British Expat Newsletter: September 2017
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In this issue
- This month: British Expat update
- Write for British Expat
- British Expat Amazon Shopping
- How to subscribe
This month
September. Back to school. And the Brexit negotiations resume.
Theresa May has valiantly tried to reset the relationship with the EU negotiators by flying to Florence to give a speech, taking with her Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, who sit on opposite sides of the “hard” and “soft” Brexit fence. Reception was mixed – while the Europeans generally welcomed the speech’s positive tone, they found it lacking in substance.
BoJo meanwhile got his retaliation in first, with an opinion piece in the Sunday Telegraph that was widely seen as an attempt to box his boss into a harder stance than she was intending to take. He’s followed up with a Sun article in advance of the Tory Party conference in Manchester this week. Although he’s stated several times that he’s fully behind Theresa May, speculation is rife that he’s after the Tory leadership (and thus No.10) for himself.
Meanwhile, Colin “Mr Darcy” Firth has taken out Italian citizenship, in order to “have the same passports as his wife and children”. Italy permits dual nationality (as do virtually all EU member states now in at least some circumstances), so this makes him a dual British/Italian citizen. And all EU countries report a sharp increase in the number of Britons applying for citizenship – for those who record the data covering July 2016 to June 2017, the number of applications has more than doubled from what it was in the previous 12 months.
Likewise, there’s been a surge in the number of EU citizens applying for British citizenship. Clearly everyone’s nervous about what’s going to happen to them in the continuing absence of an agreement over EU citizens’ rights in the UK (and of course vice versa) post-Brexit.
Our latest Pic of the Week is a seasonal one. I have fond(ish) memories of the “tattie holidays” in October, when school closed for a week and we all got jobs on the local farms howking tatties (that’s lifting potatoes to all you non-Jocks). Nowadays, of course, much of the process is mechanised, as you’ll see in the pic.
And this month’s Quick Quiz is about a country that’s been much in the news recently, unfortunately for the wrong reasons: Burma. It’s been under military rule for most of its history since gaining independence in 1948. Even now, the military have a strong say – guaranteed by the constitution – in the running of the country. And as a result it’s the least visited South East Asian country. See how much you know (or not) about it.
Are you ever flummoxed by fancy foodie words, mystified by menus, or confused by culinary terms? Then head on over to Scoffopedia.com and become enlightened by our quirky A-Z of food. And it’s got cartoons in it! Don’t forget to tell all your friends about it too.
Meanwhile, of course, the forum continues to provide information on a wide range of expat issues, as well as the opportunity to socialise with like-minded people all around the world. You can see the full range of discussion boards here.
Write for British Expat
Would you like to write for British Expat? Sorry, we don’t pay for articles but if you have a website we’ll link to it in the author’s blurb below any of your articles we publish. We use all sorts of content as long as it’s useful and/or interesting to our readership.
Besides articles, we also publish quick trivia quizzes—five questions about any subject. So, if you’d like to write for us but don’t feel like producing a literary masterpiece, then why not try writing a quickie quiz about your city, country, or even your hobby? Please use our contact form to get in touch.
British Expat Amazon Shopping
Amazon don’t just do books, you know. We’ve teamed up with them to bring you the ultimate in online shopping—from a micro SD card to a garden shed! A great way to do your shopping online, especially if the shops aren’t up to much in your part of the world.
BE Amazon Shop: UK & EU | BE Amazon Shop: non-EU
So there’s a round-up of all that’s been going on. Come on over and see for yourself! Don’t forget…
Visit the BE website and join in with our lively community!
Till next time…
Happy surfing!
Kay
Editor
British Expat—the definitive home for British expats
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