Showing posts with label Greece. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greece. Show all posts
19 July 2015
Interesting week. Who'd have thought that a small, insignificant socialist called Hollande could - just maybe - have saved the whole of Europe from disaster by helping Greece. 75 years ago another small, insignificant socialist called Arthur Greenwood persuaded the British war cabinet to make the right decision: not to appease Nazi Germany. It was 1940 and the newly-elected Winston Churchill was chairing an urgent meeting. At the table was Lord Halifax, a man supported by the King - who thought that he rather than Churchill should be PM - who said that the best plan for Britain, one that would save many lives, was to negotiate with Hitler. However, up stepped insignificant socialist Greenwood who said No, never. Europe would be finished. TG he swung the vote the right way. In their way both Greenwood and now Hollande could well have saved Europe from absolute catastrophe: not by fighting on the beaches but by saying the right word to the right person at the right time. Something worth remembering.
13th May 2012
So, from today France officially has a new President. Is this a new trend - state leaders taking their names from another country? Or is he making his own wry statement: France woz Holland?? All week on the French news, I've been wondering: do we ellide the s at the end of Francois onto the aspirate H of his surname - Franzwozollande or Franzwah Ollande?
Looking at the man, himself, though is a different matter. How can a man who feels it's acceptable to father 4 children without being responsible enough to marry their mother take on the much greater responsibility of leading a country? Will he leave France in the lurch, too, as soon as it becomes expedient for him to do so? He certainly faces far greater problems than simply 'shall I or shan't I'. Fellow EU country Greece is suffering long lines of previously working people, waiting patiently for food parcels - like a third-world country. Hollande thinks he can solve this for France by simply dismissing all ideas of austerity and living within his country's means by taking on huge loans to feed people's immediate needs. Without a care for tomorrow. So the economic circle turns.
Him indoors says the man's got chutzpah, or rather what he calls Hollandaise Sauce!
Looking at the man, himself, though is a different matter. How can a man who feels it's acceptable to father 4 children without being responsible enough to marry their mother take on the much greater responsibility of leading a country? Will he leave France in the lurch, too, as soon as it becomes expedient for him to do so? He certainly faces far greater problems than simply 'shall I or shan't I'. Fellow EU country Greece is suffering long lines of previously working people, waiting patiently for food parcels - like a third-world country. Hollande thinks he can solve this for France by simply dismissing all ideas of austerity and living within his country's means by taking on huge loans to feed people's immediate needs. Without a care for tomorrow. So the economic circle turns.
Him indoors says the man's got chutzpah, or rather what he calls Hollandaise Sauce!
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