Author: tomkilcourse

frenchie is twenty weeks old today, and growing.

A blogger on MyT complained about the threatened strike in France on Tuesday, which he sees as resulting from pure greed on the part of the strikers. I sympathise with his being personally inconvenienced, he is resident in France, but found his pejorative use of ‘greed’ quaint in an age when its use is taken by many to be complimentary. He has not heard perhaps, that ‘greed is good’, believed by many, including some bloggers on MyT, to be the only worthwhile motivator. Indeed, to suggest that someone is possibly driven by an alternative, sense of duty for example, can earn derision and accusations of naïvety. In a sense, it is heartening to see that there remains someone who does not admire the predominant trait in our society.

As a toper I confess to being bemused and irritated by the plan to place a minimum price on alcohol. Perhaps I am speaking out of turn, given that I live in France, where I have never seen a display of public drunkeness, but it is the unfairness that irritates. Why should people who can handle their drink be penalised because a bunch of meat-heads cause problems? Why not target the culprits with minimum penalties for their misbehaviour, and leave Joe and Nelly Bloggs to have their quiet snifter in peace, and at a price they can afford?

This illustration from Le Figaro explains in detail how the trapped men are to be rescued, if all goes to plan. The first phase has begun, drilling a guide hole 38cm across, to be widened to 66cm. The drilling progresses at between 8 and 15 metres a day, and the depth is 700 metres. The trapped men will work to clear the debris as it falls, moving it into the tunnels. When the shaft is complete, phase 2 begins. A small container capable of holding one man at a time will be lowered. The journey to the surface for each man will take 3 hours, so the rescue of all the men will take 3 to 5 days.

Having read many negative remarks in England about President Sarkozy, I thought that you might like to consider the alternative. The picture shows Martine Aubry, leader of the French Socialist Party, alongside Ségoléne Royal, in the jacket, who stood against Sarkozy for the presidency. I seem to recall someone in England remarking that she added glamour to the contest.

Martine Aubry was, of course, the minister in the last Socialist government that introduced the near ruinous 35 hour week. It is said that she later claimed not really to have believed in the measure, but was reluctant to rock the boat. Such qualities of leadership are rare: thank goodness. For her part, Ségoléne dropped a number of clangers when overseas, most memorably perhaps when visiting China. She praised the Chinese for the efficiency of their legal system which dealt with cases far more quickly than the French courts. Mmmm!

Perhaps this will help fellow bloggers to understand why I am pleased that Sarkozy won.

I found the attached diagram with an article in Le Figaro. The diagram helps one to understand the situation of the trapped miners a little better. It shows that this is a walk-in mine, not one with a shaft and winder. There are two roof falls in the access tunnel, one of which has also blocked a ventilation shaft that might otherwise have been used as an escape route. Questions remain though. I still do not understand why they are drilling from the surface, rather than clearing a way through the blockages. The article says that the tunnel was weakened by recent earthquakes, so that might explain the reluctance to go in that way, but why were the men working down there if the tunnel was weakened. Are we to understand that it was not inspected after earthquakes in the region? Also, why is there no escape shaft already in place? The mine owners have some explaining to do, in my view

‘We are not there to produce fodder for industry’ so said a feminist teacher to me during a discussion in the seventies. This was a period of rising militancy in the teaching unions, and among feminists in particular. My argument that preparation of pupils for the world of work was an important function of the education industry was waved airily aside. Since those days, education has become increasingly distanced from industry and commerce.

I was reminded of this teacher’s dismissive attitude this morning, upon reading that British educated students are believed by numerous managers in industry to be inferior to immigrants as potential employees. Once again, numeracy and literacy are specified as problem areas.

In the mid-eighties I was the management development manager with a conglomerate in the East Midlands. That role involved me in the selection and development of young people who aspired to a management role. I found myself forced to introduce remedial training in literacy and numeracy for successful applicants who had good grades at ‘A’ levels in those areas.

We weighed the pup at the vets yesterday, he tipped the scales at 14.3 kilo, at four months of age. Later, we took him for his evening walk, in fields above the village where there is a wood. We came upon a family of rabbits, youngsters skipping around in a field, but Frenchie ignored them. As we returned to the car though, he perked up. Swallows were flying around inches above the grass, and speedy went after them. He is fast, but not that fast. It was hilarious though.

In recent days two news items on the NHS have appeared, each of which makes me grateful for the French health service. Both items concern British hospitals.

This morning we were told of the Government’s plans to end the use of mixed-sex wards by the end of the year. Mention this to my French neighbours and they think we are joking. In this year of 2010 one in ten hospital patients in England and Wales are placed in mixed sex wards, and a higher proportion, a third, have to use mixed-sex bathroom facilities. A spokeswoman claimed that the difficulty lay in the ancient buildings still used as hospitals.

The other item suggests that excuse to be some way off the mark. In a discussion on a new hospital over the weekend we were told that this building, construction is due to start this year, will boast wards containing upwards of twelve beds. So, in a building that we can expect to be in use for the rest of this century, patients will be sharing multi-bed wards in the year 2099.

This is third world standards.

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