J’accuse …….

J’accuse l’élite politique française …..

• de trahir le peuple en amenant le pays au bord de la ruine

• de ne pas avoir présenté de budget équilibré depuis près de quarante ans

• de faire preuve d’une arrogance stupéfiante en prétendant que la France est trop importante pour respecter les lois économiques qui s’appliquent à tous les autres

• de créer un état dont le coût qui s’approche de 60% du PIB n’est pas supportable

• de créer un régime d’impôts qui est parmi les plus élevés et les plus complexes du monde

• de tolérer un taux de chômage permanent et honteux dans un régime oû l’âge moyen d’accès au premier CDI se situe au-dessus de 30 ans.

• de croire que l’Etat peut créer des emplois, alors qu’il ne peut que créer un environnement oû les emplois peuvent fleurir – ce qu’il ne fait pas, bien évidemment

• de créer par contre un régime d’emploi rigide qui est néfaste pour l’emploi – alors qu’on nous fait croire qu’il est bénéfique

• d’imposer des charges tellement lourdes sur l’emploi qu’un entrepreneur ferait tout pour ne pas embaucher

• de promettre d’année en année – d’un changement de gouvernement après l’autre – de remettre les choses en ordre sans jamais faire le nécessaire (parce que c’est trop difficile – mais on vous élit pout cela!)

• de permettre l’accumulation d’une énorme quantité “d’acquis” pour des groupes favorisés: en fait un syst me par lequel on espère acheter des votes avec l’argent des électeurs

• de ne pas avoir le courage de prendre des mesures difficiles, par exemple de réduire la taille de l’Etat, de réduire les impôts, d’en finir avec les acquis pour des groupes favorisés, de simplifier la paperasserie.

• de mentir aux électeurs pour se faire élire (Oui – nous sommes tous des “pauvres cons” ….)

• de venir majoritairement des grandes écoles (qui représentent 34% du budget national d’éducation, mais seulement 6% du nombre total d’écoles), oû l’on ignore apparemment l’impossibilité de dépenser à perpétuité plus que ses revenus

• de ne savoir qu’augmenter les impôts, dans les bonnes périodes tout comme dans les mauvaises

• de s’attaquer constamment aux innocents, par exemple aux expatriés britanniques, allemands, hollandais et autres en augmentant leurs impôts, alors que ces étrangers ont investi d’énormes sommes dans la France et ne sont pas responsable des imbécillités économiques des gouvernements successifs

• de favoriser les grandes entreprises prestigieuses au lieu des PME et des petits commerçants

• de ne jamais culpabiliser, et de toujours accuser les autres : les Yanquis, les Anglo-Saxons en général, les banques, les agences de notation, les Grecs, le capitalisme, les Chinois, MacDonalds – et maintenant MEME LES ALLEMANDS!! QUELLE FOLIE!!

• d’avoir permis de créer l’euro alors que tous les économistes renommés ont dit qu’il pouvait réussir seulement avec une union politique et fiscale – pour lesquelles AUCUN CITOYEN EUROPÉEN n’a voté

• d’avoir – une fois dans l’euro – rapidement permis au budget national de dépasser la barre des 3% du PIB d’excédent budgétaire en disant: “Cette règle était conçue pour les petits pays, pas ceux comme la France.”

• de permettre à l’élite de Bruxelles de se payer des sommes d’argent et des bénéfices pharaoniques avec très peu d’impôts

• de ne jamais donner son soutien à la Grande-Bretagne, qui est pourtant très “pro-Europe” en principe mais refuse les imbécillités et les actions quasi-fascistes de Bruxelles (salaires et bénéfices insensés, refus de votes nationaux, imposition sur des pays souverains de dirigéants choisis par Bruxelles, la France et l’Allemagne etc.)

• de vouloir en fait se débarrasser des britanniques, qui pourtant versent CHAQUE JOUR près de VINGT-CINQ MILLIONS D’EUROS NET à  Bruxelles

Messieurs/Dames de l’élite  – malgré vos diplômes de grande école, vos situations prestigieuses, vos belles paroles, vos gros salaires et vos bénéfices, VOUS AVEZ ÉCHOUÉ. Mais le pire, c’est que personne ne l’avoue; personne ne s’excuse. Tout le monde est responsable, sauf vous. Et vous ne faites que continuer avec les mêmes politiques, quel que soit le parti au pouvoir. C’est incroyable.

On méritait mieux … quand allez-vous assumer vos responsabilités? 

Chris Snuggs – Ancien Directeur Des Études de l’ISUGA à Quimper

 

France – AGAIN!

Those who know me will be aware that I am not “anti-France”. I lived there for 10 years and have many French friends – great people, just as there are in every country, though the best do not usually rise to political power. Still, that’s another story.

No, if I criticize “France”, it is mainly in relation to the French elite, whether left or right. This group collectively has NOT SET A BALANCED BUDGET since 1974. Anyone who thinks that a country can continue like this ad infinitum is truly moronic. Money really DOES not grow on trees. Logically, therefore, I do consider the French elite to be morons.

But of course, many are in fact very clever (depending how we define the word), having attended the ENA or some other posh elite school, so could it be that arrogance is cloaking their idiocy? Suppressing it perhaps?

Right, WHAT TO DO about the economy?

First, some facts: (in no special order of priority)

• By some calculations, France is the most highly-taxed country in the world. The Hollande government – far from grasping this point and its implications – has now RAISED taxes still further.

• French industry is now 15% less competitive than the German Bruder, which is of course a major competitor. This catastrophic situation partly explains the collapse in French car sales in the last year.

• The French state consumes 56% or more of total GDP. Only Denmark in the EU is higher, and compensates with much looser employment rules.

• Unemployment in France is always around 8% to 10% in the best of times, and is now creeping higher.

• France has a very rigid employment environment. It is very difficult to sack anyone for whatever reason, which in essence means that firms act as a branch of the social services. The intention is “to protect workers” from nasty, rapacious employers (most are in fact the opposite, but this is just one element of the leftist, pseudo-socialist and elitist mindset dating from Victorian times), but the EFFECT of course is to INCREASE unemployment, since employers are so reluctant to take on workers in the first place. Ironically, this meritorious desire to protect jobs leads to endemically higher unemployment than in Denmark, where the sacking rules are much laxer.

• The costs of employing anyone are very high in France – as usual, higher than almost anywhere else. Because of these two factors (high “social costs” and rigid sacking regime), employers will bust a gut NOT to employ anyone. They prefer instead to become more productive. This is why French industry has higher productivity levels than the USA. French workers are in general efficient and productive; there are just too few of them.

• A consequence of the reluctance to employ anyone (especially for small companies, which are the life-blood of any economy) is that many jobs are short-term (Contrat à Durée Determinée). It is apparently not until the age of 31 that a young French person on average gets his or her FIRST full-time, permanent job. It also explains why in its desperation successive French governments have set up all kinds of special offers to firms to take on young people with special regimes and subsidies and so on. All of this of course requires an army of civil servants to administer and hilariously actually REDUCES the openings available for anyone seeking a PROPER job. After all, if a company has a choice between a young government-subsidised trainee on a short-term contract or a full-time permanent and “normal” worker, it doesn’t take a brain-surgeon to work out which option the company will choose.

• Added to all the above is the horrendous complexity of starting a business and indeed of winding it up. I had a French friend who wanted to stop trading for various reasons, including the cost of expanding with more staff, and she told me she faced a six-month nightmare of paperwork just to officially cease trading.

• Underlying all the above is the tremendous resistance to real, structural change in France. Former President Nicolas Sarkozy wanted to reform the granting of taxi licences in Paris, which has far fewer taxis per head than most other major cities. It seems that taxi-drivers “own” their licence and can sell them when they retire for 100,000€ or more. This means that they bitterly opposed an increase in the number of licences as this would obviously reduce their value. This bizarre system – surely unique in the world – has evolved as an example of special benefits doled out to lobbies and interest groups by cretinous, cowardly, self and vote-seeking governments (see why I hate them?) and is known as “les acquis” (what has been acquired). And of course, what has been acquired is not easily given up. To cut a long story short, Sarko tried to reform this idiotic system, the taxi-drivers blocked the peripherique and the reform was abandoned.

So, WHAT DO DO? Some of the following falls into the category of “the bleedin’ obvious”, but the funny thing about the bleedin’ obvious is that certain mindsets often block it out completely. The plebs of course are much more aware of the bleedin’ obvious than most of the elite, but democracy in Europe means that the plebs have little real say, voting alternately for one set of the elite and then another, who – once elected – pay little attention, except to those who strike; the masses are supposed just to do what they are told by people who obviously know better.

GENERAL REQUIREMENT:

Accept the need to reduce state involvement in the economy and reduce it ideally to a maximum of 40% of GDP, Indeed, this should be written into law. Now, this would require a massive change of mindset, but ONLY economic disaster is capable of producing this; hence the feeling that things have to get much worse before they can get better. The mindset has shifted a bit given the current crisis, but is a long way from moving far enough.

Let’s be clear about one thing. The “State” works well. The bureaucracy is well-organized. I personally have found the “fonctionaires” to be almost universally polite, friendly and helpful. The computerisation is amazing: a citizen can see ALL his taxes payable online, for a start. No, the state works well, there is just TOO MUCH OF IT.

A FEW SPECIFIC SUGGESTIONS: (in no special order or priority)

Many of these will be laughed out of court by the elite. And therein lies the problem. For the elite, it is unthinkable that the state should limit itself, but if they DON’T do this, France has had it.

1. Abolish Prefectures. What is the point? This system was set up by Napoleon to control the state; it is a vast and useless expense. Whatever useful they do could be devolved to localities. Of course, the Prefect’s cars, personal chef and various lackeys would all have to go.

2. Abolish the “Médecine du Travail”. A good idea in theory, but UNAFFORDABLE. Once again, NO OTHER major competitor has this. How the hell does Germany manage, one might ask!

3. Abolish the need to change your number plate every time you move. A car should keep its number-plate from the day it is first issued until it is scrapped. The UK manages perfectly well with this system, so why should France be different?

4. Stop putting up idiotic road signs all over France. No driver with a licence and experience needs to be told at every single bend that there is a 50kpm limit. Most of these signs are silly and of course completely ignored by drivers.

5. Stop making pointless and regulations. ALL drivers now have to carry an alcohol-test kit. MILLIONS of cheap kits of plastic Chinese rubbish must be sold, and for WHAT? If you are a drink-driver, you are not going to bother using a kit. If you are NOT a drink-driver, you are being forced to buy some useless rubbish. I grant this would not save a lot, but it is a symbol of a state apparatus that just CANNOT STOP INTERFERING.

6. Get rid of “surveillants” in schools. GERMANY and the UK do not have this expensive system. How come THEY manage without specialized teams of supervisors?

7. Stop the central employment of teachers and devolve it to schools and localities themselves. A vast academy is required to direct teachers to specific schools. The UK does NOT have this system and manages very well. (at least in this respect)

8. Abolish the special treatment and/or protection to lobbies and special-interest groups – pharmacies and notaires (lawyers) for a start.

9. Simplify employment procedures. My English payslip had about 5 entries; my French one over 50 and was basically totally incomprehensible. SIMPLIFY the tax system. CUT TAXES. In general, FREE UP THE MARKET – REMOVE POINTLESS BUREAUCRACY.

10. The above requires the state (much smaller) to TRUST people more. In France,one often feels one is treated as a potential criminal and has to prove one*s innocence rather than being presumed innocent until found guilty. This also applies with tax and other official procedures, with multiple documentation required for doing almost anything.

Some personal anecdotes:

1. I took out a 5,000€ bank loan with the Societe Generale and had to sign three sets of documents with a total of TWENTY-SEVEN SIGNATURES, most requiring also “lu et approuvé” (read and approved). In the real world, a signature MEANS “lu et approuvé”. This is of course not the state, but is SYMBOLIC of the same mindset.

2. My son went to a holiday “Centre de Loisirs” – a sort of summer school in the town. These are brilliant in general. However, we signed him up for a four-day camp. When I turned up on the day for him to get the coach, a supervisor asked me:

   “Where is his medical certificate?”

   “WHAT certificate?” I replied.

   “Well, during the camp we are going to do some cycling and he needs a medical certificate to certify that he is medically fit to ride a bicycle.”

   “Look,” I said. “He has been here for two weeks, running around, playing football, climbing trees and using your scooters. Of COURSE he is fit to ride a bike.”

   “Sorry – he has to have a certificate.”

   “But I am his father. I can write you a note saying that he is fit to ride a bike and absolving you of blame for anything that might happen.”

   “No, it’s the law.”

   So, I had to rush about getting a certificate from our local doctor, who was fortunately in. This also is not the state per se, but is yet another typical example. In the WHOLE of France tens of thousands of people have to make a special trip to the doctor and pay 20€ to get an absolutely pointless medical certificate for riding a bike perfectly healthy children. The parents of course are completely incompetent to certify that their child is fit enough and has permission to ride a bike. Oh no, only the STATE can do this.

3. A small point but …… on a French cheque, you have to write WHERE it was signed. What is the POINT of this? Germany and the UK don’t require this. I find it so silly I now usually write “Timbuktu”, “Erevan” or even “NASA Central, Mars.”

CONCLUSION:

1. France faces an enormous challenge if it is´to escape from its debt trap and become more competitive. (FACT)

2. It can only do this be reducing the size of the state and cutting taxes. (OPINION, but also an almost universally-accepted FACT)

3. The French elite is incapable of doing 2. (OPINION – I hope they prove me wrong.)
   

4. ERGO: either the economy will collapse OR someone from the non-elite will take over (cue the National Front)

This last point is of course the cruncher. When economic times are very bad, people may turn to extremism, which is what led to Hitler. If ANYTHING should concentrate Mr Hollande’s mind, it is this.

The French people are well-educated, cultured, professional and innovative, with numerous world-class companies. But they have been let down by an arrogant and incompetent elite. When soon after the launch of the euro the turgid, ineffectual, stagnating Chirac government went over the agreed 3% limit of debt to GDP, a government spokesman said: “That rule was designed for little countries, not those like France.” That just about sums it all up. France is too big, too important and too great to have to obey the laws of economic reality – apparently ……….

VIVE LA FRANCE

 

The Trouble with France

“Gallois does not recommend reducing the size of the regulatory state which drains the private economy of wealth and innovative energy to finance the public sector on which political power reposes.”

He is an idiot.

The French govt is in a hopeless situation, truly dire:

A) They cannot reduce taxes quickly since that would increase the debt very fast; nobody believes that “growth” could take up the slack in the short term.

B) They COULD of course cut taxes if they cut expenditure, in other words, the size of the state. This is impossible in the short term (or indeed long term!), since it would mean sacking hundreds of thousands of their supporters.

So, they cannot reduce the site of the state without provoking union-led riots and possible social conflict.

They cannot reduce benefits for the same reason.

They cannot cut tax because the debt would soar and they’d lose their credit rating, putting up the cost of debt even more – welcome to the Greek death spiral.

It is indeed rather difficult to see what they CAN do, except leave the euro!!  A spot of “Blood, sweat and tears” might do it, but that is a bit too Anglo-Saxon to go down well over there. Nope – there is no “magic solution”, as Hollande naturally implied there was in order to get elected. His solution is of course to raise taxes and work less. This is a cunning plan which even Baldrick would label as lunacy.

Still, nobody should be surprised at anything from a party which introduced the 35 hour week in order to increase employment. A brilliant wheeze, though of course reducing it to 10 hours a week would clearly have increased employment even more.The entire political elite in the tweedledee-tweedledum parties that have held power for decades needs exiling to Saint Helena or somewhere so that someone else can take over. Nobody could do worse.

But people still keep voting for them! AMAZING!! Even in Greece they voted for the same venal, corrupt and cretinous mob that got Greece into this mess. As they are reputed to say in Yorkshire: “There’s now’t so queer as folks.”

 

The New French Alco-test for Drivers

From July, ALL drivers in France must carry an alcohol-testing kit …… This law alone tells you all you need to know about the insanity stalking the French elite. YES, there are too many drunk drivers, but the idea that by obliging ALL drivers (including the MILLIONS of totally innocent ones) to carry alco-test kits is silly. And those who DO drink and drive will almost certainly not USE their kit ANYWAY. So, at a time of desperate economic problems TENS OF MILLIONS of cheap Chinese kits of plastic must be imported. THANKYOU DEPUTES.

Actually, they SHOULD GO FURTHER. Clearly, if you could be a danger driving having drunk (and so need to test yourself) then you could be a danger in a multitude of other professions. I mean, drunken doctors, nurses, policemen (in France they all have guns) power-station technicians, ship captains, pilots, missile-launching soldiers and so on. ALL should carry an alco-test kit made in China.

In fact, I would go further. To ensure our permanent protection alarm systems everyone  should carry a hidden test-kit strapped to their back which would automatically sound an alarm and set off flashing lights on their forehead at ANY time they are drunk.

I think in this field I am in fact ahead of the EU. They WILL be pleased to hear of my idea. Perhaps I can get a job there?

 

The State …..

The “state”?

ANY organism’s first instinct is to thrive and GET BIGGER. This applies to companies of course and ALSO STATES.

The French state has done especially well at this modern version of “survival of the fittest”. As it has the power to take our money it has got bigger and bigger until the point where 56% of French GDP is spent on the state.

Had there been an unlimited supply of money and thus no crisis this would no doubt have continued until the state owned and dominated everything, with half the population working on Health & Safety Committees and the like or printing leaflets telling us how to live.

Fortunately, vast and bloated organisms usually die out from general excess and corruption, as of course happens with empires on a regular basis.

We can only hope the French state (and it is not alone) will eventually implode under its own vast gravity and disappear up its own black hole, leaving us to create something better having learned the lessons of the past …

Sorry – I put that last bit in as a joke …….

 

Weep for France …..

One can see a horrendous mess in every direction, but we should be looking more at France just at the moment.  They may be our favourite enemy but they don’t deserve the shambles their elite has landed them in, and besides, hundreds of thousands of Brits live there and our relations are very important.

If Hollande wins, he will surely bankrupt the country. There are comments below about the folly of govt spending being over 50% of GDP. Well, France’s is already 56%, and that tends to RISE in a recession as govt income falls and benefits go up. Despite this, Holland is promising to “create” tens of thousands more jobs and there is little sign of any commitment to freeing up business from the horrendous bureaucracy and “job-protection” which actually DESTROYS jobs.

He will also renegotiate the fiscal pact leading to a crisis with Germany AND one of confidence on the part of the loan sharks who (BY OUR OWN FAULT, NOT THEIRS) we are in hock to. This would surely lead to a collapse of the euro but Germany would leave the euro first rather than be sucked down by the moribund – oder?

If Sarko wins, he is so detested by the left and lots of others there will surely be civil strife as he has to either impose even harsher austerity OR see the French economy in freefall – given their high debt and govt spending. Cutting back France’s govt spending is going to be extremely painful as it involves sacking loads of civil servants.

The lunacy of nearly FORTY YEARS of living beyond their means thanks to German EU dosh is coming round to hit them. I really can’t see any way out except post-war austerity and misery plus a large dose of civil disorder. Can anyone else?

The elephant in the corner is extremism rising out of all this; it’s not as if we haven’t seen this phenomenon before …….

 

SPANISH MELTDOWN

‘Today the problem is solved,” declared French President Nicolas Sarkozy just five weeks ago.

Just shows you what an idiot this man is. Let’s look at some facts:

• YOUR party, Mr Sarkozy, has led France for well over a decade yet HAS NEVER PRODUCED A BALANCED BUDGET. Now all can do is put up taxes – CGT on my house in France has just rocketed, but I AM INNOCENT OF THIS SHAMBLES SARKO YOU PILLOCK.

• YOUR previous leader did nothing to bring about any structural change in France- or indeed any change in the cultural mindset of the cronyist French elite. Now, having evaded trial for corruption, he sits contemplating the ruin he left, but not of course for himself.

• YOUR governments have racked up vast debt.

• YOUR EU elite let Greece into the euro on a pack of LIES.

• YOUR banks greedily loaned Greece billions they would NEVER be able to repay.

• YOUR governments surged over the eurozone 3% debt “RULE” saying: “That rule was designed for little countries, not those like France.”

• YOUR country is slipping down the European competitivity league, with horrendously-high labour charges and taxes in general.

So spare us the sermons and just go quietly to your 20,000€ per month pension and snidey, snarling memoirs …. Are you hoping that Germany will bail you out? Oh dear …..

 

Hysterical Guilt

I have been following the Turkey-France spat about the Armenian “genocide” with growing disbelief. One reason I started this site was the appalling lack of logic allied to nationalism that seems to stalk the world and a desire to make a gesture in defence of sanity.

Re the “genocide”, let’s start from square 1.

FACTS:

A “country” cannot feel, think or speak. It can, therefore, obviously not be GUILTY of anything. A “country” just “is”. Only PEOPLE are capable of the above: feeling, thinking, speaking and being guilty.

As for historical guilt, there are TWO major premises that concern us:

1) Only a MINORITY of people can be guilty of acts at a national level, namely THOSE WITH THE POWER OF DECISION. This clearly does not apply to the majority of the population in any country.

2) In the case of Turkey and the Armenian question, ALL THE TURKISH INDIVIDUALS RESPONSIBLE for the action against Armenians are LONG DEAD. NO TURK currently alive can possibly be guilty of ANYTHING; it all happened LONG BEFORE the vast majority were born. Even those alive in 1916 were far too young to have had any power of decision.

THEREFORE, NO GUILT WHATSOEVER CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO “Turkey”. No child can be held responsible for the acts of its parents.

Given these FACTS, which in essence are bleedin’ obvious, how does one explain the hysteria of the Turks and their refusal to admit that yes, indeed, their ancestors were guilty of the genocidal killing of Armenians, which is apparently the conclusion of most historians?

Personally, I cannot understand it. A total refusal to apply logic to human behaviour is beyond my understanding.

This question of historical guilt is of course not confined to Turkey. The Germans are supposed to continue to feel guilt about the Nazis. The British should still feel guilty about the bombing of Dresden. The Japanese are supposed to feel sorry about their army’s behaviour in WWII, about the appalling massacres in China. Europe is supposed by Muslims to feel guilt about the Crusades; many Muslims still feel angry about them. Some British no doubt STILL hate the French because of the Norman invasion in 1066.  But NOBODY alive had anything to do with these acts and/or atrocities.

Concerning Dresden, I personally think it was wrong, a bombing too far, but I cannot feel ANY GUILT about it. I was not born when it happened. My parents had nothing to do with it, but even if they had, that changes nothing. The decision was taken by individuals who are all dead. Whatever guilt they bore they took with them to the grave.

Time for the Turks to grow up. The ironic thing is that by refusing to admit the facts they appear to be SYMPATHETIC to what was done by their forefathers.

The worrying thing is that even in the 21st century much of international politics seems to be carried out on the basis of primitive tribalism and illogicality. How the HELL can we change this?

 

France loses the plot

“Angela Merkel telephoned the Prime Minister yesterday morning and the German foreign minister will visit London on Monday, amid growing European disquiet over the behaviour of senior French figures in recent days.”

No Ed and Cleggo (What a fine matching-pair they would have made),  Cameron’s “Nein Danke” was not “posturing” but a well-judged and totally, utterly and completely democratic decision to keep out of a desperate, rushed and ultimately silly last-chance not-so-cunning plan cooked up by angry (Merkel), desperate (Snarlkozy) and incompetent third-rate European politicians and EU officials to save their misguided euro “let’s create a superstate even though no bastard has actually voted for it” project?

What a nice XMAS present if France went straight from AAA to C+ ……. that would be a real hoot. They’d have to get Blair in to spin that one, probably involving claims of an Anglo-Saxon CIA-run plot. But they deserve it. Apparently, their much-trumpeted years-too-late “austerity programme” consists almost entirely of entrepreneur-bashing tax increases and NO cuts in government expenditure.

And this in a country where A) the tax take is already about 50% of an ordinary person’s income and B) the civil service is the biggest per capita in Europe. I can sense a new book genesising in the “Idiot’s Guide” series: “How to ruin an economy”, by the French elite with Special Advisor Gordon “Where-is-he-now?” Brown.

In Sarko’s place I would confiscate Chirac’s ill-gotten gains to keep the country solvent for a few more days, including the chateau which he apparently bought dirt-cheap and had renovated at public expense as a piece of heritage. Yet the French public still have a soft spot for our Jacques, even though his list of real, lasting and structural achievements for France is immeasurable, given that you cannot measure something that does not exist.

 

The French are Puzzled and Miffed …..

“So why is the UK enjoying near record low market interest rates while France’s are in danger of spiralling out of control?”

Well, you did ask.

A) France has not set a balanced budget for decades.

B) It has the highest per capita civil service costs of the EU.

C) It is losing competitivity, including and especially to Germany.

D) It is weighed down not only by idiotic EU bureacracy like everone else but its own special additions, making it extremely expensive to hire people and almost impossible to fire them.

E) Until very recently, with the fire burning just outside the door, it has shown no signs whatsoever of understanding the position it is in or doing anything about.

F) It is very likely to get a socialist government next year, which of course will be the kiss of death to their economy. (See “Zapatero and the bankrupting of Spain” – other versions of the same epic theme have been played out in Greece, Italy, Portugal etc.)

All in all, their hysterical and desperate search for an easy scapegoat is quite understandable, and they don’t come any easier than the dreaded Anglo-Saxons.

Still, when  the predicted (by Merkel and the EU propaganda machine) war comes, no doubt we’ll see a Groundhog-style reprise of WWII with us once more storming up the beaches to the rescue (with a little help from the Yanks as usual – try to get going a bit sooner next time, guys!!), even if – as Snarlkozy said – we islanders don’t understand the Continent. At least he didn’t accuse us of being in-bred – or all homosexuals, as did former French PM and corrupt EU crony bureaucrat Mme Cresson.

Who needs “Eastenders” when the daily euro-soap is so much fun?