The Last Word On Hollande
I picked this paragraph up from The Times.
Christine Boutin, a Roman Catholic who served as a minister under President Sarkozy, accused Mr Hollande of “treating his concubine like a Kleenex”.
It would appear that he’s running out of powerful women to take to bed. One wag also said last week, that he looked like a middle-aged provincial dentist.
i know the French expect different things from their politicians, but there can’t be many countries where Hollande’s behaviour would be tolerated without redicule.
The Other Side Of Hollande’s Troubles
The letter writers in The Times have been telling tales of President Felix Faure and his mistress Marguerite Steinheil. His death is described here in Wikipedia, with this being the first part.
Faure died suddenly from apoplexy in the Élysée Palace on 16 February 1899, at a critical juncture while engaged in sexual activities in his office with 30-year-old Marguerite Steinheil. It has been widely reported that Felix Faure had his fatal seizure while Steinheil was fellating him.
Read the whole section, as there are a lot of good jokes about pompe funebres.
Today’s episode in The Times, is from John Julius Norwich, no less!
It described how Steinheil was feted by admirers after being accused of murdering her stepmother and husband. it also disclosed how he met the femme fatale.
Francoise Hollande has a lot to do, to leave the same note in history as President Faure.
Perhaps, they’ll give his name to a Metro station, as they did for Felix Faure.
Hollande Gets On His Motorbike
Traditionally in the UK, there is a joke about infidelity and men getting on a bicycle.
But French presidents do it differently and use a motorbike driven by a chauffeur., according to this article on the BBC web site. Here’s the relevant bit.
The pictures purportedly show the pair arriving separately. Mr Hollande, wearing a helmet, is on a motorbike driven by a chauffeur.
It looks like it’s one law for the leaders and one law for the plebs.
I wonder what is the French colloquialism for “Beware the scorned woman!” or in Hollande’s case “Beware the scorned women!”
Hollande Shows How To Ru(i)n Football
The top French football clubs, are showing what they think of President Hollande’s high earner tax, by going on strike, as is reported here on the BBC. Here’s the first paragraph.
French President Francois Hollande has rebuffed protests against a 75% tax on high earners, prompting football clubs to press on with a planned “strike”.
Mr Hollande stood firm by his plan to levy the tax on incomes above 1m euros (£850,000; $1.36m) at a meeting with club presidents.
Ed Milliband admitted in this interview to being a lapsed Leeds United supporter and now follows Doncaster, so expect him to raise taxes like Hollande if he gets elected, as it won’t effect any of his teams. It might even raise Doncaster into the Premier League!
Hollande In Cloud-Cuckoo Land
This story from the BBC is entitled, “Euro crisis is over, says France’s Francois Hollande”
I can hear Bud Flanagan singing a new version of the Dad’s Army theme song call “Who do you think you are kidding Mr. Hollande?”
It might be true to say that the crisis with the Euro is over, But the crisis with some of the countries in the Euro-zone certainly isn’t!
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.
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.
They’ve Got Blue Honey In France
This sounds a rather weird story and it’s all here on the BBC web site.
Perhaps the French bees have got the blues over Francois Hollande!
The Queen Meets President Hollande Today
according to The Times, the Queen will meet President Hollande today for thirty minutes. They will meet without interpreters and it is expected that they will talk in French. Has there ever been a French queen, who spoke fluent English?
Later President Hollande will have a working lunch with David Cameron.
Note that Hollande’s name is always flagged up by the default spell check.
The Anonymous Widower 