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


Except Poland can't, because she signed up to the European Union which contains a lot of law designed to prevent distorting the free market. In this case, everything has to be in accordance with European law, which is why Hungary backed off on the supermarket tax.


Indeed. Let's not forget that the "small Polish business owner" will have no scruples about increasing their prices by the amount of the large supermarket tax and then blaming the government, even though they'll actually pay far less tax.

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


Interesting that a PiS supporter openly admits that TVP will show nothing about the huge nationwide protests.


More of the false nationalism, Polonius?

I find it to be quite iconic, really, given how our democracy is threatened by a government that regards the Constitution as a piece of trash.

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


Polonius, don't you realise that supermarkets can simply ask their suppliers to cut their prices? That means that suppliers need to make savings elsewhere, which means that the people that get the product to the supermarket will be squeezed. The supermarkets aren't going to lose any money here - it's the ordinary Pole that stands to lose.

All this talk of price fixing and so on only harms the economy in the long run.

Polonius, if you want to encourage Polish businesses, then you have to make the business environment as attractive as possible for them. All the regulatory burdens of new taxes does nothing to help them and instead encourages them to base their business elsewhere.

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


Actually, what they did achieved the opposite effect. Now we'll have a demonstration under the iconic monument at Plac Mickiewicza which commemorates the fight for democracy in June 1956. Works for me.

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


Good, give it a few weeks and you'll soon tire of reading about the sheer amount of nepotism in PiS.


On the contrary, it's clear that the opposition is happy for everyone to help against this pro-Russia government.

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


The massive amount of demonstrations tomorrow suggest otherwise.


Less of the "we", given that you live in the UK.

News / World's 'most wanted man' (a Pole) found working at British Subway restaurant [43]


Must be, combined with the idiotic Polish culture of not reporting crime and criminals to the authorities.

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


Au contraire, I want to protect your country against a bunch of nepotistic opportunists who pretend to care about Poland so that they can bleed the country dry.

Funny how the people shouting loudest against KOD on this forum are the ones that don't live here, though.

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


Why would I bet you when anyone with common sense can see that the Kukiz-allied narodowcy will support PiS in the event of Gowin trying to split the party? And as I keep saying, I don't want early elections. I'd rather that PiS stay in power and show everyone exactly how utterly incompetent they are - 4 years of economic damage will soon convince everyone to show them the door. The centrist voters are already discovering that their summer holidays are quite a bit more expensive now...


Exactly.

It's unbelievable that a party with such a thin majority is behaving in this way. Still, shows that the majority of PiS MP's also have no backbone as well.

Travel / INFORMATION ABOUT TOURISTS ARRIVAL IN POLAND [15]


Yup, pretty much. It's quite surreal that people spend the same money going to the Baltic Sea in summer with the unpredictable weather and freezing sea as they would on going to Croatia. I was looking last summer - I had a very nice, decent-sized apartment next to the beach for 30 Euro/night in Croatia. In Poland, the same thing was coming in at around 50 Euro/night. No brainer.

It makes me laugh that people think they're eating fresh fish on the Polish coast. One look at the fish and you can see that it's anything but ;)


Some places are quite ok, such as Karkonosze, but you're right - the infrastructure just isn't that developed. I did a summer camp in Darlowo one summer with a friend for a laugh, and it was striking just how little there actually was to do in the town.


Problem is, they've already wrecked many pleasant places through uncontrolled development. I remember being completely bewildered in Bieszczady that they could allow the night silence to be destroyed after 10pm with bars playing thunderously loud music - it really destroyed the entire atmosphere of the place.

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]


They already have it in several.


Officially is the magic word. Do you really think that the average person responsible for planning documents in a small town in Poland is only earning that in reality?

News / The un-Civic Platform of Poland? [60]


Which would be unconstitutional. There's no possibility to offer such an arrangement as it wouldn't be legal.


Sigh. You keep repeating this, yet it's simply not true.


If PiS genuinely cared about the nation's wellbeing, they would stop the whole stupid story and simply do what they're supposed to do in accordance with the law. Is it really so difficult for Duda to swear in the three legally appointed judges in accordance with the Constitution and the rulings of the TK?

Still, as long as Duda refuses to follow the law, Poland will continue to be an international laughing stock.

Law / Karta Pobytu - Residence Card - Problem with address [13]


Strange, it should do. But it doesn't really matter - new Polish ID cards don't have the address anyway.


Yeah, nothing has changed there.

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


Actually, they get a lot more done in the same time. From my observations, by the time they hit 10, they're ahead of their UK peers in the core subjects.

The only problem is that they're lacking somewhat in soft skills, and the gap grows as time goes on. But in general, their education is very efficient.

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

KOD has everything to do with defending democracy against a bunch of power hungry, nepotistic clowns hell bent on destroying Poland. The latest story has the new CEO of PZU just so coincidentally having very close links to Adam Hoffman. Surprise, surprise.


Remind me why the tender effectively requires PiS to buy German cars?


Supermarkets are already open for the vast majority of the day. Are you seriously suggesting that people should have to work unsociable hours to replace their hours on Sundays? More to the point - many people working Sundays cannot work other days. Auchan for instance uses a lot of older people that might well have other commitments Monday-Friday - they're known for their flexibility towards staff.

And no, the entire nation wouldn't have a glorious day off. Quite the opposite, given the large list of professions that we showed you have to work regardless.

Anyway, the Hungarians already did an impact study. Bear in mind that Hungary is a far smaller country, we have these figures


hungarianspectrum.org/2015/03/20/what-is-behind-the-sunday-closing-of-hungarian-retail-stores/

Converted into Polish conditions...(9.9 million people in Hungary, 38.5 million in Poland - so 4x more)

- A loss of 40,000 to 60,000 jobs
- Unemployment insurance would cost around 0.012-0.020 billion
- A loss of around 1.48-1.52 billion PLN in income tax and social security payments
- Lost sales of around 1.16 billion PLN
- VAT losses of around 0.44 billion PLN
- Sunday closing would cost Poland around 2.5-2.8 billion PLN

This is exactly why we're taking to the streets, because we want to defend Poland against a reckless government that does things for their own purposes as opposed to what's best for Poland. The nepotism surrounding PiS is incredible, and they've made it very clear that Party loyalty is more important than actual qualifications to do the job. We can see the ruinious effect of the PiS government, including the złoty in freefall against other currencies.

Join us on Saturday!

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


Remind us why PiS are demanding new limousines worth over 600 thousand złoty each when they have perfectly good cars bought in 2011?

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]


Looking at the chart you posted...


Poland does have pockets of crushing poverty. We could talk all day about whether it's self inflicted or not, but regardless, there are some places where you can really see how poorly people live.

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]


Poverty in Poland - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentage_of_population_living_in_poverty

It's clear from the statistics that Poland in fact has more people living in poverty than any Western EU member.

News / The shame of Duda making late night visits to Kaczyński [79]


I know how they work, and KOD reminds me very much of them. If it was genuinely organised by 'other' forces, we wouldn't have seen some terrible screwups that really hurt KOD in the last few weeks.

News / The shame of Duda making late night visits to Kaczyński [79]


Well, given that I closely follow what's going on, I can tell you that it's not true. If it was true, there wouldn't have been some screw-ups along the way. There's a good example that I'm familiar with where - if it had been planned from the beginning - it would never have happened.

News / The shame of Duda making late night visits to Kaczyński [79]


I can assure you that many of them have no interest in PO being in charge. Some are Nowoczesna supporters, others support smaller parties, it's quite a diverse mix. I even met some former PiS supporters that were disgusted at what Kaczyński has done.

Likewise - what motivation do I have from PO being in charge? I don't like them particularly much as well.


The organisation of KOD suggests very much otherwise.

History / "Poland's Concentration Camp" ?? [570]


It was the case. Seemingly the UK had agreed to it with all the Allied forces, probably because it made it easier to insist that they looked after their own forces on their own bases.


Lyzko...please don't say such things in such broad terms. Some might have been, but that hardly justifies using the term "Poles" as a catch-all term. I'm no Polish nationalist, but there's no need to say things like that.

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


Of course. Asda is owned by Walmart, which is the 2nd/3rd biggest retailer. Lidl and Aldi have been making huge inroads into the UK market, too. There's also quite a few chains that are foreign owned, and the biggest high street retailer Arcadia is controlled by a Brit that's resident in Monaco and pays nothing to the UK. And of course, IKEA.

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


Teachers most certainly aren't off on Sundays. I once worked nearly 14 hours on a Sunday at an event that I had to organise, and I've spent many Sundays on school trips when I was working from 00:00 till 23:59. Furthermore, many teachers of adults work during the weekends.

Factory workers do work Sundays. Depends on the production line, but for instance, the run-up to Christmas will see 24/7 operation in factories.

Office workers can be - I know companies that work with the ME market and hence Sunday is a regular working day.

Road-builders do work on Sundays if the project is behind or a rush job. Not uncommon to see them working when driving somewhere.

Carpenters/plumbers may well work if they're on call, or working on a building that needs to get finished.

Civil servants - some do. Social workers are always on call, for instance.

Why are retail workers somehow a privileged group?

News / The shame of Duda making late night visits to Kaczyński [79]


No.

Is that clear enough?

Life / Africans in Poland and diversity [60]


I was just thinking the same.

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


Why are they treated in a special way?

More to the point, why are PiS taking away work and jobs from Poles?

News / Why has the US dollar reached almost 3.99 zł in Poland? [56]

The CHF is now at 4.11PLN as well. It's because the forced conversion of mortgages will destroy the banks financially, hence no-one wants to be holding anything in złoty now.

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


Not to mention teachers on school trips, teachers working with weekend students, mountain rescuers, builders (many projects work 24/7), radio workers, breakdown/recovery drivers, chefs, those working on ships (for instance, those that have to work at night selling cheap stuff in Polish waters when the ferries leave for Sweden/Denmark), border guards, customs officers and many many more.

Why are shop workers treated in a special way by Polonius but not everyone else? I mean, according to him...


So why are border crossings open on Sundays?

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


With pleasure.

strefabiznesu.gloswielkopolski.pl/artykul/sklepy-jednak-beda-zamkniete-w-niedziele-nowe-wladze-sa-za


Higher taxes AND less work. What a mess.