BS: Kent, part of France?

Subject: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Bugsy
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 02:44 AM

I was reading a back issue of Country life, a UK mag, whilst waiting for my radiotherapy today.

There's a little section in there showing the good and bad things that happened during the week and one of the bad things was -

"Kent has been assigned as part of France in a recent EU map"

I'm originally from Kent and strongly object to being assigned Frog status.

Anybody else heard about this horrendous state of affairs?

Cheers


Bugsy

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: GUEST,Geoff the Duck
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 03:37 AM

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: GUEST,Geoff the Duck
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 03:40 AM

Pressed the wrong button!

What I was going to say is - Does that mean we can buy our booze and petrol in Kent at French tax rates instead of the extortionate duty we usually have to pay?
Quack!!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 04:03 AM

It is a cunning German plan.....

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 05:42 AM

Well a few months back, another EU map missed out Wales altogether, and so made the Irish sea bigger.

I'm not saying if this is a good or bad thing...

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: David C. Carter
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 06:00 AM

I thought I was sitting here in Paris...
So you're telling me I've been living in Kent all the time!
Merde!...or should that be sh.t!

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 07:13 AM

I'm all for that. It always feels like going to a foreign country going through the tunnel or across the bridge at Dartford, anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: GUEST,Neovo
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 08:08 AM

Perhaps the French have decided to give us back Calais!

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 08:25 AM

Lots of things go on in the European Union. Nobody pays any attention until it's too late.

Britain (or maybe England) should get out now, before we go completely bankrupt.

Or don't you want any more schools, hospitals, nurses, doctors, police .... ?

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 10:14 AM

The map

Whether this idea of large regions is good or not I don't know, but on a much smaller level we have it already in many border regions of Germany: Cross national bodies composed of the local regions from both sides (or even three sides (where three countries meet) discuss and (when there is agreement even suggest) such threatening things like a harmonisation of the time tables of local public transport, taking into account public holidays of the neighbours in opening times, including police and fire brigade of the other country in a local alarm plan in case of a big disaster (explosion in a chemical plant, for instance).

In the old times the information had to go up to the German minister responsible for this and only he could inform the respective say French minister and from him the information would go down to the locals. Days later they would know what kind of contamination was crossing the border after an explosion.

It even has happened as a consequence of these trans-national bodies that the nearest fire brigade of the other country has crossed the border to help without waiting for the consent of the ministers of interior affairs after consultation with the ministers of defense of both sides. At the Dutch-German border, even both police forces (in hot pursuit only) may cross the border and make arrests in the near border region of the other country.

Wolfgang (not feeling that German sovereignty suffers from these agreed upon exceptions)

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: MMario
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 10:26 AM

well - the map that Wolfgang links to seems to be more based on what bodies of water the regions are next to then anything else. In fact, no country names except ireland and wales are mentioned.

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 11:05 AM

Would this mean we could have Dutch type Coffee Shops in Essex like they have in Amsterdam? Mmmm...

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Les from Hull
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 11:22 AM

Thanks Wolfgang for that note of sense. No one takes any notice of why the map is produced (to encourage co-operation between member states), but some dumb journalist sses a map and writes a silly story and everyone leaps to their feet and waves their national flag. Pathetic.

Thanks for the link. I see the first idiot to write in is from the Isle of Man, about the Isle of Man being missed of the map. But the Isle of Man isn't in the EU!

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Paul from Hull
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 11:33 AM

This came up as a topic on another site I visit (non-music) & many of the people there reacted in the same way as the Daily Mail & the Tory spokesmen.

All it actually seems to mean is that yet again a bunch of overpaid B-Eurocrats have been paid to waste, time effort & money on something thats essentially meaningless.

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Penny S.
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 11:35 AM

It certainly feels foreign crossing into Essex.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 12:07 PM

Well in Essex County Hall we've still got the names of all the Kings of Essex up on the walls of the Council Chamber. All ready for Independence Day.

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Cluin
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 12:13 PM

Here comes another 100 Years war.

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 12:18 PM

We're already in one of those Cluin - kicked off in 1914 or so, and is still under way.

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 01:48 PM

ZIS EES AN UTRAJE.

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Bert
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 02:20 PM

Well the one good thing about that map is that the white parts don't exist at all. Good riddance I say!!! *HEE HEE*

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Dead Horse
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 02:48 PM

Well this part of Kent has a definate French flavour, albeit Cajun French :-)
(and if ya look close enough, I am in there somewhere)

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: autolycus
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 05:18 PM

For the benefit of non-Brits, here's some idea of what some of the Brit. newspapers mean (for the next time someone mentions one).


   The Times is read by the peo-le who run the country.

   The Mirror is read by the people who think they run the country.

   The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country.


   The Daily Telegraph is read by the people who think the country should be run the way it used to be.

   The Financial Times is read by the people who own the country.



       There are others.






       Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 05:31 PM

Hey, if you Kentish folks don't want in, would they accept my country as a substitute? I volunteer it. I want the five-week paid summer vacations, paid one-year maternity leaves (for mother or father, should Dad want to be the primary caregiver), the universal health care, free university education, Giverny, and all that great food.

Elmer

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 09:46 PM

there was a young feller from Kent
and my god, his willy was bent
they did try and warn us
that man pisses round corners
and the piss never goes where its meant

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Bugsy
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 08:37 PM

Elmer Fudd,

"Hey, if you Kentish folks don't want in, would they accept my country as a substitute?"

Kentish Folk?

KENTISH FOLK??

I'll have you know I'm a MAN OF KENT and PROUD OF IT!!!


Still I'm quite happy to go along with the Rest of your proposal.

CHEERS

Bugsy    ;>)

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 12:41 AM

Sorry, man.

Elmer

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Snuffy
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 08:37 AM

Sounds like a good idea to me, restoring Normandy and Calais to the British throne, where they've always belonged really.

Next stop Anjou, Hanover ...

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Dave Earl
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 09:07 AM

OH! they have included Sussex in this plan.

They'll have trouble if they try it.

Cos:-

"We be from Sussex and us won't be druv"

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Bugsy
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 01:55 AM

So we don't have to worry then?


CHeers


Bugsy

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: GUEST,Penguin Egg
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 10:24 AM

The people of Kent will never submit to the tyranny of France. If they try to use force...ok, if they use force, that's different. There is nothing wrong with being French...even if you can't speak a word of french.

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 02:14 PM

As has been pointed out recently, the real purpose of replacing Trident is simple. The French have Nukes. Do you really trust them...

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Paul from Hull
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 03:48 PM

...& the best use for that bloody Chunnel would be as the launch tube.......

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 05:23 PM

Bugsy are you a Kentish Man or a Man of Kent?

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Bugsy
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 07:49 PM

MAN OF KENT!



Cheers


Bugsy

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Dec 06 - 05:28 AM

Well that clears it up - except - which side of the Medway does that relate to?

And do you visit the Chatham room here?

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 16 Dec 06 - 02:32 PM

I'm a Kentish Man - West of the Medway.

It's not quite the Mason-Dixon line, but it has some significance.....

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 16 Dec 06 - 02:36 PM

Actually, it's quite interesting that the Mason-Dixon line was between English colonies, ordered to be the boundary between them by the English Crown, and surveyed by Britons, yet is of such significance in America to this day.

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Bugsy
Date: 16 Dec 06 - 07:31 PM

East of the Medway for me, in fact from the Isle of Thanet.


Cheers


Bugsy

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: The Walrus
Date: 16 Dec 06 - 08:03 PM

On the subject of Men of Kent and Kentish Men, a little ditty used to start fights in pubs containing members of 'The Buffs' (The East Kent Regiment) before the Great War.
The Men of Kent were battered and bent
They tottered as far as Malta
The Gyppies fired,
The Buffs retired
You can't see an arse for water.

(The Buffs were sent out for one of the Egyption campaigns as re-enforcements, but the war finished while they were still 'acclimatising' on Malta).

Walrus
(ducking to avoid a flying belt buckle*)


*A favoured weapon in Army pub fights of the time - see Kiplings 'Belts'.

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Bugsy
Date: 16 Dec 06 - 09:43 PM

Yes Walrus, it is fighting talk.

My Grandfather fought with the Buffs.

For the Uninitiated and interested THE BUFFS

Whilst I consider myself something of a pacifist, I have no time for anyone who denegrates the memory of brave men who offered their services in defence of their country.

Bugsy

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Murray on Saltspring
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 02:10 AM

This reminds me of that great film from Ealing Studios, "Passport to Pimlico" - ring bells, anyone? The borough was discovered to be an ancient possession of Burgundy. Followed border difficulties, the locals opting out of food rationing etc. etc. - good fun.

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: The Walrus
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 08:31 AM

Bugsy,

I wasn't attempting to denegrate anyone's memory.
Half my Uncles were also Buffs, my Granfather was Queen's (West Surrey) Regt (the other was in the Andrew), my Father was Aldershot Concrete Company - my own affiliation (although not regular Army) was Queen's Regt (the result of a merger of the two Surrey, both Kent, Royal Sussex and Middlesex Regiments).

The ditty quoted was, apparently popular with the 'Dirty Half-Hundred'* (the Royal West Kents)

Walrus


* The nickname comes from early uniforms having cheaply dyed black facings, which tended to run when wet.

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: GUEST,sorefingers
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 09:52 AM

Lots of rubbish for the bored jobless dole sucker to complain about!

Don't you Brits ever lay off? What about saying something nice about your neighbors.

Geee

Happy Chrismas to the rest

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: gnomad
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 01:25 PM

I'll say something nice about my neighbours, just to please sorefingers: They have the great taste to live next door to me (and my upstairs neighbour makes terrific pickled onions).

There you are.

As for laying off, well, not really we don't. I think it comes from living so close together.

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: autolycus
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 01:29 PM

There's humungusly more than that to it - I feel another thread coming on.






       Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Bugsy
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 04:38 PM

Point taken Walrus.


Merry Christmas

Seasonal Cheers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Bert
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 05:22 PM

What about saying something nice about your neighbors....

Ha ha ha. You obviously know very little about British cultue.

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 06:58 PM

Uh, Bugsy, dare I ask:

Does his mean you don't play folk music in Kent?

making a fast exit (to France),

Elmer

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Bugsy
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 12:04 AM

No I don't Elmer,

I live in Perth Western Australia.

' Bit far to travel.


CHeers


Bugsy

Subject: RE: BS: Kent, part of France?
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 02:54 AM

Hardy har har, O man of Kent!