Tuesday 19 October 2010

Vive le Président!


The president of France, now there is a man: there is Nicolas Sarkozy, an individual for whom I don't have a huge amount of respect. I've written about him in the past in scathingly sardonic terms, drawing attention to his vanity, his absurdity, his lies and his relentless self-promotion, the self-promotion of an insecure, little (little being the operative word) man. I'm normally sympathetic to right-wing politicians, apart from the laughably priapic Silvio Berlusconi and, up until now, Nicolas Sarkozy, the pocket pocket Napoleon. But things change, things always change.

He is a beleaguered man, President Sarkozy, under attack from the Eorocrats and under attack from the sans culottes in his own country. He's taken a stand against the Roma of Romania, professional and unpleasant beggars he's sent back east in hordes contrary to diktats on free movement within the European Community. Once again I put my head in the noose. If I were President of France I would have done the same. If I was Prime Minister of England I would do the same. Why? Is it because I'm a racist; is it because I'm opposed to the free movement of productive labour; is it because I dislike gypsies? No, no, and once again, no. I simply dislike the free movement of professional beggars; I dislike the streets of London being filled with Eastern European gangs of the indigent.

Now the President has taken a more important stand; he has taken a stand against the complacency of his own nation. In present economic circumstances he has asked it to make a few sacrifices for the sake of France; he has asked the 'workers' to consider the possibility that it might be necessary to raise the retirement age to 70, no, to 65, no, to 62, yes, and that's why the are now rising in their thousands in protest.

Yes, that's not a mistake - he wants to people to work until they are sixty-two. How dreadful; time for a new Bastille to tumble. The sans culottes are out in the streets, the people who enjoy bother for the sake of bother, the usual communist and anarchist suspects. At Nanterre just outside Paris thugs have attacked the police not because they believe in fairness, not because they give a fig about the retirement age (after all, what need to retire when you have never worked?); no, simply because they enjoy thuggery for the sake of thuggery, violence for the sale of violence.

I wish you well, Monsieur le Président, I wish you the courage to stand up and stand firm. But, alas, you are not Napoleon; you are not even De Gaulle: you are Sarkozy. I expect the capitulation soon. I would be delighted if you proved me wrong.

31 comments:

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  3. Would that include the all day lunch? Well, I suppose you could join them. Vive le Révolution!, comrade. :-))

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  6. Adam you know very well who and what I mean. I almost never use Britain, and since Cameron's writ hardly extends to the Celtic lands, I feel myself perfectly justified in talking of England.

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  9. Let me see now. He went to a meeting in a factory, one that was to be televised, arranging for people even smaller than him to be placed behind him. He wears built up shoes just to even out the difference between him and Carla. If there is a photo opportunity at the Élysée he stands on the first step while she stands on the ground. He stood on tiptoe for a photo opportunity with the Obamas. So, does his height matter? No, quite clearly it does not. :-)

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  12. Poor stubby Sarkozy! He would look so much taller if he stood on his principles - but he appears to have none to stand on.

    We really need to redefine what these issues are about: State control breeding dependency that saps individual responsibility. But should the state be involved at all? Perhaps, but not using the model almost universally adopted during the 20th Century.

    There's nothing to prevent anyone retiring any time they wish - if they can afford it. What is really being changed is the age of eligibility for a state pension. We all know that universal state pensions were invented in a time when the structure of society was very different. Are they still appropriate, or have they so distorted our sense of our selves that they have become a problem in themselves? I hear horrifying stats all the time that 80 percent of Americans in their 50s have made zero provision for retirement, and that a further 10-15 percent have saved less than $50,000 . . . yet they are driving SUVs worth more than that. Insanity.

    The worst effect of the welfare state is that so many people have been kept in a perpetual juvenile state, never really learning or accepting the responsibilities of adulthood. I think we all need to grow up.

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  13. Adam, I am me; I am not you. I will use all the weapons in my intellectual armoury, including invective and satire. Politicians are a ridiculous breed in general. If they got out of their way to make themselves look more ridiculous, if they go out of their way to draw attention to their absurd personal vanity, then all is fair in war and war. Taking your path we would never have had satire, never had Swift, or Hogarth, or Cruikshank or all of the others right up to the present day who preserve our sense of proportion by pointing to the absurdity of so many in public life.

    Now it’s most awfully late and I’m on my way to Bedfordshire. :-))

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  14. Calvin, but he tries so hard!

    You are absolutely right about the welfare state: it has done more to suck the vitality and life out of European culture and society than anything else I can think of. Welfarism is a disease. Now I really do have to go to bed.

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  15. France, let's see? Le Alizee,Le Superbus Thats about it.

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  16. Oh, Adam, that would also include Spitting Image, of which you are so fond. :-) Nite, nite.

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  18. Of course Sarkozy is right. Even so remarkable a people as the French cannot live on bombast and fresh air alone. Reality is for everyone - even the Frogs.

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  19. Yes, I rather thought caricature and satire were comic affairs, but maybe it's just a harmless puppet show! For goodness sake, I'm not attacking short people, I'm not a 'heightest'; I'm using comedy for comic effect, for satirical effect, an ancient practice. If politicians want to make themselves look absurd then who am I to stop them. :-))

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  21. Adam, it's not a joke as in the "did you here the one about?" style. I was simply using a verbal needle to prick pomposity, something I do on a regular basis. Oh, never mind; never explain a joke...or a technique!

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  23. OMG, I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore! Once again the observation was about pomposity and vanity, not about alleged 'disability.'

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  25. Sarko can't help being a dwarf, but he makes himself look silly by trying to hide it.

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  26. In reality, Sarkozy is not 'short'; it is his imagination that diminishes him. We do not laugh at his stature, but at his obsessive futile attempts to conceal it from the camera.

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  29. Sarkozy will be reelected, because French vote for they want on the first tour, but against the one they hate on the second tour; and many are male chauvinist!
    At Nanterre its only smokers of hashish who they came and brake all they could (Hotel,court...) and certainely make children in their school ,just near the court, affraid for a long time.But when Police came , rioters gone out cowardly as their habits...
    I live in Nanterre for a while

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  30. Yes, indeed, dear Ortho! How superb to hear from you after all this time. I hope all is well with you. :-)

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