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Baroness Ashton Struts Her Stuff

Martin McCauley writes: That stunning bird, Baroness Ashton of Upholland (no, that’s not in the Netherlands but in Lancashire), is called the High Representative of the European Union. That impressive title merely means she is the EU’s foreign minister. As someone, who doesn’t speak any foreign languages and has never studied diplomacy or history, she is embarking on a voyage of discovery. Imagine a meeting she has with her top advisor in Brussels as she prepares for another week of hard graft. Baroness Ashton: ‘Right, let’s decide how we’ll influence the world this week. I haven’t had any time to read the newspapers so I need a little update. By the way, please don’t quote from Le Monde or Die Welt in their native tongue to patronise me. Say it in... 

What’s All The Fuss With Thierry Henry’s Handball? All Footballers Cheat

R.F.Wilson writes: Pardon me for not joining the indignation brigade that has been busy screaming their heads off, demanding a replay of that supposedly ‘fateful’ World Cup qualifying match between France and Irealnd because Theirry Henry had helped to score the decisive goal in injury time with a skilful hand gesture. And let me also discard the preposterous suggestion that the disputed goal supposedly put the integrity of the beautiful game into doubt. I will start with this: what exactly do they find beautiful in the game? The beauty has all but gone a long time ago, especially from the international matches. National teams now consist of overpaid players, who have multi-million contract obligations with their clubs and sponsors that overshadow any other commitments. Let me... 

Small Businesses Squeezed By The Big Retailers? The War Continues

Thomas Mathew writes: All of a sudden the hacks have realised what everyone knew for quite some time: that giant department stores and supermarkets are using their commercial muscle to increase their profit margins by ruthlessly pushing down the prices they pay small producers for their goods, threatening the existence of tens of thousands of jobs. Let me fill you in on how this perverse system originated. Imagine a small company producing items of clothing getting an order from a big retailer for, say, 10,000 units. The company would do its best to ensure that it delivered top quality garments of clothing, on time, at the agreed price. The company would then be rewarded with an even bigger order the following year. Armed with this new contract, the firm would arrange finance with its bankers... 

Pictures Of Life In France

Thomas Mathew writes: I have just returned from France, where I occasionally listened to the BBC World Service radio. I have to ask: is the World Service so short of money that it had no option during the past two weeks but to keep broadcasting the same boring news report concerning China’s one child per family policy? Or is it that the BBC is now obsessed with matters of keeping birth numbers down generally, and in China in particular? Bizarre, very bizarre. Staying with the BBC World Service. The difference between reports on the French news and reports on the BBC World Service was startling at times. Last week the French news service informed its listeners that large numbers of citizens in Germany were expressing their outrage, because a German officer, who is currently in charge of... 

Shock And Horror! France And Germany Spy On Britain

Adam Lovejoy writes: It is a scandal of gigantic proportions that is being hushed up: a secret document prepared by the British government has been leaked to the press earlier this year. It contains a staggering revelation: France and Germany are named among the 20 countries that are conducting wide ranging covert operations on British soil to steal top secret information. Leading in this list are the usual suspects, China and Russia, but they have been spying against the Brits for as long as the world can remember, so there is nothing new in that. And the presence of countries like Iran, Syria and North Korea in the list is not that unusual. You expect them to be there. But France and Germany, Britain’s allies in the European Union and NATO! Now that was quite a shock. Next thing you... 

Nicholas Sarkozy: Is He Great Or Not? I Guess Not

Thomas Mathew writes from France: I am now in France, holydaying at my sister’s chateau in the north. I meet a lot of people who come over to see my sister, mostly former politicians and bankers and businessmen. From talking to them I get a feeling that most of them are not really quite sure whether France benefits from having that rather odd man, Nicolas Sarkozy, in charge, when the economy is in such terrible shape. The collective thinking is that Sarkozy is no giant of handling the economy, and no giant as a politician generally, and it might have been a better idea if a more original person would have been steering the ship that is called ‘France’. One of the people I spoke to, a retired banker, told me that the problem with this recession is that overall there are no strong... 

The French Are Asking: Why Is No One In Britain Protesting?

Thomas Mathew writes from France: What is wrong with you, British, a friend of mine, Jacques, asked me. Why are you letting your government trample all over you and bankrupt your country while doing nothing to save jobs and businesses? At least here in France we make our feelings known to President Sarkozy. We are not allowing him to squander trillions of our taxes. Jacques was right, you know. We are probably the only nation in the European Union that is being taken for a ride by its leaders and all we can do is grumble a bit and get on with it. The French protest energetically at every given opportunity. If they hit the streets, they really hit the streets. Some of the polls conducted across the country register up to 80 per cent disatisfaction with President Sarkozy. The French political... 

A Cynical Look At The Parliamentary Expenses Scandal In Britain. From Abroad

Thomas Mathew writes from France: It is a totally different perspective that you get when you look at certain events from a distance…A couple of days ago, when I was still in Britain, I was overwhelmed by newspaper reports about British members of parliament abusing and misusing their expenses and allowances. It seemed such a huge story that I did not really pay that much attention to anything else. But once I got to France the whole messy thing began to look somewhat distant and irrelevant. And when I tried to find out what French people thought about the scandal rocking Britain they shrugged their shoulders and said that their own members of parliament were probably no better. One well informed French journalist even told me that it was no wonder that British MPs got into the habit... 

The French Are A Law Unto Themselves. Pity About Their Tolerance Of The EU

Thomas Mathew writes: Here I am, in France, witnessing the disruption to train services that is causing a great deal of anger among those who use the trains to go to and from work. Shortly after Nicolas Sarkozy became President, he stated that it was no longer acceptable that the trade unions could hold the public to ransom and passed a law forcing the unions to run a minimum of at least two trains per main route per day during strikes. Well, the unions, being good law abiding organisations, are, naturally, complying with the new law and are doing just that at the moment – causing havoc all over the country by providing a minimal service. On the coastal railway line between St Raphael and the Italian border the SNCF train drivers strike is now into its eighth week. The locals are extremely... 

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