Category: Politics

French

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m as francophile as the next man. M. Hulot is a hero, Bardot an icon, Paris the real deal. But like so many good things France is badly served by its people when the chips are down.

Remember Charles Le Nez? He’s the fella who decamped to London when les Boches invaded and returned home when the last shots had been fired, declaring he was the saviour of France. But he was the only European who believed it.

And now, when France faces a formidable force of British brains in the Battle of Brexit, what do les Froches do? They puff themselves up and bring out their most horrifying weapon, so often deployed against British tourists: Non speakee Eenglish.

It’s just the French way. Such self-belief! So divorced from reality! You have to admire them – or do you?

Is it presidential?

The Clinton Trump face-off is raising questions about what is acceptable behaviour from a wannabe Commander-in-Chief.

Trump’s life in business and the media is being exposed in all its unethical banality. Hillary is on the pillory (!) for alleged illegalities and deceptions over the years.

And now (remember both candidates are of retirement age) Trump suggests Clinton is boosted by performance-enhancing drugs. As if this is a quasi-athletic contest in which a level-playing-field must be guaranteed. So – is it? Do the most senior public servants have a duty to be subject to medical scrutiny and be ‘clean’? If so does such a prerequisite apply similarly to their staff; and their staff, etc?

So come to think of it, should Churchill and JFK have been disqualified from office? Is today’s political environment different?

Just askin’.

Living in a dream world

That is the SNP’s new slogan. A world where men in skirts play their pipes untroubled by the cruel realities of GDP, the national debt, the cost of welfare and the absence of the Great Scotch Free Lunch.

And the Caviar Queen, unable to look over the towering Hadrian’s Wall – owing to her myopia amongst other little problems – has no doubt about the appeal of a future already mapped out by Greece. Except the crumbling EU will no longer throw good money after bad.

So one must as an Englander wish her well with her dream, removing from the rest of the UK the Great Caledonian Burden. Give her a new vote to defect, help her to win it, cast her adrift and breathe a sigh of relief.

Danes come clean

matt-on-tax

Margrethe Vestager, the crusading EU Commssioner, seems to have inspired her countryfolk to go after tax evaders at home. And how!

The tax minister is buying extracts from the Panama Papers which name and shame over 600 Danes who have been squirrelling away their kroner and cheating the system.

Typically of Denmark this is being done quite openly – not, as one might expect in other countries, through secret channels. Refreshing, huh?

 

Disingenuous

Obama with halo

So the UK was ‘wrong’ to vote for Brexit – according to Obama.

Setting aside the philosophical question whether a majority of a country’s citizens can be ‘wrong’ in any meaningful sense, maybe the sanctimonious President could answer this:

Would the USA join any club which suborned its sovereignty to the club’s management?

Would even the Democrats agree to the club deciding on US immigration?

Would the US fancy Juncker more than Trump or Clinton as its figurehead?

No no no, as I thought. Obama wins the headlines with his judgement but loses all credibility.

 

 

Proud

It’s meant a lot of work and determination but worth every ounce. I refer of course to a grandparent’s input to a grandchild’s GCSE results, published yesterday!

My most senior of ten did all the requisite academic subjects and (Jazz note)  the really useful Textiles Technology, well suited to the distaff side methinks. 😷

So I can relax again until next year when another young lady shows her paces.