French Whinery
on 04/12/2006 at 03:19 AM
I like the statement “denunciations by the right-wing press”. Who are they talking about? Bloggers? Otherwise, WHAT right-wing press?
The Fwench are a funny lot. Many of their industries are state owned and foreigners are not allowed to have overall control. Because of this they have the cash to buy up foreign companies where no such restrictions are in force. In my part of the world the electricity company and the water company are French owned. If a British company tried to do the same in France it would be blocked. As I see it the long term future for France is bleak. They need a Margaret Thatcher to sort them out, but the minute someone comes along who challenges the socialist and communist unions they start rioting. Now they want more of the same. Collective dementia indeed. Oh well they’re French so who cares? Let them eat cake!
By the way when I lived in the US I was somewhat bemused by the evening tv news. It is pretty parochial, and “news” in the mainstream (the internet didn’t exist back then other than as an academic and military network) was anything that directly affected American interests with the odd snippet about those crazy limeys and their Queen etc!What is keeping the French economy afloat? I’d like to have a life time job with great benefits, work 35 hours a week and have months of vacation. Paying for dead weight is expensive - how are the French doing it?
No kidding, Agamemnon! When I read this, I thought
“US media reacts with hatred and fear?!?” How about with fawning and admiration??
Dr. J the French have a large rural almost peasant population outside of the big cities. The economy is very agricultural and the good old EU pays them handsome subsidies to grow (or more often) not to grow wheat, barley, wine etc.
Not long ago I watched a documentary about a Fwench vineyard. The farmer referred to his swimming pool as “Le Mitterand” in honour of the scumbag ex President who had gained extra subsidies for growing grapes to make wine that no one wants. The Fwench have done handsomely out of this. Most of the money comes from Germany, Britain and the Scandinavians. It is a another socialist tax really, the idea being to bring all the countries onto a level playing field. Originally it stemmed from the Frogs idea of harnessing German industrial might with Fwench agriculture.The French do have some big industries but they are also genrally over manned and inefficient but if anything is done to change conditions the unions go barmy. The police often don’t do anything about it as they are all in the same union. One of the usual weapons they use is to have trucks blockade Dover. Since most of Britain’s trade goes through this bottleneck it is a simple matter to hold the EU to ransom whenever they feel aggrieved. In a civilised country the police would arrest the trouble makers and it would soon be over, but not in France.
We had similar crap in Britain in the 70’s when unions from one place say the coal miners would block the gates to power stations. Margaret Thatcher put a stop to that nonsense and Britain is now a relatively competitive country. Or it was till the socialists came back to power. Now they are undoing all the good work and making is into a client state again. However as for France I think it is rapidly in decline and they are all in for a very rude awakening.
I think that this appeasement sets a really dangerous precedent for France and other EU nations. Giving in to mob demands within a so called “republic” defeats the purpose of having an established representative legislature. Making allowances for “mob rule” is just a hair’s breadth away from governmental overthrow...a concept not too unfamiliar to the history of France.
C’est la vie, Republique Francaise.
Lyndon: Thanks for giving us Yanks the “inside scoop” that gets filtered out daily by the US left wing media filter. Educational as always.
04/12/2006 at 04:07 AM
