Le Pong Invades England
The whole of the south of England has been invaded by Le Pong, which originates in a plant in Rouen. Reports of the smell have been received by the BBC from people as far north as Daventry. The story is here on the BBC web site.
Not So Gay Paris!
This story is the most shared this morning on the BBC’s web site. here’s the first paragraph.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Paris over plans to give gay couples in France the right to marry and adopt children.
France seems to be getting in more and more messes, what with the taxes, jobs and the economy in general. Will they come to regret their incursion into Mali.
Hollande Scraps New History Museum
I also wondered why you see so many French kids and their teachers in the Imperial War Museum. The answers are here in this article in the Daily Mail about the scrapping of France’s new historical museum by President Hollande.
Basically, they don’t have one, and as our museums are free to entry, they just get on the Eurostar and go visit.
As someone of part-Huguenot descent, I would like to learn more about why my ancestors came to London in the mid-eighteenth century. Typical of most in the UK and even those with Huguenot descent, I know little of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.
But that seems to be just one of the arguments that have scuppered the project.
But as the Mail says, other countries with chequered history including ourselves have museums that tell of that past. We have a Museum of Slavery in Liverpool. Do the French have one? I don’t think so, but they are trying to set one up in Nantes.
Gerard Depardieu May Become Russian
Who’d have thought Russia would be a tax haven, but this story says that it only has a personal income tax of 13%.
Putin seems to be welcoming Gerard Depardieu with open arms, but then I don’t think the French actor is a man, to whom a lot of the principles that guide most of us apply. He certainly seems very selfish and looking at his personal life, women are just toys in his life.
Incidentally, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in a film.
Europe’s Most Stupid Politician
I’ve just read two articles about President Hollande’s tax ideas in the Times and The Telegraph. He wants everyone who earns over a million euros to pay a 75% tax rate. the constitutional Council has turned his idea down, so he doesn’t even know French law.
Forty or so years ago, such a policy could have been enforced and in those days in the UK, anybody earning over about £40,000, used to pay an income tax of over 70%. But all that did was create schemes to avoid paying tax and the best brains of the country became accountants and tax lawyers, rather than scientists and engineers to create wealth by creating companies and jobs.
But Hollande thinks he can turn the clock back!
He must be so stupid to not see that he’s being counter-productive, by giving the brilliant, reasons to leave France. Il est un imbecile.
How Can Governments Be So Stupid?
This story of how the French government has forced Gerard Depardieu to become a tax exile has been repeated through the years in many countries and it always ends up with less money being collected, the brightest and the best leaving and job losses. Usually too, you find out later that those politicians behind it, have made provisions to hide their income.
Every country needs to find ways of keeping all of their best people at home. But of course only by using totally fair and humane methods.
So how can they do this?
Obviously low personal taxes do help. And I don’t just mean income taxes, but capital gains ones as well. After all, many people who create one fortune, have a record of going on to create another, which means further employment and tax revenues from all places. But then there are people who don’t believe that if you lower taxes you raise more money! You may not, but if you frame the rules right and cut down on tax avoidance, you should get an increase.
Quality of life is also important. I live in London and I have a very good quality of life. I live fairly cheaply and get all my healthcare free. I even get all of my local public transport free. Obviously, others have other priorities, but as in France, most people can find a good lifestyle to suit their pocket.
So I think, that governments should probably concentrate on getting the basics of life right for its inhabitants. That means a good basic services, like education, police, fire and refuse collection and a health service that works for all.
Governments must also create opportunities for all levels. At the bottom, they put all sorts of administrative barriers in the way of the unemployed in getting well-paid work. If say I wanted to employ an eighteen-year-old to help me sort out this house, the barriers would be immense. So consequently, when I do, it’ll probably be a friend’s son and cash-in-hand. At the top level, governments always give out contracts to their friends. How many computer contracts have been let to companies, who’ve failed before?
Napoleon once said that Britain is a nation of shopkeepers. He was wrong in that, we’re probably a nation of entrepreneurs. We all seem to want to be our own boss. And what’s wrong with that? Nothing in the eye of most of us, but to some politicians it’s anathema.
I don’t believe the French are any different, as probably are the much-maligned Pakistanis and Somalis.
So governments should just create an environment that makes us all want to stay here and create employment, which hopefully pays enough taxes to keep the process continuing.
France has done everyone a favour, by conducting an experiment that belongs to the past. It failed then and it will fail now.
A Rant From France
I received this comment last week and feel it should be posted.
Hello Anonymous,
I came across your blog whilst doing my daily research regarding wind farms.
I live in rural France and now have six x 140 metre high wind turbines…….one of which is under 600 metres from my home.
The value of my property has dropped by around 40%? Exactly how this percentage is arrived at I do not know. I can say the estate agent I asked to come and see my property was “shocked”! by the size of the turbines and the close proximity of them to my home.
He was also amazed that I was not getting any money for having them so close to my property.
He declared that I had a lovely home, beautiful garden and extremely attractive gite, he then said what a pity about the windfarm…….getting people to come to the house would be the biggest hurdle as the turbines loomed from every angle over my property,enough to put most people off before they even got here. He felt ( and I can only agree) that given a choice most people would not choose my property over a property without a wind farm so close. Now how bloody obvious is this!!!? For goodness sake…….so here I am with a blighted home, with a mortgage, with noise issues. I am just one of many in this situation.Our neighbours host the turbines on their land and receive around 25,000 Euros a year plus, the village 2.5 kilometres from where I live also receives around the same amount. I have received absolutely nothing apart from a complete change of circumstances as to how I now live my life. There are of course worse things in life then having a wind farm next door but it is the way “we” are simply overlooked and referred to as selfish! that I cannot understand.People need to “wise up” as to just how crushing it can be to have turbines so close to them.I am forever reading about people not understanding why turbines can be so unpopular……it is only the people who have to live next to them who really know why.Visiting a wind farm is not anything like living with one and yet again and again groups of people are taken on a visit for a couple of hours so they can make an “informed” decision about having a wind farm near them………please everybody wake up! bit of a rant I suppose.?
All I can do is sympathise!
My views on wind farms are detailed here.
Galettes With The Precision And Care Of A Surgeon
I haven’t had a crepe or galette in over fifteen years. But I bought one from this stall in Camden Market.
It was well-worth waiting for. I won’t wait as long next time.
As you can see the gluten-free galettes are made from buckwheat flour.
Why the surgical reference? Go and have your delicious pancake ask the guys; one French and one Spanish.
Guys like this really show up most chains of fast food, as what they are – purveyors of toilet fodder!
Boris Gives It Straight To The French
Boris Johnson in India has taken the French government to task over their statements on ArcelorMittal. It’s here on Reuters. This is an extract,
The Mayor of London Boris Johnson on Tuesday described France’s Socialist government as left-wing revolutionaries that were driving investors away in a dispute with steelmaker ArcelorMittal.
The Conservative mayor mocked the French government as ‘sans-culottes,’ a radical left-wing class during the French Revolution of 1789, while adding that British capital would welcome business fleeing from France.
The French are going to have to realise that the world has changed and the rest of the world doesn’t owe them a living. Especially, as their policies are driving the best and most creative brains out of France.
We Need A Radish
According to The Times today, this is the French way of saying they don’t have a bean.
It was shown as a placard on a French tractor as “On a un radis” and the paper translated.
The Anonymous Widower 