News / "Shale Gas Revolution" will make Poland a Leading Country in Europe! [202]

The problem is that manipulated/ill-informed public opinion and commercial timescales don't have much respect for each other. I'm sort of involved in both nuclear and shale gas - "just following orders" ...

Wait for global warmism to decline in popularity with a few cold years and far higher electricity prices (caused by CO2 allowances). However, the elites should be able to hold the line - as they did for mass immigration and de facto ghettoisation.

News / Poland-EU: Positive and negative features? [45]

The de facto ban on little people having foreign bank accounts (this came in supposedly to encourage competition in banking).

EU foreign policy bureau - how many millions for Baroness Ashton's outfit? And, yeah, who is she? Worse than Rumpy (oh dear, spelling)

News / Dumbing-down in Polish schools and the Matura [185]

Oh for goodness sake!
You vary the way you speak depending on who you're talking to. Silly point-scoring. I don't berate my older brother for referring to GCSEs as O levels, even though his son is taking them this year. 1% of Brits would understand "Arbitur" - no, I haven't conducted any surveys but you know what I mean ...

News / Is it right for Polish citizens/Poles not living in PL to vote? [11]

Not knowing what the future will bring (e.g. I might like to spend more time in the UK when my kids become independent), I'm nervous about registering to vote in UK national elections. They like evidence like this of your "centre of life interests" for tax purposes. So, I'm going to lose my UK right to vote.

Anyway, I would have to register in a safe Tory seat, so my vote would change nothing.

UK, Ireland / Poland and Britain? What has caused the downtur in the UK? [28]

Except half my family works for the NHS - it's not much fun when people are keeling over in Pinderfields Hospital Wakefield cos the PFI contract demands exorbitant profit rather than performance and the former management of the hospital has all left. But it doesn't matter much, does it? Or that an acquaintance of mine has to get diagnosed for cancer and treated in Greece. Oh oh oh ex-pats ...

I'm not an ex-pat - I'm an immigrant.

News / Poland and UK linked by failure to report the news [4]

Yeah, the website. Try watching the news on TV.

News / Acquisition of HSW (Poland's building equipment maker) by leading Chinese manufacturer. [17]

China is trying to buy up as many companies as it can around the world. It sees Poland as an easy way into Europe for its workers - this story ties in with the migrant labour treaty signed a couple of years ago allowing up to 100,000 Chinese in Poland. Not good news.

UK, Ireland / Poland and Britain? What has caused the downtur in the UK? [28]

Look SLD disgraced themselves when in power last and the election punished them severely. Labour took the UK to the brink of bankruptcy and it's OK, cos it all started in America!! That's clever!

The NHS - any idea of how PFI has crippled the NHS for a generation? No-one bats an eyelid.

History / Why did communism in Poland fail? [180]

The men in power stole, told everyone else to shut up if they knew what was good for them and gave some a few freebies stolen from other people ... and the normal people had to get on with their lives as best they could. Then, when the rich decided they couldn't get away with it any longer they stole some more and handed over power on condition they wouldn't be prosecuted.

The owner of Polsat is a superb case of how a former security force nobody from nowhere has made a fortune. Think Abramowicz - ditto. Most people try not to notice, others go mad and start listening to loonies.

UK, Ireland / Poland and Britain? What has caused the downtur in the UK? [28]

In Poland you would be able to afford going private. In Britain, you wouldn't. I hope the operation is going to be done in a unit which does a decent number of heart operations - there are surprisingly few of them. The problem with the small places is that they have little experience and poor supervision, leading inevitably to high mortality rates. Bristol is an infamous case in point.

And I would say that Brits have been sold down the river when it comes to public healthcare by all concerned: doctors, nurses, management, construction companies, public finance initiative players - regardless of which party is in power. But Brits are simply too thick to understand anything beyond simplistic slogans. The last elections are a case in point - Labour should have been absolutely slaughtered, but wasn't.

News / Santander buys the third largest bank in Poland (Bank Zachodni) [11]

AIB is bust - for example, they're willing to take huge penalties in the UK just to release capital.

Santander was already here, but it's easier to buy someone else's customers than get your own.
That said, Santander itself is terribly exposed to the Spanish real estate market ...

Law / Healthcare for British Citizens living in Poland [30]

As usual Delphi gives oracular advice without having any knowledge.

You can come to Poland with a pre-existing medical condition and sign up for ZUS contributions and get treated like everyone else. Centrum Onkologii in the Warsaw district of Ursynów is the main cancer centre and provides excellent care, though you will be shocked to see how fast the consultants process each patient. That way, large numbers of patients get seen in the minimum period of time. Most consultants speak English if they have to.

You may wish to check (in advance of a definitive move to Poland) with a specialist in your particular cancer as to the healthcare provision in terms of specific drugs - this you can do by contacting the hospital and finding out about a private appointment with a specialist, i.e. before you enter the Polish healthcare system. Private consultations are not expensive.

If you intend to settle in a place outside of Warsaw (or perhaps Gliwice), then cancer healthcare provision is sketchy.

Language / Rzeczpospolita Polska - translation? [42]

Oh my goodness! At last someone has discovered that Polish too has idiosyncratic expressions that don't fit snugly into English.

"Old" Rzeczpospolita = Commonwealth
"New" Rzeczpospolita = specifically modern Polish republic harking back to former glories.

Sad, but true.

They also choose other weird expressions like voivod and marshal, as if they all have exuberant handlebar moustaches and rides around on horseback wielding sabres and lances.

UK, Ireland / Why can't the poles speak english, if they want to work in England? [35]

OW! That hurts ...

Life / Family, Community --> Society "The Polish Way" [29]

I'm uncomfortable with the way you say things, but I suppose I can let most of what you say go.

However, my wife finds satisfaction in work that engages her brain - teaching English, French and Latin. She also hopes to find time to co-write a book with me and to take on more translation work when her time is freed up a bit (we need to concentrate on keeping our 16 year-old son switched on to schoolwork).

History / Stalag Luft III - the Great Escape (yes, it's in Poland!) [20]

Hold on - remember Carl Sagan - American bloke, presented a TV show "Cosmos" many moons ago?
His family (Jewish) must have taken their name from this place.

Anyway - it was a Luftwaffe POW camp.

UK, Ireland / Why can't the poles speak english, if they want to work in England? [35]

whare wud jonny goe?

History / Stalag Luft III - the Great Escape (yes, it's in Poland!) [20]

Missed it, probably because I do have a life.

UK, Ireland / Why can't the poles speak english, if they want to work in England? [35]

In this country???

I'm in Poland and they're making a jolly good effort old bean!!

Anyway old chap - you seem to be in need of a spot of extra tuition yourself.

News / Poland leads nations in raising 90 million euros for Belarus opposition [73]

In Russia, yes. Make no mistake, Belarus is a fake Ruski state.

Life / Family, Community --> Society "The Polish Way" [29]

I'd love her to earn more than me - and had no problem when she was the money-earner and I was studying.

Cats don't like bread - at least mine didn't. Cheese, yes.

News / Poland leads nations in raising 90 million euros for Belarus opposition [73]

Belarussians probably want repression, sorry, strong government.

Life / Family, Community --> Society "The Polish Way" [29]

Lodz

I don't agree with you. I don't have any problems with women working as a norm, but it so happens in my family that my wife can work part-time. When she worked full-time it caused problems - no grandparents available to babysit small children - and the family suffered.

What I don't understand is "girls' night out", "lads' night out", separate bank accounts, me and you mentality ... or even worse 'marriage = social death so don't do it until you're 30'.

By delaying marriage and kids, society is effectively saying that grandparents are worthless (as on average they're going to be dead or near death by the time the first grandkid appears). What a sad society.

Work / What kind of job can I find, can I make descent money in Poland? Coming from Canada. [33]

He's lost it!

UK, Ireland / Advice to Polish parents in the UK about weaning babies? [15]

Wouldn't feed it to my neighbour's dog!

Life / Family, Community --> Society "The Polish Way" [29]

Haguey - you might be right if Tusk gets his way.

I hope you're wrong in certain respects. Not that for any ostracising in any way - the girl across the road from me is an unmarried mother but - and very importantly - she is living at home with her parents and siblings; I have a homosexual friend who I hope will be able to enter into a civil union sometime - tax/inheritance issues.

BUT if we successfully destroy the family unit we're heading for social disaster - as Britain has so eloquently shown us.

Children who do not grow up in a two-parent family are 75 per cent more likely to fail at school, 70 per cent more likely to be a drug addict, 50 per cent more likely to become an alcoholic and 35 per cent more likely to sink into welfare dependency.

Now consider this: the data suggest that scarcely one in 12 married couples splits up by their child’s fifth birthday, while half of all parents who are cohabiting do so.

Encouraging alternative family structures breeds misery. The British intellectual elite should be ashamed of themselves into duping the gullible.

News / CHERNOBYL...threat to Poland? [29]

Civilisation has lasted 6000 years ... and will go on forever (said the ancient Romans).