Every congratulation to His Royal Highness Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg and to his new wife, the former Countess Stephanie de Lannoy.
In terms of GDP, the richest member-state of the European Union is Luxembourg, which is more than 90 per cent Catholic. So much for the old chestnut, which is being revived as the Eurozone is said to be breaking up along the lines of the thrifty, industrious Protestants in the North and the spendthrift, indolent Catholics in the South. There is a Protestant work ethic. But there is at least as much a Catholic one, forming and defining half of the Germans, more than half of the West Germans during their post-War economic miracle, half of the Swiss, half of the Dutch, and great tracts of the working classes of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand during those countries’ industrial heydays.
The richest German Land is profoundly Catholic Bavaria, the seat of the Jacobite claimants to the Thrones of the Three Kingdoms, and the homeland both of the present Pope and of BMW, Siemens, Audi, Allianz, Puma and Adidas, to name but a few. Bavaria is proportionately the second most Catholic Land, beaten only by Saarland with its coal mines, steel works, car plants and ceramics factories. Austria is highly prosperous and efficient, and she is Catholic to the core. To cite only Britain among many possible examples, who do people think actually did much of the work in the West of Scotland, the North of England, the Midlands or (if, perhaps, less so) South Wales? And what do they think that the inhabitants of Northern Italy are? Protestants? The largest steel manufacturer in the world is headquartered in Luxembourg.
And Luxembourg, the seat of Amazon and thus the source of the very low rate of VAT on books transmitted to Kindle devices, is apparently planning to flout EU law and reduce that rate even further, possibly to the zero rating on printed books. Taxing books is a particularly unpleasant practice, as I am sure that all regular readers will agree.
The world's last sovereign Grand Duchy is a lot bigger than Europe’s last great Medieval oligarchy, which the Queen may not enter without special permission, where the laws enacted by Parliament do not apply, and where the resident population of British Citizens is denied democratic representation both by that means and by means of municipal arrangements which grant far more votes to foreign companies than to British human beings. The parliamentary and municipal democracy that Wall Street’s tax haven on our shores so noticeably lacks is enjoyed in full by the subjects of His Royal Highness by the Grace of God, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Duke of Nassau, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Count of Sayn, Königstein, Katzenelnbogen and Diez, Burgrave of Hammerstein, Lord of Mahlberg, Wiesbaden, Idstein, Merenberg, Limburg and Eppstein.
In terms of GDP, the richest member-state of the European Union is Luxembourg, which is more than 90 per cent Catholic. So much for the old chestnut, which is being revived as the Eurozone is said to be breaking up along the lines of the thrifty, industrious Protestants in the North and the spendthrift, indolent Catholics in the South. There is a Protestant work ethic. But there is at least as much a Catholic one, forming and defining half of the Germans, more than half of the West Germans during their post-War economic miracle, half of the Swiss, half of the Dutch, and great tracts of the working classes of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand during those countries’ industrial heydays.
The richest German Land is profoundly Catholic Bavaria, the seat of the Jacobite claimants to the Thrones of the Three Kingdoms, and the homeland both of the present Pope and of BMW, Siemens, Audi, Allianz, Puma and Adidas, to name but a few. Bavaria is proportionately the second most Catholic Land, beaten only by Saarland with its coal mines, steel works, car plants and ceramics factories. Austria is highly prosperous and efficient, and she is Catholic to the core. To cite only Britain among many possible examples, who do people think actually did much of the work in the West of Scotland, the North of England, the Midlands or (if, perhaps, less so) South Wales? And what do they think that the inhabitants of Northern Italy are? Protestants? The largest steel manufacturer in the world is headquartered in Luxembourg.
And Luxembourg, the seat of Amazon and thus the source of the very low rate of VAT on books transmitted to Kindle devices, is apparently planning to flout EU law and reduce that rate even further, possibly to the zero rating on printed books. Taxing books is a particularly unpleasant practice, as I am sure that all regular readers will agree.
The world's last sovereign Grand Duchy is a lot bigger than Europe’s last great Medieval oligarchy, which the Queen may not enter without special permission, where the laws enacted by Parliament do not apply, and where the resident population of British Citizens is denied democratic representation both by that means and by means of municipal arrangements which grant far more votes to foreign companies than to British human beings. The parliamentary and municipal democracy that Wall Street’s tax haven on our shores so noticeably lacks is enjoyed in full by the subjects of His Royal Highness by the Grace of God, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Duke of Nassau, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Count of Sayn, Königstein, Katzenelnbogen and Diez, Burgrave of Hammerstein, Lord of Mahlberg, Wiesbaden, Idstein, Merenberg, Limburg and Eppstein.
Furthermore, the 17 NATO AWACS aeroplanes are registered as aircraft of Luxembourg. Purely a matter of convenience? Those days are gone, sweetie. Those days are gone.
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