Foreign Perspectives

Archive for the ‘UK’ Category

For a while now the action in the mutual society takeover stakes has begun to have the feeling that was around in the early 90s.

In days gone by you could carry quite a selection of items onboard: case (up to 110 cm total dimensions) plus an assortment “personal items” which include such things as a handbag, coat, umbrella, walking stick, camera, a reasonable amount of reading material, essential medication, binoculars and briefcase or laptop. Bring a child and you can add a child seat and can take the pram up to the aircraft door.

Those are the former “official” items that you could bring but, as we’ve all seen, you could bring on bags substantially larger and, of course, you could always buy more stuff in the shops and dutyfree after you checked in which consequently was never weighed and had the overall effect that some people could barely carry the bags onto the plane. So, in reality, nobody paid much attention to the official list of items but even if you did, there was a very substantial chunk of luggage that could legimately be taken onto the plane. That’s before you even consider the exceptions that were always made.

Fly from the UK today and you’ll find that things are a good deal more strict. The case is now down to 55cm (essentially a laptop bag) and the personal items have all but disappeared from the allowances. It’s been a while since you could take a syringe on without proving that you were diabetic but even liquid medicines now require a prescription to prove that you need them.

Also out are the exceptions. So that precious cello that can’t go in the unpressurised baggage hold can’t go which is causing some grief with musicians who travel around.

OK, I do accept that the security risk at the moment means that there will need to be limitations on what can be carried through security checks. However, that’s the point: it’s the security checks that are limiting what can be carried on. The only real reason that you can carry on a 55cm bag is that business in the UK would grind to a halt if laptops couldn’t be carried around as airlines simply aren’t equipped to carry large numbers of fragile items in the hold. Is a 55cm bag packed with electronic equipment “less risky” onboard than a cello? Quite obviously it isn’t: a cello looks very simple on an x-ray, a laptop is anything but simple.

So why not the cello? Well, simply because the authorities don’t want to complicate the life of the security people with growing lists of exceptions. The large number of passengers passing through security checks means that yes/no decisions need to be taken quickly and at very low levels. The people on the ground screening your luggage almost certainly don’t know why they are excluding certain items, just that if an item isn’t on their list then it’s not permitted. Which is, of course, the problem – they need to be educated as to why each restriction is in place. For instance, all liquids, gels and the like are out because numerous explosives come in that form but I’d be willing to bet that the majority of people checking your luggage don’t know that’s the reason.

With some education, perhaps we could get back to a sensible carryon allowance. A 110cm bag full of clothes is much easier to check than a 55cm one with a laptop. For one thing, the complex electronics that make up a modern laptop could easily conceal a bomb timer; that’s even before you consider the battery which usually isn’t transparent on a scanner. In practical terms, I suspect that one extra bag needs to be permitted to carry passports, tickets and the like but I’d be inclined to call a halt beyond that for the majority of people.

When the panic button was pressed in the UK in August, the effects were seen here the next day, but did it have any lasting effect?

The small shop in our local airport doesn’t sell much wine or honey these days as it mainly sold those whilst people were wandering around after they’d checked their luggage. The wineries are none too pleased as there was a considerable amount of wine taken home as hand-luggage before the scare. A pilot who was staying with us recently thought that he’d be able to get his little case of wine onboard by showing his pilots license ’til I reminded him that the guys that flew the planes into the twin towers also had a pilots license.

I was expecting at least some increased level of security on my flight from Barcelona to Santiago but if anything the security was much lower than I’d been expecting. Thanks to the wonders of online check-in I was never even asked if I’d any sharp objects in my luggage, if I’d packed it myself, etc. In fact, the only contact that I had with anyone prior to boarding the plane was when someone had a fairly cursory glance at my passport just before I walked out onto the tarmac.

What about the increased security in the UK airports though? Delays in flight arrivals are much more common as the increased security level means that minor discrepancies result in flights being held until the source is identified. Earlier in the week one of the flights was an hour late because someone had dropped their boarding card for instance. Is that crazy? No, because the effect of the error was that it looked like someone who should have been on board the flight actually wasn’t.

What doesn’t seem so sensible is the very arbitrary reduction in the maximum size of carryon luggage. Is it really a co-incidence that the size corresponds to that of a laptop bag? I doubt that very much. The other aspect is that it now takes much longer to collect luggage from flights as almost everyone has checked baggage these days (quite a nice little earner for the likes of Ryanair with their charge for checked luggage).

I also can’t see that the security staff will maintain their vigilance in picking out potential terrorists. In todays world what they will more than likely do is to stop and question anyone who looks Muslim. OK, I will grant that this tactic will presumably pick out a higher proportion of potential terrorists than just picking out people at random in that the threat is, in practical terms, originating from the Muslim world. However, it’s also going to alienate Muslims in general and it may well sway the views of some middle of the road Muslims towards the anti-west mind-set which isn’t in anyone’s interest.

To indicate how ridiculous this kind of method of picking out potential terrorists can be, consider the flights from Belfast to London 10 years ago. They were all met by a couple of officers from the Metropolitan police. The ONLY people that they stopped to question were men walking by themselves. I used to travel back and forth from Belfast to London quite frequently so was able to experiment with this. If I was travelling on my own, all that I needed to do to avoid being stopped was to walk alongside a woman. Any woman: I didn’t need to speak to her, or do anything other than walk alongside her. I wonder how long it will be before the security people start picking out their subjects for questioning on the basis of some equally silly thinking to “single guy alone = terrorists”?

Arnold

Our washing machine is on it’s last legs so we thought we’d get ourselves a new one before it keels over altogether so it was off to Darty. Thought we’d get a make that we’d heard of as supposedly it would be more reliable but seeing as the cheapest one I’d heard of was EUR 439 and the cheapest cheapo make was EUR 199 we figured, “hey, so what if it breaks down after the two year guarantee; we’ll just buy another one”. Anyway, el cheapo washing machine should be turning up sometime tomorrow. And even better, I got to use my brand new Amex card! Yes, we have now found two shops that take it. Not exactly the most useful card to have in France although it does look very pretty.

Seeing as it looks reasonably likely that the assorted Inland Revenue offices will consider me as a Crown Servant I figured that we’d best get the tax credit & child benefit claims in for John in case there’s some limit to the backdating of payments. It sounded a good enough argument to the child tax guy who was all set to pay us the tax credit but our record is currently locked (those guys gotta get a new computer system!) so that’s certainly sounding promising. Child benefit are debating the issue as supposedly you need to pay national insurance in the UK to get it but, assuming that the main tax office accept the Crown Servant status, that’s where I’d be paying it so I guess it’s a matter of waiting for their decision. Snag is that the French tax year ends in December so I need them to decide pretty soon. The biggest plus point would be that I could ditch our **** French accountant, all being well I’ll be looking for a UK accountant very shortly.

Also thought it was time to regularise Wendy a bit so it was off to the work permit place (for reasons which are even more complicated than I could possibly describe here). Anyway, after a very long chat there which which brilliant for my French, we now have to go to the Mairie to see about getting the residence permit which should have been here a month or two ago.

Oh, nationality again… the Paris guy reckoned, no, John wasn’t British because the new nationality legislation of 2002 still isn’t in force yet (despite it having gone through parliament over two years ago!). However, as I queried a few things he dug himself into a hole and now has to consult HQ. To summarise the state of affairs: as the old nationality legislation is still in force, I can’t pass my nationality on to John (they define “father” as “husband”). However, children born to Crown Servants (a rather significant status) are treated as though they were born in the UK. Were he born in the UK, Wendy could actually give him British nationality as she has a residence permit which is automatically renewable (next month in fact) ie she can live in the UK “without limitation” which means that in Belfast we could get a passport, so adding that to the Crown Servant status means that…. our man in Paris can’t answer the nationality question but he now realises that he’s given me enough rope to hang him! So, it’s possible that we could just apply for a UK passport for him in Paris (or indeed in Belfast when I’m over). Laughably, we can now get James a British passport so perhaps we’ll manage a consistent set some of these days (we’ve been pulled up twice in the airports already as it looks very suspicious to have a British guy and an Australian girl taking an Irish child abroad).

We’re now up to five separate groups of people who’ve stayed here since July and are buying houses. Latest arrival is a couple from Bristol who are off househunting as I write this. We haven’t actually noticed the prices going up and you can still get quite a reasonable place in the next village for about EUR 50,000. However, we did notice a similar property to ours (though about half the size) on sale for EUR 900,000 last week which is getting on for twice what we paid and seeing as our place is more than twice (possibly as much as triple) the size of it, I guess ours is worth more like EUR 1,500,000. Hmmm, almost enough to sell up & retire. Seriously though, if there were a way of getting the place valued over here, we’d be quite keen on having that valuation to take along to the bank.

I guess now and again it comes across that it’s a complete nightmare living here with all the bureaucratic nonsense that they get up to sometimes and the last week or two has certainly been one of those times when it’s end to end bureaucratic dead-ends. But then we sit back and think: hey, it’s September, it’s 30 in the shade, we’ve a really serious suntan, we own a hotel (that definitely falls in the category of phrases I never expected to be uttering, in spite of the odd joke after Roger bought the restaurant), and whilst we may have the French bureaucracy to deal with now and again, we’ve none of the daily hassles of working for anyone else. And aside from anything else, running a hotel is dead on: the guests are only here in the morning and evening so we’ve pretty much the whole day to ourselves.

Almost forgot, it looks like Mark C has relinquished his title of the “tightest tourist” (jointly held with Norman H and my Mum) and will be venturing over next year. Although, I’m sure he’ll be pushing for discounts when he gets here… He’ll also be making his second TV appearance, in France this time (naturally all costs being met by someone else!).

Arnold

Nothing happening on the baby front at the moment… Wendy reckons sometime this week for sure.

I thought I’d have a go at claiming the French “child benefit” a few weeks ago which helped to kick off quite a bunch of tax papers from the UK to join those starting to arrive from France.

Up to now the French side has been relatively simple. Apart from a few hitches several weeks back we are on track to be fully into the French health system (although probably not before John turns up) and, thanks to the European freedom of movement legislation, I was able to tell the French pension scheme where to go last week (they can’t force you into their compulsory pension scheme if you’ve already got one in another European country). I even had the first bill from the social security folk last week which I was all set to pay, until I started working through the UK Child Benefit form.

I got onto the second page when I came across the question “when did you stop working in the UK?”. That sounds simple, doesn’t it? Obviously it would be whatever date in early March I stopped getting paid ie just looking at the P45 would give me the necessary date. Ah, well, no.

Those of you in Rosepark may recall that I didn’t have a “leaving do”. That’s because I didn’t resign. I’m actually still working for the civil service! No, seriously, I am. Think about it: they’re paying for my further education, they invite me for promotion interviews, they send me circulars, they say I’m still subject to civil service rules,… OK, they’re not paying my salary, but in all other respects, I’m still “on the books”. Net effect of this is that it would appear that I can opt out of the French tax & social security system altogether. I would also appear to have the status of Crown Servant which is pretty significant in a lot of respects, and particularly so in terms of tax (and, I think, nationality ie it will affect John).

Anyway, I seem to have become a job creation scheme for the Inland Revenue and an education service for them and their French equivalents!

Assuming that they agree with this state of affairs, step one is to sack the French accountant (a major upside) and acquire a UK one then start fully unravelling myself from the French system. I’d also need to start planning for the fateful day four and a bit years off when I actually do have to resign although I think I can still stay out of the French system even then.

More anon on this one as it will probably take the Inland Revenue a month or more to work out the implications of my situation.

Saw a bit more on the dreadful year for the French tourism industry at the weekend. Seems that the travel agents had been telling everyone to go somewhere other than the south of France for their holidays this year. Net effect, naturally, is that the number of tourists knocking around France is well down. They have also changed their holiday habits and are generally looking at the forecast and going if it’s nice and going for shorter periods too. To be honest, we haven’t really noticed all this as we’ve been ramping up the promotion for the hotel since we started so it’s quite difficult to tell whether the number of customers we have now is increasing because it’s the high season or because of the increased advertising we’re doing. Probably a bit of both.

As it is, over the last month we’ve had more bookings than both the local hotels put together which impresses me no end as they’ve both been at it for years. Although we’ve been mostly getting bookings just a few days ahead we’ve already got bookings for October, December, February and March. Kind of un-nerving to have a nearly empty reservations book two weeks ahead but it’s been like that all through July and August yet we’ve ended up almost running out of sheets & towels for the rooms at times in practice.

All being well, we’re hoping to start properly promoting the restaurant in a few weeks time after Wendy recovers a bit. Suggestions for an opening promotion welcome!

Must head on now… ’tis tea-time.