Half Century [50]
...and they said it wouldn't last!
Dear Funky Friends,
How’s your week (or two) been? Hope you’ve had a good one!
I’ve had two weeks off and, incredibly, I’ve actually managed to stay away from work things for the most of it. It’s only taken me about 50 years to work out how to switch off!
In Finistère, the weather has turned and it now looks like a film set for some low-budget horror movie where all the budget was spent on a fog machine - I can see just beyond the end of our garden on a good day!
Anyway, enough of this meteorological tittle-tattle, let’s get on with it!
In this laser-focused edition, we will:
probably mention the US election
maybe mention passports
conceivably celebrate Ikea
…and much more!
So, strap-in and prepare your brain for a rollercoaster of random!
Have a great one!
James x
If WaPo Won’t Say It….
Passports
In the last edition, you may recall that I talked about the new Croatian digital passport. Well, as I was preparing to write something completely different, I took a look at my British passport - and it expired back in June! It seems that I haven’t had a UK passport for months…
I have taken part in quite a few discussions about whether to renew a British passport when you are a dual national and, in my case, there is not really any benefit in doing so. The Croatian passport is actually only different from a UK passport by a tiny handful of countries but, crucially, my Croatian citizenship allows me to live and move freely across the EU. The British passport simply doesn’t confer any comparable benefit.
Born in the UK in 1973, I have never had a passport that was issued by a non-member state of the EEC/EC/EU.
Long may that continue.
Paris Bans Cars from Monday
OK, so that’s a bit of hyperbole but it’s not a million kilometres from the truth.
Paris city is introducing a Limited Traffic Zone in the centre of town in an area of approximately 5.5km2.
Within the ZTL only emergency vehicles, buses, taxis, people with reduced mobility, motorists living or people working there will be able to enter the area. The aim is to reduce traffic within some of the areas by up to 30%.
You can find more details here.
In addition, from the start of next year, vehicles which are rated Crit’air 3 will join Crit’air 4 and 5 vehicles in being banned for large parts of the week. If you haven’t already and are thinking of visiting Paris in a car for some reason, get your Crit’air sticker now!
Glanage 2024
One of my favourite countryside activities is glanage. At its simplest, it’s the collection of the veg that are left in the field after harvest.
Due to the increasingly strict (and weird) requirements of consumers and supermarkets, the amount of perfectly good food that is left in the field to rot is absolutely unbelievable.
This is most of what was left in one small field near us. All perfectly usable, fantastic for soup - and the seeds are great for the chickens!
I dread to think what the tonnage of perfectly usable food that is left to rot is.
“…wasn’t perfect…”
As surprising as it may seem, sometimes I just don’t have the words.
More Passports
It looked like it might one day happen but I am not sure I really believed it would actually ever happen… but it’s actually happened.
The Croatian passport is now more powerful than the UK passport.
One country that has worked hard to gain diplomatic confidence in the 33 years since its independence and another which seems to have spent the eight years since its ‘independence’ referendum seeing how many countries it could alienate.
Both policies have had a visible impact.
Social Supermarket
I feel like I am regularly surprised by our local supermarket. It often leads the way with initiatives to help people in the community to make their lives easier - and seems to be copied elsewhere soon after.
Their latest initiative was particularly unexpected…
To help customers who might find it difficult to do their shopping, but who would rather do it themselves rather than rely on click and collect or delivery, three times a week, they will have staff on hand to help push the trolley and load your shopping into the car.
Impressive stuff.
Brexit: I Told You So #3947 Revisited
Back in the day, during the Brexit referendum debate, there was some (very short) discussion about the UK no longer accepting EU ID cards for entry into the UK. While it was not thought important, I (along with a lot of other people) tried to explain that a lot of people in the EU do not hold a passport - because you can visit a lot of countries using just an EU member state ID card (for instance, a Croatian ID card will get you in to 38 countries).
It turns out that, as the UK is literally situated within Europe, it has been a popular tourist destination for EU travellers but the post-Brexit requirement for a passport to enter caused a significant drop in tourists from the EU. Imagine a family considering a trip to the UK and suddenly needing to go through the administrative process of getting four passports, documents, photos and fees… just for a trip to the UK because they probably won’t need that passport for anywhere else…
This change also did untold damage to the school trip sector - but it was a boon for the Irish school trip sector because it turns out that they speak English in Ireland too! Who knew, right?
To ease the problem for the UK’s education trip industry, the UK reached an agreement with France that would allow French students to visit the UK with just their ID card.
Hurray! The UK has decided to become sensible for a moment!
Yaay!
…
Well, it turns out that it’s just for a moment.
As part of its gargantuan efforts to pretend it’s as big as the US or EU, the UK is planning to implement a pre-clearance system, called the ETA. Travellers to the UK will be required to register in advance. In order to get the clearance, all they have to do is pay a fee, provided some details and… err… oh yes, have a passport.
So the kids are back to square one.
Now. put yourself in the shoes of a French headteacher and you are planning on a trip for students to practice their English next year. Are you going to take the risk of the added costs of a trip to the UK or just go to Ireland? I know which I would do in their position.
That Covers Everything
Details
One of the marvels of the glorious conflagration of Swedish style with the time-bending qualities of a black hole, Ikea, is the way in which their product displays really do show their products in a real-life environment.
At a recent trip to Ikea in Brest, I was particularly impressed by the way that they have captured the state of most people’s bedside electrical arrangements.
This product is available in all EU Ikea stores and is called the Eleknött. (Not really!)
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One Elon - Two Faces
One of the joys of occasionally being the world’s richest person is that you can have the best ethics that money can buy. Or the worst. Whatever way you look at it.
One of Musk’s web of SuperPACs is funding a huge part of the Trump campaign and, as part of that, it is running adverts to Muslim voters in America to say that Democrat Party candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris is pro-Israel.
The SuperPAC is also running ads to Jewish voters in America to say that Democrat Party candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris is pro-Palestine.
You can find out more about how Musk is trying to buy the election using misinformation over at HuffPo.
…and that’s it!
50 editions is something of a milestone and I have to thank Christian Payne (Documentally) for having pushed me at the beginning and once or twice since to ensure that this newsletter got this far!
Also, a massive thank you to everyone who has commented, shared, emailed and bought me a coffee over the past 50 editions.
I still haven’t worked out what this newsletter is about and I’m not sure that I ever will - maybe it doesn’t need a theme. Let’s just see where it takes us!
It’s great to have you with me on this journey!
Have a fab week,
J x