Bishop's Stortford dumps its twin towns in France and Germany By Luke Harding This is an outrageous move by Conservative town councils, they ought to be utterly ashamed of themselves... I always thought Tories loved tradition, seems not to be the case anymore...
OK,... I messed-up the thread title, to late to change that -- I was just so worked-up by this entire anti-European move...
An excellent small move to bring Pragmatism back to everyday life . Frankly most of these Continental places are remarkably boring . They insist on making you watch strange local traditional dances and then force feed you food which leaves much to be desired , now that British cuisine has risen to such lofty heights over the last two decades . And , of course , so many of them do not speak English which is infernally irritating . OK , I will spit it out . There are still huge backward areas out there , probably because they never were lucky enough to be part of the British Empire learning curve . There is no anti European feel to this sensible move . To the contrary , most British people feel a little sad to see our unhappy neighbours suffering so much during the collapse of the Eurozone .( Actually it is hysterically funny ) We constantly try to avoid humiliating them ,by saying such things as " We told you so " , and " " Britain has this habit of always being on the winning side in State matters" We don't want their morale dropping further . My guess is that a lot of these continental Council people , who generally do no proper work , are just miffed because they will lose out on their annual free holiday and the chance to stock up with UK merchandise . And Jodhpur . You should know better . Didn't we do a Frankenstein in 1830 and create you from nothing to do a specific job . My advice to you is get your head down and do the job you are there for .
I find it sad, that some English town councils find it neccessarry to blow up these ties unilaterally, via sending a letter no less! Also, it fits in the larger picture quite well: Anyways -- my town doesn't even have a European twintown. We have a "sister bond" in the scope of North-South relations with a Peruvian town.
Now you are talking ! See if you can get a chart suggesting where the Inca Gold Mountain might be . I fancy a holiday and finding a pot of the yellow stuff .
As you keep reminding us Janpor, we're a little hard pressed for cash just now. We object to holiday perks for local bigwigs and their friends whilst taxpayer funded local services are being cut. My town was already twinned with the German town, Quickborn, and has recently been twinned with Arques la Bataille in France. The "Timothy Fordham" (mentioned in the article) who thought his town twinning trip was "awesome" and "spoke lots of French and made lots of new friends and can't wait to go back" is a member of the family of our local (failed) Labour candidate, but the journalist doesn't report that. Other parts of the trip must have been the awesome ones! Far from being ashamed of themselves, these local Conservatives should give themselves a pat on the back, but then local Conservatives are often more sensible than their national counterparts. Oh and the "Peter Davies" mentioned in the first article is not a Conservative. He's a former member of UKIP, now an English Democrat.
WIKIPEDIA Terminology In the United Kingdom, the term twin towns is most commonly used, generally referring to town-twinning with Europe, differentiating with the term sister cities, which is used for agreements with towns and cities in the United States. In Europe, a variety of terms are used; most commonly twin towns, but partnership towns, partner towns and friendship towns, are also used. Germany uses Partnerstadt (Partner Town/City), France uses Ville Jumelée (Twinned Town/City). In the Netherlands, the term Stedenband (City bond) is used. North America, South America, South Asia, Australasia and Asia generally use the term sister cities. In the former Soviet Bloc countries twin towns is used, as well as the term brother cities.[1] Sometimes other government bodies enter into a "twinning" relationship, such as the agreement between the provinces of Hainan in China and Jeju-do in South Korea. The Douzelage is a town twinning association with one town from each of the member states of the European Union.[2] The earliest form of town twinning in Europe was between the German city of Paderborn and the French city of Le Mans in 836.[3] Keighley, West Yorkshire, England had a "sister cities" arrangement with Suresnes and Puteaux, France starting in 1905.[4][5] The first recorded modern twinning agreement was between Keighley and Poix-du-Nord, Nord, France in 1920 following the end of World War I.[5][6] This was initially referred to as an adoption of the French town, with formal twinning charters not being exchanged until 1986.[7] The practice was continued after the Second World War as a way to bring European people into a closer understanding of each other and to promote cross-border projects of mutual benefit.[3][8][9] For example, Coventry twinned with Stalingrad (now Volgograd) and later with Dresden as an act of peace and reconciliation, all three cities having been heavily bombed during the war.[10] Each twin city country is represented in a specific ward of the city and in each ward has a peace garden dedicated to that twin city.[3] Another early example of town twinning dates back to 1947 when Bristol Corporation (later Bristol City Council) sent five 'leading citizens' on a goodwill mission to Hanover. Within Europe, town twinning is supported by the European Union.[3] The support scheme was established in 1989. In 2003 an annual budget of about 12 million euros was allocated to about 1,300 projects. The Council of European Municipalities and Regions also works closely with the Commission (DG Education and Culture) to promote modern, high quality twinning initiatives and exchanges that involve all sections of the community. It has launched a website dedicated to town twinning.[11] Many German cities still are twinned with other German cities. The partnerships were established in the last years of former East Germany. Famous examples are the partnerships of Hanover and Leipzig (both having important trade fair grounds) or between Hamburg and Dresden. [edit]North America
Apparently Monaco is twinned (or "sister city") with Lucciana in Corsica, and the Belgian town of Abergement-la-Ronce.
