Travel / Behavior of Polish travellers on Planes. [72]


They sound entirely like idiots if they're getting drunk on planes and singing songs.

UK, Ireland / Daniel Pelka murder: Polish mother and stepfather face life sentences [96]


The problem is that with social services in particular, it's dominated by a white middle class clique that lives somewhat in a bubble. I know one Muslim social worker in the UK, and she's very clear that there exists a certain way of thinking that stops them calling a spade a spade. I wouldn't call it political correctness, rather just a situation in which they know that they've got a comfortable life and they don't want to do anything that might threaten it.

Probably one of the best things I read on the subject was several years ago, in which it was suggested that it would be better to hire social workers on the basis of what they can do rather than on qualifications. The example given - black teenagers in London won't respect some white woman from the Home Counties, but they will bloody well listen to a black ex-soldier who will tell them exactly how it is in their language. Same story with teaching.

News / How would Poland change for the better (or worse) under a PiS government? [257]

Everything. The guy was a public prosecutor in the PRL, PZPR member and took part in prosecuting a dissident.

PiS went very quiet on lustration when they realised that the 'missing link' for electoral success involved relying on the skills of such people. We saw only a couple of days ago how corrupt he is - they lost a vote in the committee stage, so he simply re-run the vote.

News / How would Poland change for the better (or worse) under a PiS government? [257]

Gumishu, you know fine well that PiS are not interested in the truth, they're only interested in destroying their enemies.

If they genuinely wanted the truth, they would start by conducting a thorough open public examination of every single PiS MP to make sure that they were morally clear. People like Piotrowicz would never be allowed near government.

News / How would Poland change for the better (or worse) under a PiS government? [257]


Simple: who isn't with us is automatically against us and must be destroyed.

PiS should be promoting the accomplishments of Poles abroad, but instead, they're trying to destroy them. It's sheer madness.

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]

That's because it's a clear tax applied to the consumer. In this case, it was a stealth tax applied to the people under the guise of forcing supermarkets to pay more taxes. Look at petrol retailing in Poland - Orlen and Lotos clearly are dominant here. Polish businesses, Polish controlled and their customers will be paying more at the pump.

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]

I just find it funny that the biggest losers of the bank and retail taxes have been Polish businesses and consumers. It's now becoming rapidly apparent that the bank tax is resulting in people paying several thousand more for a mortgage, for instance.

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]


Except the banks turned round almost immediately and said "oh, doesn't apply to us, because we were planning to raise prices anyway". PKO for instance have claimed that it's just a coincidence ;)


The new tax is really about implementing a rise in VAT without saying so. More to the point, it's a particularly brutal tax (and could cause the death of Empik...) because it has to be paid regardless if you make a profit or not.


As I said before, there are countless ways to encourage this without taxation.

News / How would Poland change for the better (or worse) under a PiS government? [257]

How much are you being paid to post this rubbish?

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]

Clearly you have no experience of those countries, because the corruption in Hungary is well known (the health service and border guards are notoriously corrupt there), the Czechs have a habit of losing money on infrastructure projects (almost 50% of the revenue from truck tolls goes to pay the company that installed the system!) and the Slovaks are still dealing with corruption in Eastern Slovakia. Poland has nothing like this in comparison.

However, it's clear that PiS want to set Poland back considerably, given that they've made it clear that Party membership will be required in the civil service.


Spoken as only a PiS supporter can speak.

If PiS weren't about corruption, they would depoliticise the civil service as much as possible.

News / How would Poland change for the better (or worse) under a PiS government? [257]


I absolutely agree with you. It's the same fools in Gdańsk that said that demonstrations should be banned from pl. Solidarnośći there.

It seems to me as if PiS realise that no-one is ever going to win international recognition for the garbage that they produce, and because Wajda isn't 'theirs', then they must oppose it.

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]


Doug, not so fast - their own brand line "Food & Joy" is actually very very good value for money. I'd recommend giving it a shot - you might be pleasantly surprised like I was.

Likewise, they own the Krakowski Kredens chain, but I found out today that they actually use local suppliers to create the products. Just shows who PiS is really destroying...

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]

It gets even better...

Alma - a Polish owned grocery store with 45 stores in premium locations - has seen a huge fall in their share prices since the election.

almamarket.pl/en/investors/stock-exchange/shar-course-chart?timespan=3

The chart clearly shows us that their shares have gone from over 9zł per share to a mere 6.5zł. Far from being a good tax to help Polish businesses, it rather transpires that Polish businesses are being punished by PiS.

It gets even worse when you look at other Polish retailers - there's an excellent article here that explains it nicely.

money.pl/gielda/spolka-dnia/artykul/biedronka-zyska-na-podatku-akcje-jeronimo,117,0,2006389.html


For PiS, destroying Polish business must be accomplished at all costs. The insane part is that this tax will hurt Empik as well, who are known to be in huge difficulties.

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]


Doesn't excuse them taxing the hell out of the most vulnerable in society. This is an effective 2% VAT increase, just covered up in the guise of a 'retail tax' that will actually punish ordinary people.

Work / What is Warsaw's Google Campus all about in Poland? [13]

No worries, it was just about one particular scam artist that I probably shouldn't mention in public.


Gdansk is no more a hotspot than Wrocław, Kraków or Poznań. As for Warsaw - it's pretty simple - anyone who is well connected in Poland is in Warsaw.

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]


Shouldn't be a problem for who? That 2% is going to be applied regardless if fuel is 3.77zł or 5.77zł.

More to the point, PiS never mentioned anything about "taxing fuel". They talked about taxing big foreign retailers, not taxing Marek who needs the car to drive to work.

Just shows how PiS are really the party of the elite.

Oh my. Polonius, are you some sort of adviser to the government? :D

gf24.pl/pis-ustawa-zakazac-podnoszenia-cen/


Do we really need any more proof that PiS = PZPRbis? Fixing prices is straight out of the communist rulebook!

News / PiS to impose blanket retail tax in Poland [291]

Latest news : the tax is also going to cover petrol stations, meaning an instant 1.9% extra tax on the price of petrol.

Looks like far from being the supporter of the "common man", PiS are finding ways to hurt the working poor as much as they can. Many poor people live in places with little to no public transportation, and having to pay an extra 2% for fuel just so they can get to work is a slap in their face.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/238237,Poland-less-corrupt


In 2007, Poland was 61st.

transparency.org/research/cpi/cpi_2007

Stop talking nonsense, Polonius.

Law / Poland's Zloty 43% undervalued [30]

I think we're going to see a VAT increase to 25% by the end of this year to cover the budget shortfall. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if it gets imposed as an "emergency solidarity measure" to make sure that the 500zł per child programme doesn't fall.

News / Referendum in Poland about so called refugees. [56]


As I said, it's subject to the normal legislative procedure.

That means that Poland has no veto over it. Such a proposal needs the support of the majority of MEP's along with the double majority in the European Council. The double majority means that 55% of governments with at least 65% of the EU population must approve it. It's much harder to block.

In short, Poland is powerless. You'd do well to educate yourself about how the EU works before making blanket statements about how "it will never happen with Poland". If the Parliament and the Council agree, then Poland can either accept or leave the EU.

News / Referendum in Poland about so called refugees. [56]

That's it? Er... not quite. Schengen involves a lot more than just passport controls. It might be the most visible thing, but still. For instance, there's the common Schengen Borders Code that tells Poland exactly how to control the border. Then there's the common short term stay visas - if Germany says "sure", then Poland has to respect that. There's the common criminal database (SIS), the common visa application database (VIS), judicial cooperation and more.

If you think Schengen is only about abandoning passport controls on the border, you're very much mistaken.

I've just read that the European Border and Coast Guard will be subject to the normal legislative procedure, so Poland has no veto in this case. If it passes, Poland can either accept it or leave Schengen.

However, the latest news tonight is that Schengen is on the verge of being completely suspended anyway. Merkel, well done, you've just screwed it up for all of us that rely on it.

News / Referendum in Poland about so called refugees. [56]


But as part of Schengen, they agree to give up part of their sovereignty anyway. The point is that the zone should be secured against external threats - and if someone doesn't want to do it for whatever reason (in the Greek case, it's lack of money, bad leadership and pride) - then either they should take external help or get out of Schengen. You know, sovereignty or convenience. Let the members decide themselves.

By the way, they already gave up a lot of sovereignty by joining Schengen in the first place.


It's meaningless because I know the reality of the situation - once they take up such an offer, they lose their citizenship. It's just political posturing, because the Karta Polaka is already on offer and allows them to move to Poland if they want.

News / Referendum in Poland about so called refugees. [56]


Personally, I'd rather simply make it a condition of Schengen membership. Then again, I think one of the fundamental failings of Schengen was not to create a common border guard service. The Baltic countries, Slovakia and Poland have done a hell of a job - but Hungarian guards are corrupt as hell and others simply can't be bothered.

It's absolutely absurd that Greece can sit back and say "malakas" while people flood into the European mainland.


They can come already if they've got the Karta Polaka. The legislation is meaningless - if they accept Polish citizenship, they lose their current citizenship.

News / Referendum in Poland about so called refugees. [56]

Actually, it makes a lot of sense. While countries such as Poland spend a lot of money on securing the external frontier, we see countries such as Greece completely ignoring their obligations to secure the Schengen border. That's why if they want to be in Schengen, they need to get over their pride and accept that the defence of Schengen is in all of our interests. Greece has been consistently refusing to accept external help even when it's obvious that they can't cope - so it's in all of our interests to get them to comply.

If they don't like it, they're free to leave. I find it to be completely absurd that Polish border guards are spending nights in the forests on the border while the Greeks are sitting back and doing nothing.

Work / What is Warsaw's Google Campus all about in Poland? [13]


Yeah, it's a common problem everywhere. You'll notice that they have very vague backgrounds and that they're all fantastic self-promoters, but when you ask them what they've actually *done*, it turns out... nothing. I wish I could point to specific examples, because some of them really are complete clowns.

From what I've noticed, they mainly prey on young corpodrones that dream of a better life away from the daily grind.


I was wondering the same, but maybe it's a cheap way of finding new talent? Or as you say, it's just good PR to cover up their...interesting tax arrangements.

News / Referendum in Poland about so called refugees. [56]

Madness. I think we're going to see a lot more of it - at least, until governments make it crystal clear that a single offence and you're deported. Still, you should be using the word migrant and not refugee - we all know that many of them aren't genuine refugees.

On a related note, there's more warnings about Schengen. I'm almost certain that we'll see permanent border controls on the PL/D border within a few months if Merkel doesn't get a grip of the situation.

Work / What is Warsaw's Google Campus all about in Poland? [13]

From what I can see - yes and no. They charge for coworking facilities - apply.techhub.com/#/warsaw/ - but everything else is free. It looks like they're using the profits from the coworking facilities to pay for all the training and mentorship programmes. But the coworking facilities are very expensive compared to other comparable facilities, so it all equals out. I see that there's no need to use their coworking facilities if you just want to take part in things like the programme I posted above about mothers and babies.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]

Not likely. The Council of Europe is made up of representatives from places such as Russia and Albania as well as EU countries, so what they say has no relation to the work of the European Parliament or European Commission.

More to the point, Verhofstadt is a formidable opponent and one that has a huge amount of connections in the EU.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]

Not really. The Council of Europe has no power to order any binding resolutions on Poland, whereas the European Union does.

I read today that the European Commission has opened another investigation into PiS over the destruction of Białowieża Forest. It seems that the passion for destroying Białowieża is so strong that no-one has ever seen anything like it before.

News / Demonstrations in Poland in defence of democracy. [2554]


Looks like your knowledge of European institutions is similar to your knowledge of business : nil.

The two are separate institutions with separate aims.