliament (Images: Alan Cleaver)

A RETORT often given to such an idea is ‘I can’t be bothered – what use is a vote to me? I don’t live in the UK and if anything I want to vote where I live’, writes Brian Cave.

May be so, but the spectrum of expatriate Brits is enormous. At one end you can have the single person aged 30 who intends to live the rest of their life in France.

And at the other end the retired chap of 80 whose whole income via pensions and savings comes from the UK, whose social security support and health care is paid for by the UK under EU regulations and who has family in the UK.

The lack of concern by one should not preclude the interests of the other. After all, no one is obliged to exercise a right to vote.

Within Europe a British citizen can move freely. So the young 30-year-old may earn a living in France for five years, then move to Spain for five years and finally marry an Italian and go to live in Germany.

All the time his ageing mother is living in Leeds, his brother is serving in Afghanistan in the army, his niece is having difficulties at a school in Rochester and he remains British.

It happens that every British citizen is affected by British laws, simply by being British. Every international treaty is signed on our behalf. If Britain pulled out of the EU then it would impinge on every British citizen. Such an action could spell problems for the 54,000 retired Brits living in France and the 450,000 in Europe.

The vote, you should understand, is a mere mechanical process. What is needed is representation in the British Parliament of the needs and concerns of every British expatriate – little or great as it may be.

Over the past decade the right for expatriates to vote has been limited to an arbitrary set of years from leaving the UK shores. It has ranged from zero to five to 20 and back to 15 years, where it is now.

Only one country in Europe, Ireland, totally avoids the representation of their citizens within the EU. Denmark is limited. France and Italy have MPs who have constituencies abroad. French people can vote in London for the French Assembly.

Two citizens have challenged the situation in the courts. Harry Shindler, who is aged 90 but as vibrant as a 60-year-old, in Italy who has a case before the European Court of Justice, and James Prestonm, much younger and who runs a business in Spain. His case is before the High Court in London and running under appeal.

Recently the matter was debated as a corollary to another issue in the House of Lords. One Peer, Lord Lexden, spoke up magnificently on behalf of the British expatriate.

A whole group of activists across the world is pressing the case hard. To find out more, and join in with your support go to www.votes-for-expat-brits.com

IT’S just after eight in the morning in Loubejac and the overnight frost lies heavy on the fields.

Behind me the moon hangs low in the west and a wren hops from branch to branch, the sun has yet to rise but the day begins to stir (click image to enlarge).

IF you have decided to bring a little more order to your life for the new year, then maybe the delights of the Filofax can help.

From his home in Deux-Sèvres, Steve Morton has helped turn the Philofaxy website into a leading resource for all things Filofax.

The site features buying guides and tips on how Steve and guest authors set up their individual Filofax, as well as advice on creating your own pages for specific records, with hole punch at the ready.

And whilst Steve hosts Skype chats for people around the world, he recently dropped in on Poitiers for a meet-up and is looking to set up another get-together for Filofax users towards spring or summer.

Considering the world seems to be getting ever faster, and ever more complex meaning more bits and bytes go wrong, I’m sure the appeal of returning to pen and paper will only grow.

WELL known writer and journalist, Basil Howitt, died in December and I am sure readers will have read his many articles about life in France.

Here his wife Clare Gallaway writes about their life together, after their meeting in Manchester in 1997.

The couple got on famously, finding many shared interests and were soon married. However Basil set a condition – that Clare should be prepared to live in the south of France as soon as it became feasible!

Basil Howitt, who died on 3 December, will be missed here in France, perhaps first and foremost for his well-informed and widely-read articles on local customs and issues.

However it was through his previous career as a professional musician that he discovered his beloved corner of the Pyrénées-Orientales.

Born in Manchester, his first trip to France was a holiday with his parents. The little boy was wide-eyed with wonder at the cheminots he saw in Calais (his articles often feature trains and train journeys).

His musical career began then too, as a chorister in Manchester Cathedral, followed by Chetham’s School of Music, then a Choral Exhibition to Trinity College, Cambridge.

He sang, conducted, and played the cello, and eventually left his ‘day-job’ as a Liberal Studies lecturer to become a professional cellist.

Writing was another love. He gave pre-concert talks and his articles about music and musicians were published in music periodicals and the British press.

His first book, Life in a Penguin Suit was a collection of vignettes on the life of a jobbing musician and was followed by three books on the love lives of composers.

Finally, he completed a mighty work on the lives of the Carroll family, Walter and his Daughters, commissioned by the Walter Carroll Trust.

In retirement, not an appropriate word where Basil was concerned, he and his wife Clare came to live in France.

In the 1980s he played in the Rasiguères Festival de la Musique et du Vin with the Manchester Camerata and had bought in 1991 an enchanting old maison de village in a nearby village.

Typically, he adapted his writing skills to the internet and for several years, wrote regularly on life and customs in the P-O on a range of websites.

He kept up with current issues via the French press and internet, and tackled political and social themes, local customs and the patrimoine, but was never happier than when writing about gourmet topics.

His style was readable and lively, but the contents were always well-researched and informative. His series of 55 articles appearing monthly on expatica.com were hugely popular.

He will be remembered as a genial, hospitable friend who loved food, drink, music and France, with an infectious enthusiasm and joie de vivre.

A LIST of French public holidays for your diaries, so you can plan your visits to France or outings.

I have also included the days they fall upon, as you can be pretty sure that if one lands on a Thursday, then it might be a struggle to get anything done on the Friday.

French Public Holidays 2012

New Year’s Day (Jour de l’An)
Sunday 1 Janaury

Easter Sunday (Pâques)
Monday 9 April

May Day (Fête du Travail)
Tuesday 1 May

Victory in Europe Day (Fête de la Victoire)
Tuesday 8 May

Ascension
Thursday 17 May

Pentecost (Lundi de Pentecôte)
Monday 28 May

Bastille Day (Fête nationale)
Saturday 14 July

Assumption (l’Assomption)
Wednesday 15 August

All Saints’ Day (Toussaint)
Thursday 1 November

Armistice Day (Jour de l’Armistice de 1918)
Sunday 11 November

Christmas Day (Jour de Noël)
Tuesday 25 December

THE Christmas weekend looks set to be one of clear blue skies, with frosty mornings and low lying mist in the hollows and dips of the countryside.

This was the view this morning whilst taking the dog for a walk as the sun edged its way over the horizon and the faint crunch of frost on the grass could be heard as I walked through the fields, click image to enlarge.

THE fight continues to block exploratory work on shale gas deposits, or gaz de schiste, at locations across France.

Despite legislation being passed by the French government banning the use of ‘fracking’ techniques to extract the gas, research by drilling companies can still take place.

The team behind the Schiste Happens website are hoping people will sign a petition aimed at blocking the creation of a permit covering land in the south west of France (click thumbnail image to enlarge).

“The petition is calling for a rejection of the Permis Beaumont de Lomagne in the Lot, Dordogne and Tarn-et-Garonne, as well as the rescinding of all existing permits and a general tightening up of the law passed in July which only banned commercial hydro-fracking,” writes Schiste Happens.

“It still allowed companies to go ahead and get the gas out if they could do so without hydro fracking. It also allowed for experimental fracking for research purposes. A cynic may interpret that as using fracking to find a new way of fracking which is not called fracking…

“But this misses a critical issue which is that while the prospect of ‘easy’ energy is dangled in front of oil companies and governments, research and development into alternative and renewable sources will be greatly reduced. Also the drive to reduce the use of all energy derived from carbon based fuels will also slow down.

“If you are in any doubt about this, witness Canada’s withdrawal from the Kyoto agreement yesterday on the grounds that they could not reduce their consumption and withdrawal would mean they could not be fined for missing their target – brilliant! Oh yes, and they have massive reserves of shale gas.

“Petitions in France work. They were in no small part responsible for July’s law but they need to get to 100,000 (or so) before they have any effect. So far there are fewer than 600 signatures on this new petition. Let’s see if we can get that into the thousands before the end of the week.”

Sign the petition now.

(After you sign the petition you will get an email from Petitions24.net asking you to confirm that you are the person you say you are. Just click the COMFIRMER link in the email.)

Related:
Total continues shale gas studies in south of France
Fighting shale gas plans in the Lot

EXPLORATION into the extraction of shale gas will continue in France, despite the government cancelling three licences in the south of France.

Speaking on the iTele news channel, finance minister Valérie Pécresse said research into the potential of shale gas deposits in France had to continue.

This comes as ecology minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said that three permits, Nant and Villeneuve-de-Berg operated by US-owned Schuepbach and the Montélimar permit overseen by Total have been cancelled.

(more…)

FRENCH oil company Total has said it will continue to explore the potential of gaz de schiste, or shale gas, fields in the south of France.

Its Montélimar permit runs from the north of Montélimar, past Nimes towards Montpellier, and whilst legislation was passed earlier this year banning the ‘fracking’ technique of extraction, companies can still carry out research in the permitted areas.

(more…)

THERE have been a number of health scares in recent days in relation to food products.

With this in mind you might want to pop in your favourites a page on the Que Choisir website, the equivalent of Which? magazine, that highlights product recalls on French items.

The page provides a run down of products either by date or subject with information on the steps you can take if you find you’ve bought something that faces a recall.

You can stay in touch with the work of Que Choisir by signing up to their newsletter, this not only features the studies they undertake on products which you access via subscription, but mentions the latest recall news.