[Youngian]

Macron forcing the pension reforms through by (legal and proper) executive decree appears to be exciting the protesters’ wrath. Maybe time to end executive presidencies if they’re such avid parliamentarians.
Read that in Denmark you can retire earlier if you’re in stressful and manual occupations. That would conjure up liberal interpretations in France; “Nous sommes des mineurs de littérature,” claimed protesting librarians.

[mattomac]

Manual occupations is something that needs to be tackled in pension age plans. I see the UK government have shelved their plans to move it to 68 here, not based on the riots in France, it’s more the fact that life expectancy has actually dropped.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yes, I agree about physical work.

But Macron is much more right than wrong about this. As I may have said before, Corbyn in 2017 ran on 66 as the pension age, which puts 64 into perspective.

It would be nice if the second biggest economy in the Eurozone showed a bit of concern about debt, and all. That's not to say it has to go for fiscal tightening that forces the economy into recession or anything, but that's where it could end up before too long. The same people agitating against this will be moaning about cuts and taxes if that happens.

[Youngian]

It’s not just international confidence a French president has to worry about but millions of voters who may conclude you’re not up to the job if mob rule changes your policy direction.
At best protests can be a catalyst to concentrate minds for more innovative solutions. Like EV conversation subsidies for those on low incomes. So the Yellow vest ‘radicals’ rioting over petrol price rises can now shut the fuck up.

[Youngian]

There’s always Le Pen waiting in the wings with blank Gregories to underwrite your dreams. Go on, elect her as president on a retire at 50 and pay no tax platform.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Drove back across northern France today.
Lack of some petrol (SP95) in Normandy - squeaky bum for a bit - and a big manif with burning tyres, rockets, flares and burning cable reels at le Pont de Normandie, and supposedly a big manif at the tunnel - when we got there they were cleaning up what looked like it had been another pile of burning tyres, and the car park was closed off, which is a bit of a concern at the Channel Tunnel. I think they had moved on to the freight section.

All seemed very good-natured, though.

The M25 is a fucking nightmare, though..

[Tubby Isaacs]

There’s always Le Pen waiting in the wings with blank Gregories to underwrite your dreams. Go on, elect her as president on a retire at 50 and pay no tax platform.

And Melenchon, though of course he’s infinitely preferable to her.

[Oboogie]

Parliamentary inquiry exposes collusion between French far-right and Russia • FRANCE 24 English

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen testified for nearly four hours Wednesday before the parliamentary inquiry committee on foreign interference, which is investigating potential links between her National Rally party and Russia. At the centre of discussions is a 9.4 million euro loan her party took out from a Czech-Russian bank, which is still being repaid. …

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Hahahahahaha

[Tubby Isaacs]

Why on earth would they have called for this? What did they think would happen?

This stuff was very obvious at the time of the Presidential Election. They still got 42%, and won lost of departements. Aside from the racism, how anyone votes for that "cut taxes, more spending" bollocks is beyond me.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Her advantage is that she isn't Macron.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Nor were all the other people she beat pretty easily in the first round.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

She and Macron were the big beasts in that fight.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It's the fact she's a big beast that I'm not understanding. Clearly she's picked up a lot of what you'd call here Tory support. Why aren't more people like that worried about her anti-business fantasy economics? It's not like Macron's Jeremy Corbyn in any case.

[Watchman]

I’m sure Mr Armsteen gets on with his neighbours


‘It’s been hell’: Briton tells of harassment in French bridle path dispute
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... SApp_Other

[kreuzberger]

I am delighted to see France burning again tonight.

That shit doesn't come cheap and the République is welcome to the bill until such point as it requests that its Rozzeurs refrain from killing its children and holding, as fair game, anyone with a touch of the tar brush.

[safe_timber_man]

Any theories on why there's suddenly a mahoosive influx of very racist Indian accounts Tweeting about the riots and immigrants in France? I've never seen a pile on of Indians Tweeting racist stuff and appearing on trending topics before.

[Yug]

Possibly something to do with outspoken Muslim-hater Modi 1) discovering the joy of bots, and 2) emboldening Indian Muslim-haters. And the dead French lad being a Muslim.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I don't know if this has penetrated UK news, but there has been a big march in Paris, against anti-semitism.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... tisemitism

More than 100,000 people, including senior politicians, have marched in Paris against antisemitism amid a dramatic surge in anti-Jewish incidents across France and bitter political rows over whether – and how – to take part.

“Our order of the day today is … the total fight against antisemitism, which is the opposite of the values of the Republic,” Gérard Larcher, the French senate speaker and a co-organiser of the largely peaceful demonstration, said as it got under way.

His counterpart in the lower house and the march’s co-organiser, Yaël Braun-Pivet, said as the march neared its end near the Luxembourg Garden: “In France, we are able to unite around our common base, our history and our future.”

The prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, whose Jewish father survived Auschwitz but took his life when she was 11, said at the head of the procession that when it came to antisemitism, the nation “must let nothing pass”.

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, did not take part but said earlier he would be there “in my heart and in my thoughts”, adding that there could be “no tolerance for the intolerable” and France must be “united behind its values, its universalism”.

In a letter published in Le Parisien newspaper, Macron condemned the “unbearable resurgence of unbridled antisemitism” in France. “A France where our Jewish citizens are afraid is not France,” he said.

How different from this bastion of equality and tolerance...

[kreuzberger]

Given their/(our*) history, it's easy to scare the living shite out of Jews. The press know how to press all the right buttons, and it's child's play.


*One of these days, I suppose that I will need to firmly establish how Jewish I am, but I get goose flesh every time a bass clarinet and a sop sax kick off inna Yiddish-stylee.