13 April 2014

I'll never understand the French.
They like to protest, but paradoxically they don't like change!  Take Manuel Valls, the new PM. With his film-star looks, you'd think he could do no wrong. But in his first policy speech when (in my view) he unveiled entirely sensible regional mergers, 77% were against it. Compared to Italy's 8000 communes, France currently has 37000!  The French apparently want to cut red tape but 'not in my back yard'.  Illogical French? This weekend 60 'go slow' protests are happening across the country against plans to reduce the speed limit to 80kph. I'd have thought a speed-up would have made the point better.
And, the new NF Mayor in Henin has thrown out the town's League of Human Rights (LDH), accusing them of 'interfering in municipal life'!   The LDH was founded in 1898, at the height of the notorious Dreyfus Affair that divided political and religious society in France between 1894 and 1906. Its declared objective is to observe and defend the rights of man in all spheres of public life.  So, here's this member of the NF - which is trying to cover up its extreme views - doing exactly that as his first action as Mayor.  Him Indoors says You couldn't make it up.