What now for the EU ?

[Harryc]

With 70% of EU trade to the UK (and Ireland) going through just 2 ports in an already economically depressed region of France, he is not going to blockade anything.
It is only 120 odd road miles from Calais to Brussels and most of that is 2 lane motorways.
Not very suitable for stacking lorries on .

Like a lot of his political ideas in the past, they always start off as good ideas, then going towards legislation he gets shot down in the media, and people are out on the streets at the drop of a hat.
Good ideas and intentions are then forgotten about totally or so watered down that the President after next will have to deal with them.
(Pensions and health reform are the first two subjects that spring to mind.)

Has he stuffed them up too?
I'd have thought being hitched to an OAP he would have ensured he had got them right.

 

[AsterixTG]

Sorry if it's been mentioned, what were the additional demands Barnier tabled that were so important that it's worth the risk of total derailment for them?

Or was it just inexperience and arrogance that made him think it be taken lightly?

 

[syrup]

Has he stuffed them up too?
I'd have thought being hitched to an OAP he would have ensured he had got them right.

Part of Macron's problems
His wife being present at Waterloo she remembers how the British can be stubborn in times of crises

 

[Themanwho]

Part of Macron's problems
His wife being present at Waterloo she remembers how the British can be stubborn in times of crises

Perhaps she should regale him with tales of Mers El Kebir instead, to drive the point home that it's unwise to cross Perfidious Albion.

 

[Auld-Yin]

Depends which polls you believe - anywhere between 32% and 49% popularity. Much better than Hollande, but Macron is truly despised by many in France - Arguably, he only got the presidency by chance in the last general election

Macron was the 'new boy' promising to change the way French politics was going.

Fast forward a couple of years and plus ca change.......!

 

[Auld-Yin]

Part of Macron's problems
His wife being present at Waterloo she remembers how the British can be stubborn in times of crises

Le Garde Recule!

 

[History_Man]

Sorry if it's been mentioned, what were the additional demands Barnier tabled that were so important that it's worth the risk of total derailment for them?

Or was it just inexperience and arrogance that made him think it be taken lightly?

The French wanted to ignore the 12-mile limit so that they could continue to fish within 6 miles of our shoreline.

 

[Oyibo]

Macron was the 'new boy' promising to change the way French politics was going.

Fast forward a couple of years and plus ca change.......!

When he was elected I was chatting with a French bloke about whether he could turn France around (unions, pensions etc).

"Not a chance" said he.

I countered by proffering the example Saint Margaret of Thatcher as a strong determined leader.

"Pah" said he (he didn't really, but the tone of his voice was "pah"), "Even The Iron Lady could not have broken the French Unions."

Frankly, Macron never stood a chance.

 

[harrythebastard]

Has he stuffed them up too?
I'd have thought being hitched to an OAP he would have ensured he had got them right.

I think a Presidential pension scheme on top of both of them already being millionaires will not see them shopping in Aldi or Lidl any time soon!

(Don't forget also that Barnier was previously the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries from 2007 to 2009 and settled a previous dispute in the favour of the fishermen.)

 

[HCL]

Part of Macron's problems
His wife being present at Waterloo she remembers how the British can be stubborn in times of crises

As can the French: “The Guard dies but does not surrender”.

 

[syrup]

As can the French: “The Guard dies but does not surrender”.

My Bold

Are we talking about the same French here?

 

[PhotEx]

When he was elected I was chatting with a French bloke about whether he could turn France around (unions, pensions etc).

"Not a chance" said he.

I countered by proffering the example Saint Margaret of Thatcher as a strong determined leader.

"Pah" said he (he didn't really, but the tone of his voice was "pah"), "Even The Iron Lady could not have broken the French Unions."

Frankly, Macron never stood a chance.

Didn’t (do?) the French Railways have some ludicrous pension where you retired in your 50’s? on a full indexed pension?

 

[Oyibo]

Didn’t (do?) the French Railways have some ludicrous pension where you retired in your 50’s? on a full indexed pension?

For drivers who have worked for 15 years plus. (55 years old for admin types.)

When Macron got in I had a booze-up with some neighbours and they all quoted train drivers as an example of why the system needed to change. But when I asked if they actually wanted a change not one person did.

Just a personal observation/opinion, but the French really live for their retirement - and many years of it, whereas many Brits are more of the mindset of 'I'll work until I cannot do so any more'. (Sweeping generalisation alert.)

 

[Themanwho]

As can the French: “The Guard dies but does not surrender”.

I'm sure that can be arranged.

 

[ExAuxBalloonCorps]

As can the French: “The Guard dies but does not surrender”.

<WAH SHIELD UP>
Ah Gen Pierre Cambronne.
Only trouble was they did surrender and he denied ever saying those words.
<WAH SHIELD DOWN>

 

[cent05zr70]

Didn’t (do?) the French Railways have some ludicrous pension where you retired in your 50’s? on a full indexed pension?

Sounds a bit like our bogies..

 

[PhotEx]

For drivers who have worked for 15 years plus. (55 years old for admin types.)

When Macron got in I had a booze-up with some neighbours and they all quoted train drivers as an example of why the system needed to change. But when I asked if they actually wanted a change not one person did.

Just a personal observation/opinion, but the French really live for their retirement - and many years of it, whereas many Brits are more of the mindset of 'I'll work until I cannot do so any more'. (Sweeping generalisation alert.)

no wonder the systems technically broke!

Beneficiaries of the special retirement plans[edit]​

• The French military: the average retirement age is 45.7, if the employee has achieved 40 years of payments he is entitled to a pension equal to 75% of the salary of the last 6 months. If the 40 years have not been achieved, there is a system to calculate the allowance based on the numbers of annuities paid. However, military pension cannot fall beneath a certain minimum (€500 per month for an adjutant, for example);
• EDF and GDF average retirement age: 55.4;
• RATP: average retirement age: 54.8;
• SNCF average retirement age: 52.5;
• The Banque de France has harmonised its retirement plan based on the civil servant one, but keeps a separate fund;
• Sailors: average retirement age: 57.6;
• Comédie-Française;
• Opéra de Paris (1,693 contributing workers and 1,272 retired beneficiaries);
• Miners (14,489 workers and 150,464 pensioners along with than 200,000 other beneficiaries (widows, etc...));
• Members of the Assemblée nationale and of the Sénat;
• Civil law notaries' (45,052 workers and 24,915 retired pensioners) ;
• National Police;
• The agents of the autonomous Port of Strasbourg, which is the smallest special retirement fund with 156 workers and 203 retired pensioners.[4]

 

[RumRationReject]

we have just wasted 41/2 years talking to them about a deal

Is that four and a half years? Or forty-one/two years?
Freudian slip or uncannily accurate?

 

[philc]

I fail to see what concern this is of the EU? How the UK goes forward is the choice of the UK, the path is steered by who ever the country elects, the choices they put forward and if the majority want those choices. What concern is it of the EU.

The EU challenged Britain to decide what future it wants for itself outside the bloc’s single market and customs union after 47 years as a member of the union.

“The real question is - which political, economic, social project do they want for their own future?” European Council President Charles Michel said. “And this is a question for the British government and for the British people.”

UK, EU call in leaders to save trade talks

British and EU negotiators paused trade talks on Friday to call in their leaders to try to narrow gaps and get an agreement over the line, less than four weeks before Britain completes its Brexit journey out of the bloc.

uk.reuters.com

 

[Truxx]

I fail to see what concern this is of the EU? How the UK goes forward is the choice of the UK, the path is steered by who ever the country elects, the choices they put forward and if the majority want those choices. What concern is it of the EU.

The EU challenged Britain to decide what future it wants for itself outside the bloc’s single market and customs union after 47 years as a member of the union.

“The real question is - which political, economic, social project do they want for their own future?” European Council President Charles Michel said. “And this is a question for the British government and for the British people.”

UK, EU call in leaders to save trade talks

British and EU negotiators paused trade talks on Friday to call in their leaders to try to narrow gaps and get an agreement over the line, less than four weeks before Britain completes its Brexit journey out of the bloc.

uk.reuters.com

Put bluntly, the disciples of the projekt simply cannot see anything other than the Projekt.