France -Always The Same

I was reading an Air Pictorial magazine from 1971 last night. It was querying the defence implications of joining something called the 'Common Market'. The leader column decried the suggestion by Ted Heath and Monsieur Pompidou, that such matters could be discussed later -nothing changes in politics does it!

They also disliked the fact that France had left NATO but was happy to gain from its protection, as all the countries around them were members, without paying for it. Wherever you look, the French turn up as a duplicitous and disgraceful 'relative on the make', a perpetual nuisance and scrounger, lacking any morals.

Who can claim that God doesn't have a sense of humour? He may have needed to rest on the Seventh day, but he must have had some fun along the way. Why else would a country of such stunning beauty have such awful people imposed upon it?

Real And TV Politics

MP's are not just the devious curs we thought they were (and brawlers, if Labour), but they are also deceitful and duplitious. Recently, Cameron was bleating on about curing the binge drinking culture by raising the price of alcohol. He appears to have settled on this solution because there is a tangential link and it won't affect anyone he hangs around with, even if they are prone to the odd binge themselves.

But whilst this got all the media attention and seemed a waste of the PM's time, he was quietly off to France to sign up to a joint military command structure. No explanation and certainly no mandate from the public to do such a thing. Indeed if the current military posturing of the French isn't warning enough then history should provide pretty strong alarm bells.

France of course was the country that was outraged that British troops pulled out of France in WW2 to protect Britain, after the French has fairly spectacularly failed to defend their own country. Apparently they felt that was our job. The bit of the French nation that came to England offered to join the two countries together under one leadership. That would be Britain and the place called France, currently occupied by Germans. The other bit enthusiastically joined in with the Nazis and fought against Britain.

Or more recently the France who wanted nothing to do with the military side of NATO because they couldn't run it, but when the fighting kicked off in the former Yugoslavia they demanded to be kept informed of planning. This they promptly passed on to their Serbian friends. Then there is a certain amount of ire that the Americans felt about something or other, when they felt the need to label them as 'cheese eating, surrender monkeys'.

Cameron has to stop acting like some elderly grandmother who is duped out of her possessions by a conman, playing on her civility. Aircraft carriers. We haven't got any, but there is an on/off project to build a couple of pretty big ones. If the on side wins, they will be built in France apparently. And the French have also suggested that we provide the platform and they will provide the aircraft. There is a reason for that.

When you decide to 'do' something, it is the planes that do the 'doing', not the carrier. In the film, A Few Good Men, a US Marine declares his admiration for the Navy. He says that they are fine fellows because, whenever the Marines have to go somewhere to fight, 'you guys give us a lift'. The French you see, love glory, they just don't like working for it.

Maybe Cameron should stick to the binge drinking project, he is way out of his depth elsewhere.

Always The French

It is perhaps now quite well known that the Common Market/EEC/EU is a French attempt at creating a French empire (once again), but perhaps it is not so widely recognised how the scheming and machinations of French politicians has caused many major problems.

French attempts to dominate Scotland in the 1600's (indeed to talk it into becoming a French colony) lie behind much of the animosity of the Scots towards England. Similarly, French involvement in Ireland was responsible for the troubles there. That is not to say the English didn't cause plenty of problems too, just that resolution wasn't on the cards as the French were continually whispering in ears.

The American War of Independence was largely backed by the French and subsequent attempts to turn the US against Britain were common. In Europe of course, Napoleon made his desires clear and France started the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. France was very big on threatening Germany before the First World War, but made a spectacular mess, again, of defending itself and required others to rescue them.

Having rolled over in the early stages of the Second World War, with de Gaulle hiding in Britain, it was suggested that the two countries should be united. Which two countries would that be then Mr. de Gaulle? Britain and...... oh yes, you personally. Not a good bargain, non? The French also have a great propensity for calling themselves an Empire. They love the grand sounding word. Britain had an empire in reality, but didn't actually call the state itself, the British Empire.

The French decided they wanted nothing to do with NATO as it was mainly an Anglo-Saxon concern, but when it all kicked off in Serbia they demanded to be involved and demanded to be told of NATO plans. Once informed, they passed on the information to their Serbian friends.

Now we have the latest failure of French politicking, the disaster of the Euro and the destruction of the Greek, Italian, Irish, Portuguese and Spanish economies. With France and Germany threatened by their own hubris.