14th May 2017

Here's the new golden boy in France. Certainly better-looking and younger than all his predecessors. Result: Brussels much relieved, London anxious. Even Tony Blair has tried to get in on the act by writing to the new boy with Blairite 'words of wisdom', urging him to forget French bureaucracy - famous for keeping the status quo but hopeless for ever changing or modernising anything! Be bold, says Blair. Yes, well, look where that led him. So what has young Emmanuel got that has superseded everyone else? Well, he was known for juggling a high-stress job with tennis and cycling as well as being a prize-winning pianist with a Masters in philosophy. He's associated with French philosopher Ricoeur and Jacques Atali, who first arranged for Macron to join Hollande's cabinet. Atali was so impressed with him that he declared his young protege 'the stuff of presidents'. Well done Jacques - prescient indeed. Meantime, back in our rural gite, we visited the local historic Mining village. All went well until someone handed out miners' helmets and hair nets before ushering us all into a tiny, unlit, ancient miners' lift descending into the bowels of the earth. Did I go in? What do you think? I ran like hell, discarding helmet and net toute suite. Like the new golden boy in France, I never was one for underground movements.

4th October 2009

I see that, surprisingly, Ireland has voted resoundingly in favour of the EU's Lisbon Treaty in a re-run referendum, overturning a previous No vote. I say surprisingly because I thought that they would follow the standard English mindset: 'over my dead body...'. And yet, there are many people applauding the Irish today - including me. Somehow you get a clearer picture when you move away from entrenched opinions. The ancient nomads only saw the whole of Mt. Sinai when they moved further away.
Talking about the Middle East, did you read the astounding news that Mr. 'I'm in a dinner jacket' , controversial leader of Iran, was born Jewish to Jewish parents? Apparently his family decided to convert to Islam when he was a boy, changing their name and religion in the process. As I understand it, those who convert to Islam must decry their former religion. So, the Iranian leader, rather like Hitler before him, has Jewish connections. There are other similarities too: both had a previously misunderstood, pathological hatred of everything Jewish. But now, all is clear. Guilt, Guilt, Guilt! If I had my way, leaders of all nations should have a psychological clean bill of health approved before they are allowed to be elected. But then, when did non-democracies ever listen to reason?
So, let's hope that Ireland's truly forward-thinking vote will progress to a fully-democratic world where isolated, psychologically-disturbed, leaders are consigned to the wilderness where they belong. Even if the new EC president is likely to be our own Tony Blair..........

15th February 2009

There was thick frost last night in the Tarn et Garonne, but this morning the sky is blue and the quality of light is breath-taking. It lifts the spirits and reminds us why we moved here. We're also nicely placed for visiting either Biarritz, 2 hours due west, or the Cote d'Azur, a couple of hours south-east.
There's an amazing carnival which takes place in Nice this month. It's the biggest in Europe, reminding me of that other parade which dances down Main Street in Florida. The Nice Deputy Mayor Rudy Salles stressed that he wants the carnival to have a truly international dimension and see its reputation and influence grow throughout the world. Certainly the links are there. A spokesman for the world's carnival capital in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil recently said that 2009 is officially 'the year of France' in Brazil and extra special efforts have been made to ensure the Nice carnival will be represented in Rio.
This year's theme in Nice is Roi des Mascarades (King of Masquerades), which is all about transforming yourself. Looking at all the cartoons in Europe's financial papers, there is plenty of transformation going on. The fall in the pound has incurred the wrath of Mr Darling's continental counterparts, with French finance minister Christine Lagarde urging the bank to intervene in foreign exchange markets and the Germans pledging to put the issue of currencies high on the agenda. I've also seen spectacular caricatures of Carla and Nicolas Sarkozy doing a Punch-and-Judy-like spat over who should get all the media attention.
Wish I could make one of the floats at this month's carnival in Nice! There's no lack of puppets on the world stage - wonder if I could make one of Tony Blair?

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