Apech

A shilling! Half a crown more like. Do you think Brexit will bring back the old coinage. I can still remember when things were priced for things like 1 pound 19 sh. and eleven pence three farthing.

yeah I used to watch France 24 in English a while a go - its actually a good news channel.

Does Annegret rhyme with Regret?

Rene, Rene why are you wearing zat yellow jacket? Silly woman! Zere is a riot going on.

I'm tempted to say she's more of a man than you are

She's going to be replaced by an AKK (which is not an assault rifle apparently).

Sacre bleu you ignorant Ingleesh man! Do you know nothing of ze grande histoire de France!

From the live feed they appear to be trying to break into a sports shop to rob some trainers - or possibly jogging pants given the phrase sans-culottes.

Frexit!!!!

Found this in the Grauniad: The charter A charter of gilets jaunes’ “suggestions to end this crisis” has been circulating on Facebook. While far from “official” – the movement has no agreed representatives – it does illustrate the diverse, and sometimes contradictory, nature of their demands: Economy/work A full review of taxation, with no citizen to be taxed at more than 25% of income; an immediate 40% increase in the minimum wage, pensions and benefits; “mass hirings” in the state sector to restore quality of services in hospitals, schools, etc; 5m new homes; make banks “smaller”. Politics France’s constitution to be rewritten “by the people and for the interests of the people”; lobbying to be banned; France should leave the EU; recover €80bn lost to tax evasion each year; halt and/or reverse all privatisations; removal of “useless” speed cameras; reform of education system, removal of all “ideologies”; quadruple budget of judicial system, which must be simplified, free and accessible for all; break up media monopolies and end cosy relationship between media and the political class; open media up to the people. Health/environment 10-year guarantee on products to end planned obsolescence; ban plastic bottles; limit power of pharmaceutical companies; ban GM foods, carcinogenic pesticides, monoculture; reindustrialise France to reduce imports and therefore pollution. Geopolitics Pull France out of Nato and foreign wars; end the plunder of French-speaking Africa; prevent migration flows that cannot be welcomed or integrated given current “civilisational crisis”; scrupulous respect for international law and engagements.

What precisely are they rioting about?

Don't worry I know nothing about US Law.

Close the curtains - Special Branch are surveilling your house.

Also those French seem to misunderstand cars. They turn them upside down and stand on them. They're not going anywhere that way!

I've read the book in question - but then I don't practice Nei Gong - but I do like to look around here and there for helpful ideas. I agree with some of the criticisms above like 'energy of Dao' being waffle words. As to the exercises being like warm up - apart from wuji posture and some basic sitting meditation there aren't any exercises in the book - so I think that is unfair. He is quite honest about his own experiences which he recounts in detail - which is unusual for a writer on this subject - and he also honest when he gets to higher level stuff about his own achievements. I found the whole thing quite interesting and well written (though a bit repetitive) - I wouldn't follow it for practice but then I wouldn't follow any book. I don't follow books I read them If you are like me and just like to assimilate information from various sources then give it a go.

I hope you didn't mean cum sucker.

You used the word scum twice in one paragraph - which is unimaginative. so 5/10 for that post.

Meaningful would make a change.

Cameron presented the original referendum as binding and one-off (because he thought he would win) - so I think a second referendum would not be a valid way forward and even if Remain won it there would still be a huge backlash. the can of worms has been opened and that's that. The problem with hard Brexit is the unpredictability of the result. It could be very limited and a huge success, or it might be 10 - 15 years of recession and hardship plus instability. No one really knows. If in doubt I prefer the cautious approach. I think if I was an MP I'd go for May's deal on the basis that once we are 'technically' out and the water seems fine we can always ditch parts of it, if and when it seems right (I realise this might be legally dubious but hey). Also the instability in French suggests the EU might start changing soon - for instance if it devolved into a single market and not a political union then all well and good.

Amazing breakthrough in sub-atomic nutrition:

If you like to do online personality tests, here's one: http://www.dichotomytests.com My result: http://www.dichotomytests.com/results.html?id=0&m=-35&e=-62.5&i=-10&h=-57.5&n=-70&r=-2.5&s=0

I didn't realise transgenderism involved stapling.

I don't think it is necessary although they could have an Independence referendum like they did in Scotland - but the break up of the union doesn't seem either necessary or a good idea.

On reflection I think the whole thing is a storm in a tea cup. Is it beyond the wit of man to have a physically open border with some kind electronic tracking such as they already use for speed traps and toll roads (in Europe)* which logs transit of goods - then its just case of spot checking anything suspicious and a routine sample of say 10% of lorries. So the border would be physically open even if there was a technical barrier and custom duties. * in Europe there are toll roads where if you display a pass on your windscreen you go through without stopping and also some where cameras detect your transit and you pay later online or through a post office and so on.

Full legal advice is here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/exiting-the-eu-publication-of-legal-advice ... and from what I can tell it says that the back-stop for NI would effectively be permanent with no mechanism for withdrawal - so locked in permanent negotiations with the EU having no compulsion to agree to anything. It would be like cold.war peace talks which meet forever without any intention of reaching a conclusion. i think that this means the NI situation means the only Brexit is a hard Brexit which would create a 'hard' border between NI and Ireland itself which is counter to the peace agreement. So that's the hard choice I guess.