I travelled via Belgium last week and decided to stay overnight at Dinant, where I have stayed previously and found to be marginally less bad than most towns in Belgium.To anyone contemplating a similar stop - don't.The whole of the town is being
At La Dolce Vita exhibition at Olympia this year I bought a jar of garlic cloves preserved in a pizzaiola type oil and vinegar mixture.It is just amazing for snacking, the whole cloves are really crunchy with a fairly mild flavour of the garlic an
I need to buy a tyre for my car. I googled all the usual words but came up with nothing. Back in UK I would simply go to Kwikfit, or ATS etc and it would be done on the spot.
Does anybody have a contact for a sun blind maker?Think of a conventional, rather old-fashioned roller blind with the roller fixed at the top of the window and the blind hanging vertically down.
I watched (on TV, that is ) the rugby from the snow-covered pitch in Rome - brrrrr! Reminded me of when I was made to play at my school in Redcar in the teeth of Winter. Terry
Residency has very little effect on Inheritance Tax. The Revenue try to class you as resident in order to get income tax - they are now considering you resident if you spend as little as 90 days in UK. Inheritance Tax is governed by your domicility, and a UK domicile will find that very difficult to shake off. It affects CGT as well.
Which is why I advocate elections immediately. Then the politicians can do all their posing and posturing in the background to try to win hearts, whilst the technocrats get on with sorting out the problems. Without knowing what is to follow any interim measure, the world will fear the worst - for example, they might imagine that Prodi will come back again, for heaven's sake - hence long-term confidence will never be restored. How to keep them in the background is the problem, which implies only that the technocrats need to be imbued with sufficient power in order to do their job unopposed. TK
Seems to me the problem will be that whatever the technocrat governors are doing, there will be a general jockeying for position by the politicians in the hope of taking over when the major problems are deemed to be solved. I can't see this latter helping in any way whatsoever, but that won't stop them. And with no clear favourites in sight, I fear it'll be a bit of a shambles, so in terms of restoring the world's confidence in Italy, will tend to undo any progress the technocrats are able to make. Better in my view would be to hold elections soon and clear up any doubts about succession, then let the technocrats get on with their interim task. T
I hold no view on the details of Italian politics, but am assured that finding an alternative to the incumbent regime may prove "difficult". As in many other parts of the world where change of leadership has been engineered by "the machine", rather than allowing the country to sort itself out.
Agreed Fillide. It's all very well people joining the bandwagon that is trying to sink Berlusconi, but they shouldn't forget that not very long ago he had the support of more than 70% of the electorate, which is much more than Merkel, Sarkozy, Cameron and Obama could muster. And he was well known to the electorate from long before that. Suddenly the propaganda machine tells us that he's a buffoon who must be removed at all costs. Now where have I heard that before? With all the world's voices baying for his removal, people are gulled into believing there is no hope for Italy, therefore it's Bonds can't be trusted. Which means that they can only be sold at discount, which means the percentage interest commitment owed by the Government increases, now to an almost untenable level. For my part it's market manipulation, engineered by a campaign to undermine confidence in Italy, using Berlusconi as an easy target. I don't necessarily condone his behaviour, but he's always been the same, and used to enjoy massive support whilst being the way he is. It's only quite recently that his behaviour is being claimed to be dangerous to the long-term validity of Italian bonds, which is patent nonsense. So of course he is bound to go, because the machine says he has to, no matter what the quality of the replacement. And I'm old enough to remember the "quality" of those who were in power before - now they really were a threat to Italy's long-term future.
"the European banks copied the system" Gala, with respect, European banks didn't gaze across the ocean and decide to copy what they saw going on there - they were sold it in the same way that anything else is sold, from double glazing to frozen peas. The banking industry worldwide was caught up in a frenzy of excitement borne out of near-zero regulation, fuelled by target-led sales people who didn't fully understand what they were selling, just like the buying banks didn't know what they were buying. When Lehmann's fan eventually got hit, the whole house of cards fell down. As of now, Italy's saving grace is that the level of household indebtedness is much lower (than UK for example), meaning that there is capacity for household spending to assist any return to growth. But in an economy where growth is traditionally a rare commodity, any future growth is being impeded by the burgeoning public debt caused by the ratings agencies and the propaganda machine - bad rating equals higher interest rate, which means less money to invest in growth. QED. What is becoming clear is that the delightfully quaint Italian way of refusing to join the modern, thrusting, profit-or-die rat race is not what the Eurozone wants and needs. Terry a quick p.s. re Sprostoni - and Gala again. The media do not generate propaganda, their job is only to spread it. Nor do they necessarily serve anyone's interests except their own. Same as all the other people selling stuff.
"We all need substantial reforms as the current system is not working". Good luck with that - Wall Street controls the whole system and it suits them to have Europe in some semblance of disarray - it makes their own situation less functionally parlous, as they are trading against weakened currencies. Bear in mind that bond markets respond directly to whatever the ratings agencies decide to put out. And guess which street they are controlled by. Italy may be in a state - in reality, very similar to the mid '90s - but it ain't necessarily so.
........particularly because the propaganda machine is after him, and as with any successful propaganda campaign the bandwagon fills up very quickly, whether the claims are justifiable or not. For my part, I don't know whether an alternative would do any better, other than satisfying the public lust for change in the hope of a better outcome.
Maybe you have to enter a null return, to let them know that nobody was there on that date? I haven't looked too closely at the form yet - I'm still wondering why they think they can afford to spend the money on a census at the present - even though it's a drop in the ocean it just sends the wrong message. A bit like Cameron (aka callmedave) telling the UK to tighten the belt while spending tax money on bombing Libyans.
Comments posted
I watched (on TV, that is
) the rugby from the snow-covered pitch in Rome - brrrrr! Reminded me of when I was made to play at my school in Redcar in the teeth of Winter. Terry
Residency has very little effect on Inheritance Tax. The Revenue try to class you as resident in order to get income tax - they are now considering you resident if you spend as little as 90 days in UK. Inheritance Tax is governed by your domicility, and a UK domicile will find that very difficult to shake off. It affects CGT as well.
Which is why I advocate elections immediately. Then the politicians can do all their posing and posturing in the background to try to win hearts, whilst the technocrats get on with sorting out the problems. Without knowing what is to follow any interim measure, the world will fear the worst - for example, they might imagine that Prodi will come back again, for heaven's sake - hence long-term confidence will never be restored. How to keep them in the background is the problem, which implies only that the technocrats need to be imbued with sufficient power in order to do their job unopposed. TK
Seems to me the problem will be that whatever the technocrat governors are doing, there will be a general jockeying for position by the politicians in the hope of taking over when the major problems are deemed to be solved. I can't see this latter helping in any way whatsoever, but that won't stop them. And with no clear favourites in sight, I fear it'll be a bit of a shambles, so in terms of restoring the world's confidence in Italy, will tend to undo any progress the technocrats are able to make. Better in my view would be to hold elections soon and clear up any doubts about succession, then let the technocrats get on with their interim task. T
I hold no view on the details of Italian politics, but am assured that finding an alternative to the incumbent regime may prove "difficult". As in many other parts of the world where change of leadership has been engineered by "the machine", rather than allowing the country to sort itself out.
Agreed Fillide. It's all very well people joining the bandwagon that is trying to sink Berlusconi, but they shouldn't forget that not very long ago he had the support of more than 70% of the electorate, which is much more than Merkel, Sarkozy, Cameron and Obama could muster. And he was well known to the electorate from long before that. Suddenly the propaganda machine tells us that he's a buffoon who must be removed at all costs. Now where have I heard that before? With all the world's voices baying for his removal, people are gulled into believing there is no hope for Italy, therefore it's Bonds can't be trusted. Which means that they can only be sold at discount, which means the percentage interest commitment owed by the Government increases, now to an almost untenable level. For my part it's market manipulation, engineered by a campaign to undermine confidence in Italy, using Berlusconi as an easy target. I don't necessarily condone his behaviour, but he's always been the same, and used to enjoy massive support whilst being the way he is. It's only quite recently that his behaviour is being claimed to be dangerous to the long-term validity of Italian bonds, which is patent nonsense. So of course he is bound to go, because the machine says he has to, no matter what the quality of the replacement. And I'm old enough to remember the "quality" of those who were in power before - now they really were a threat to Italy's long-term future.
"the European banks copied the system" Gala, with respect, European banks didn't gaze across the ocean and decide to copy what they saw going on there - they were sold it in the same way that anything else is sold, from double glazing to frozen peas. The banking industry worldwide was caught up in a frenzy of excitement borne out of near-zero regulation, fuelled by target-led sales people who didn't fully understand what they were selling, just like the buying banks didn't know what they were buying. When Lehmann's fan eventually got hit, the whole house of cards fell down. As of now, Italy's saving grace is that the level of household indebtedness is much lower (than UK for example), meaning that there is capacity for household spending to assist any return to growth. But in an economy where growth is traditionally a rare commodity, any future growth is being impeded by the burgeoning public debt caused by the ratings agencies and the propaganda machine - bad rating equals higher interest rate, which means less money to invest in growth. QED. What is becoming clear is that the delightfully quaint Italian way of refusing to join the modern, thrusting, profit-or-die rat race is not what the Eurozone wants and needs. Terry a quick p.s. re Sprostoni - and Gala again. The media do not generate propaganda, their job is only to spread it. Nor do they necessarily serve anyone's interests except their own. Same as all the other people selling stuff.
"We all need substantial reforms as the current system is not working". Good luck with that - Wall Street controls the whole system and it suits them to have Europe in some semblance of disarray - it makes their own situation less functionally parlous, as they are trading against weakened currencies. Bear in mind that bond markets respond directly to whatever the ratings agencies decide to put out. And guess which street they are controlled by. Italy may be in a state - in reality, very similar to the mid '90s - but it ain't necessarily so.
........particularly because the propaganda machine is after him, and as with any successful propaganda campaign the bandwagon fills up very quickly, whether the claims are justifiable or not. For my part, I don't know whether an alternative would do any better, other than satisfying the public lust for change in the hope of a better outcome.
Maybe you have to enter a null return, to let them know that nobody was there on that date? I haven't looked too closely at the form yet - I'm still wondering why they think they can afford to spend the money on a census at the present - even though it's a drop in the ocean it just sends the wrong message. A bit like Cameron (aka callmedave) telling the UK to tighten the belt while spending tax money on bombing Libyans.