Paphos Life

Interesting ........... do you believe your posts are small minded or just everybody else’s?


Shane

Rita Sherry. Where did I say “sneeringly”? You took it that way. You’re problem. As usual, you step in with innacurate statements and single sided rants.

Like you accused me once of being a racist. I asked for evidence. You never replied as per. You are more caustic than I could ever be.

My father fought for 7 years in WW2 and that was to give us all choice. Freedom to decide what we thought and where we worked and freedom to protest?, to disagree and more. He hated ‘celebration’ of war and hates lessons never were learned. The war to end all wars? Ha. We have caused more in history than any other nation.

How hypocritical for someone living in a chosen Republic to tell me to go live in one and leave the UK.

You don’t self check, do you? I have great respect for peacekeeping of the forces and their heroics in times of relieving civilians in trouble. I have said it on here.

Rita

Very well said ! Only those who appreciate the sacrifices our service men and women make will ever feel as we do. Those who sneer aren't even worthy of a response, one reason why I am not responding to the jibes of JGW.

Jackie

Please allow me to put in tuppence worth. My background is working middle-class, my father being a professional engineer. I went to what was termed a "Headmaster's Conference" school and was brought up in a very Conservative environment in one of the 'better' parts of Edinburgh. After obtaining an engineering degree, I did 2½ years National Service in the Royal Signals, partially in Cyprus and partially on active service in the Canal Zone (before the Middle East Land Forces moved to Cyprus). At the time that I was demobilised my political feelings were still well to the right of centre. It was not long, working in industry as an electronics engineer that I started to observe some injustices, with the respect to the people that I often worked with and I started to question my politics.

In 1963, we moved to Switzerland, and I slowly observed that my political views were different to those within the country. Slowly, I suppose I absorbed the pacific background and, over the years, I realised that I had become a pacifist, in the sense that the only justified Armed Forces were purely for defence and should never be deployed outside the country. The Swiss army is a militia which is purely for internal defence and I believe it is the largest army in Europe. Every active man from 19 to about 50 is a soldier and keeps his arms at home, ready for the defence of the Confederation. This is pragmatic pacifism.

I think we would all like to be "pacifists" at the end of the day but the reality of life makes that highly unlikely, unfortunately!


Shane

Hudswell wrote: ↑Sat Sep 15, 2018 9:32 pm Germany actually had plans to invade Switzerland during WWII, what they realised is that the natural terrain of the country would make it almost impossible to defeat, and would tie up resources needed elsewhere, Instead they utilised its resources in other ways. Neutrality is a wonderful thing, but as TD points out it would not have saved the UK or indeed other European countries. Sometimes you have to put self interest to one side, and that is what other European countries have done, to defend themselves even if that means projecting force beyond their borders, because it is the right thing to do. I am afraid Switzerland lost the moral high ground many years ago.

Hudswell
I did read that and also the Swiss Army was on a war footing which was another reason the Nazis were reluctant to try to invade.

Jim

Jim B wrote: ↑Sun Sep 16, 2018 9:05 am Hudswell
I did read that and also the Swiss Army was on a war footing which was another reason the Nazis were reluctant to try to invade.

Jim

That is perfectly true. I was not there during either world war, so I cannot speak from experience. However, with a fully armed and highly disciplined militia of practically all the male population, even the relatively flat area between the lakes of Constance and Geneva would have been a tough nut to crack, bearing in mind that the whole country, including the mountains, was (is) peppered with camouflaged redoubts.

Remember also that three quarters of the country spoke a German dialect and there was a large sympathy towards Germany but the country was not invaded because its declared neutrality suited the Axis as a means of communication with the rest of the world. I suspect that the same would have applied to Britain if it had declared neutrality, rather than going willy-nilly into the war starting with Poland on the 3 September 1939. However, this is entirely hypothetical because Britain never could be neutral in the same way that Switzerland was.

TD

Interestingly when we lived in Cyprus, we were invited to lunch on Green Monday with a local Cypriot family who were our neighbours. The conversation turned to the invasion by Turkey, we didn't want to get involved, but the Son In law of the family rounded on us, asking why British Troops had not come to the Aid of Cyprus. We said we didn't know and shrugged it off, but it left the atmosphere rather strained.

So it would seem that by Devil's Law, the Cypriot Army should have fought the Turks, and that British Army, quite rightly, did not and should not. Now imagine if that happens today, will the Cypriot Army stand and fight I wonder. Just a thought.

Jackie

News yesterday -
Jaguar resorts to 3-day working week
https://www.ft.com/content/fe5c7116-ba8 ... b72926558f

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/m ... f-15164026
JLR workers at the historic Castle Bromwich site were told they were moving to a three-day week.
The change comes with the car giant struggling as a result of Brexit and the fall in demand for diesel models.
It came hours after a top Tory accused the firm of "making up" fears over Brexit.

If you prefer German - the faz (the German paper actually has a "Brexit" section! - )
Jaguar führt Drei-Tage-Woche ein
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/brexit/jagua ... 92937.html
Der größte britische Autohersteller bereitet sich auf Schwierigkeiten vor. Und nicht nur er wappnet sich für einen chaotischen Brexit.

===

Still saying they are "fully committed" to the UK, of course. I found this also in the Financial Times - not known for its political bias - in my opinion -
Jaguar Land Rover to shed jobs, move work to Slovakia
https://www.ft.com/content/f2c6e930-6d7 ... b934ff5ffa

Apparently they are building a new plant in Slovakia. That's in the EU. That from June this year.
Found this in the Slovakian press from last month -
Insiders indicate that Jaguar Land Rover in Nitra will start production on September 3
https://spectator.sme.sk/c/20896352/ins ... ber-3.html

This also in the FT
Deutsche Bank steps up plan to shift more UK assets after Brexit
https://www.ft.com/content/962ff0b0-b84 ... 9c8613f4a1

Deutsche Bank has scaled up plans to shift hundreds of billions of assets from London to Frankfurt after coming under increasing pressure from European regulators over the size and complexity of its UK operations after Brexit.Deutsche could eventually move about three-quarters of its estimated €600bn balance sheet back home. Any transfer of the German bank’s assets, equivalent to almost half the total held by European lenders in the UK, would be a big blow to the City of London, which has seen overseas banks move operations to mainland Europe amid the uncertainty of Britain leaving the EU.

On top of this last month -
Bank of America staff move raises concerns about London’s future
https://www.ft.com/content/5050179a-97b ... 46bae86e6d
The bank, which has picked Dublin as its new EU headquarters and Paris as a key centre for its trading business, declined to comment.

kingfisher wrote: ↑Tue Sep 11, 2018 12:12 am Only 199 days, 23 hours, fifty two minutes and seventeen, sorry sixteen seconds till we leave. Yippee!!
Jon.

What precisely do you expect to change in 200 days' time?
Or, like billionaire Rees Mogg, you think we may see benefits in perhaps 50 years' time?

All the FT links need you to subscribe

Apologies. Maybe if you do a google search separately? I seem to be ok.
Alternatives
Jaguar workers put on three-day week until Christmas
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45550025
Jaguar... moving from UK
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... o-slovakia
Brexit: Deutsche Bank moves half of euro clearing business from London to Frankfurt
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/busi ... 69301.html
Bank of America moves senior London bankers to Paris ahead of Brexit
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-brit ... SKBN1JM1R7

Jacob Rees Mogg actually said that it could take up to 50 years to realise the full potential of Brexit which is rather different to what some of the Media and Oh Susanna attributed to him!!
I think the important words here are "up to" and "full potential" don't you?

Whether it's 50 years or up to is till extremely concerning.... even 10 years is a significant slice of people's lives and we are still awaiting the good news that Brexit will bring.... I think we might still be saying that in up to 50 years....

Know what, at the turn of the Century, scaremongers were predicting that all the computer networks would fail, we would be left without any computerised systems, all records lost, planes would fall out of the sky at midnight.

I think it's the same for Brexit, all the doom and gloom will eventually prove to have been rubbish.

Jackie

Countless I.T techs worked long hours to mitigate the effects of the millenium bug. It wasn't rubbish. Just because you don't understand something, doesn't mean it didn't exist.

Rather ironically where I worked, the only thing that died on 01/01/2000 was one of the tape backup devices. It was one of the few things that wasn't tested.

Dominic

I understood what the scaremongers were saying, and no I have never worked in I.T.

Lloyd

There were companies in the UK long before we joined the EU which in spite of that, did well trading with the rest of the world. Even after we have left, the EU will want as much of our money as they can get their hands on, that means a trade deal I would imagine.

As far as the commercial world is concerned, before we joined the E.U. I worked in the Civil Service, and Local Government, so you are correct.

Jackie

Firefly wrote: ↑Tue Sep 18, 2018 12:44 pm Know what, at the turn of the Century, scaremongers were predicting that all the computer networks would fail, we would be left without any computerised systems, all records lost, planes would fall out of the sky at midnight.

I think it's the same for Brexit, all the doom and gloom will eventually prove to have been rubbish.

Jackie

In 1998/9 I spent over a year working for United Utilities checking out and modifying the control systems on hundreds of plants throughout the North West to make sure there were no failures. There was a massive effort all over the world to make sure there were no major disasters and it was because of this there were none.

Jim

Have I missed something here? It is planned maintenance which has just responsibly been arranged for after brexit but it appears that it would have taken place sometime next year anyway?