What psychotherapists call a moment of insight. Probably nonsense, therefore, but let us follow the thought.
New Labourites are uniformly middle-class kids brought up in the arid pinched north of England and Scotland in the 60s and 70s. They have been on family holidays to France a whole lot and idealise the place. Naturally. There is a lot to like, and as well-off tourists, the likeable bits are the things they have seen.
Thus, and because they attribute all social good to government, it is a conclusive argument in the New Labour mind that French dirigiste, technocratic ways of government are to be emulated. Technocracy, because they do not understand it , (having studied arts and social sciences not Bac-C) is modern. French is modern. But the actual content or history – history is not interesting if you are modern – of French institutions need not be studied. We know all about them: we have been there on holiday 1.
Thus ‘identity cards’ are modern and harmless, though ours will not work as simply as the French and there is plenty of evidence they are a nuisance to them.
Arbitrary powers of detention are fine, because France has them, and French judges (conveniently ignoring the fact that they are closer to the state than our chief constables, and the ones exercising such powers) can be found in favour.
And now the reductio ad absurdam: French local government is modern. That is, the commune system introduced at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries is. Maybe local government reorganisations in England (1540s, 1880s, 1965, 1974, 1986, 1995-98) will stop for 200 years when we are truly modern.
1= Not me, you understand. I do not come from the sort of family that had foreign holidays. Though to pre-empt accusations of negative stereotyping of North Britain, I should point out I was brought up in Yorkshire between 1966 and 1974, and what holidays there were were further north.
The sodden stench of it is enough to make you leave the country, which I have.
Why stop at New Labour? Francophilia has been a prevailing theme among the upper classes in Britain since the 18th Century.
That this trickled down to the aspiring middle classes was no surprise, once they could afford the ferry. Before the architects of ‘New’ Labour discovered the joys of France, an entire generation of pedagogues had thought themselves special because they’d learned to drink red wine.
Personally, I’ve long held that Elizabeth David did more to undermine our cultural identity than Sartre and all his followers.
I agree that Tony thinks being French or Tuscan is superior to being British. And as I pointed out on an early comment Tony seems never to take a holiday in the UK (other than a token holiday during the foot & mouth outbreak), he always goes abroad to live the Continental lifestyle.
I think Cherie is on the record as saying she hates “the countryside”. So really it is Islington and the Continent that hits the spot for those two.
GCooper, eh?. Nothing wrong with the great Liz David. Wonderful cook. I feel hungry just thinking about her recipes.
Could be, new Labour seems intent on getting us a thoroughly modern double figure level of unemployment.
It is obvious to me that Nu-Labour admires some of the rather daft of modern French policies on the working week and time off for things like births. At times the Nu-Lab lot seem to be feeling almost guilty for the fact that Britain is doing better than its “European partners” and they are determined to bring the UK down to their levels.
The idea of a central, all-powerful state, run acording to “scientific” and technocratic principles is the very core af all socialist and communist ideology.
I mean: it is a socialist thing, not a French one.
The problem with socialism is that it stinks, not that it is French. I doubt that the British have contributed less to the rise of socialism than the French.
I’ve often heard in conservative circles in several countries: “Socialism is a foreign ideology, not fit for our Noble Nation”. Bull. It is not fit for no one.
The merits (or dismerits[?]) of socialism have nothing to do with it’s country of origin. (Which country is it?)
New Laborites sucked in socialism with the milk of their mother, long before they visited France. It was (for the last 120 years or so) and remains the prevailing and fashionable ideology all over the world.
Whatever the French can be blamed for, ruining Britain is not their doing.
Jacob,
The problem with socialism is that it stinks, not that it is French.
Quite. But that’s not my point, which is about TB’s mental landscape.
GCooper,
I don’t think that French things are bad. Many of them are very good. Some of them are even new. But unlike the New Labourites of my imagination, I don’t assume that French things are automatically new and good by virtue of being French.
What I’m objecting to is policymaking by transferred epithet.
Blair is certainly aspiring to a French level of bureaucracy and interference in private lives.
“… which is about TB’s mental landscape.”
What is a “mental landscape” ?
TB is some sort of socialist. Do you want to claim that he absorbed his socialist ideas while visiting France, and if he hadn’t he wouldn’t be a socialist ? I doubt it.
Referring to Tony Blair’s “mental landscape”, Jacob asks: What is a “mental landscape” ?
In Blair’s case, an arid wasteland where little can take root. Populated by slithery things.
Holidays? North of Doncaster? Them’s not holidays, guy. Them’s trips to remind you of purgatory. Just ask Tony Blair. He’s forced to go to County Durham once every four years, to pretend to care abou’ t’wukkin’ class.
That’s the real reason he’s resigning before the next election. He can’t stand going to his constituency any more.
But you wuzz lucky to have holidays, guy. All me un’ ‘R’ kid got wuzz grit. Gret big bagfuls er’ grit. Tut fill in ‘oles int rode, fut pocket money. I did go to Whitby once, though. That were a grand day out…
Happy days! 🙂
guy herbert writes:
“I don’t think that French things are bad.”
I wasn’t trying to suggest either that they are, or that you appeared to think it.
“But unlike the New Labourites of my imagination, I don’t assume that French things are automatically new and good by virtue of being French.”
Quite so and I understood your point. What I was trying to do was remind readers that the cultural genuflection you had observed had a long history. An apercu with previous, perhaps.
The thing about France is how behind the times it is. Even now, most people are not online. Unbelievable. You ask someone for an email address and, although they know what it means, they are surprised that you think they would have one.
Vans and trucks have only just started putting the web address of their companies on their panels.
In France, they haven’t eaten anything new for 300 years. Maybe longer! The overwhelming majority – I’m guessing around 85% – take their holidays in France or, at worst, the French Caribbean. They are scared to go anywhere new because they are frightened of having to eat strange food. They are a hoot.
“In France, they haven’t eaten anything new for 300 years.” Quelle horreur!
Right! There’s the problem! Great! Anyway, I’ve always thought the system of states – and counties – in the US was one of our greatest strengths. And the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, though no one appears to pay any attention to them, do note an essential aspect of our governance. If Washington ever tried to eliminate states, the resulting explosion would tear the country apart. France went downhill when they replaced the ancient divisions – Burgundy, Normandy – with the departments. Who the heck feels any sense of belonging to “Seine et Oise” for God’s sake?
Actually, Robert Spiers, I think they do, tied together by la langue française. They also feel a sense of kinship with the W Africans. I was surprised by this when I first moved to France, but some F West Africans speak beautifully accented French, which makes them totally acceptable in France … meaning, the alien colour of skin and facial features mean absolutely nothing. They speak French.
I think the power of the French language should not be misunderestimated.
The idea of being a Burgundian or a Breton is much more like what a Texan or a Virginian feels, though, than any attachment to the nearly powerless administrative divisions of the totalitarian state run from Paris. Peking is trying to establish the same centralized absolutism in China, but, it appears, with less success.
The thing about France is how behind the times it is. Even now, most people are not online. Unbelievable. You ask someone for an email address and, although they know what it means, they are surprised that you think they would have one.
That could have something to do with the prior existence of minitel, and the dominance of the web by English language, both of which made the comparative advantage of web access less for the French. Though we shouldn’t confuse internet access with internet usage. I’d bet that of those French with nominal access, usage rate is higher than that of those with access in Britain, for precisely the same reason: you need to be a little bit more motivated to get on the net.
Pursuing GCooper’s point, that uncritical Francophily is not new among the statists, imitation of minitel was frequently urged on us in the 70s by corporatist modernisers.
guy herbert – absolutely, the existence and wide take-up of minitel tamped down the excitement that other peoples felt when the internet burst upon us. No question.
“I’d bet that of those French with nominal access, usage rate is higher than that of those with access in Britain.” No. I don’t think so. In fact, it’s probably less because French websites are such crap. Spanish (as in Spain, not the new world) sites are far superior to French – more attractively designed and easier to navigate. It may be higher among the seven or eight people in France who speak English and therefore go online on the anglo-net. I’d say that in online homes, the net in France is most widely used by children.
Thanks Guy Herbert for writing about my country, and even mentioning the former BAC C, now called S for science. About the way “we”, the French, live, try to imagine a developed country where a majority of the 18 year old citizens come from the third world with there own food, language and crimes. Try to imagine unskilled foreigners making their living where the French educated can’t, and buying houses and shops during their first years in France. And all type of foreigners (including English landlords) benefiting free health services because they have “no declared income”, – it takes just one tick on a form that won’t be checked.
A country where serving pork soup in the street to the needy is arbitrarily forbidden because it might be a provocation to “some” (in French it’s a synonym for Muslim, Arab or African). In Frnace, pork soups and so many things are banned before the Muslims and their so called “antiracist” associations publicly order our government. Millions of ordinary Asian and African citizens break our laws openly and build fortunes without ever being bothered by human rights activists.
The advanced labs our social waste are our DOM-TOM (departements d’outre-mer, territoires d’outre-mer) Martinique, Gualeloupe, Réunion, Mayotte (in the Indian Ocean, 100% muslim, where a majority of the birth are among illegal immigrants), Guyane, Polynesia.
The resulting French debt is 65% or 120 % (actualised civil servants pensions included) of our GDP.
There are been many novelties in France indeed.
So French news will remain in 2006 the best deterrent to socialism and third world dictatorship. If you want to remain free, read our news item and comment on them. And maybe the Americans will learn where Turkey is and where it must remain.
Alice! Brilliant as always! I wish you would post more often
DO NOT TOUCH OUR PORK SOUP !
You may have heard about the Identitary Soups. These traditional pork soups are distributed in several towns in France and Belgium by Identitary associations that are wishing to help their compatriots living in poverty.
These identitary soups have been accused of racism because, since they contain pork, they would exclude Jews and Muslims. Still, pork meat is key to the traditional Gallic art of cooking (Read again the Asterix’ adventures !). It is also the cheapest meat and this is an important factor of choice for non-subsidised associations. And, last but not least, when Jewish or Muslim associations are helping their fellows from the same religion they choose to serve kosher or hallal soups and this does not shock us nor does it shock anybody else… Now when Europeans are trying to help their fellow compatriots with pork, why should it then be considered as racism ?
January 14th 2006, following a request from the Mayor of Strasbourg (North East of France), the Prefect (representing the French State) has prohibited the distribution of the Identitary Soup with the support of the police and has arrested the head of the association organising the soup, named Solidarité Alsacienne (Alsatian Solidarity).
IN FRANCE THE STATE PREVENTS
FRENCH PEOPLE TO HELP FRENCH AND EUROPEAN PEOPLE !
All European nations are concerned by this measure : if we do not react today, tomorrow they might prohibit the croissant as the racist symbol of the European victory against the Turkish Muslim army that was at the door of Vienna in 1683. Or, like a director of a British school did, they may prohibit to tell stories such as “The three little pigs” under the excuse that it could heart the sensitivity of Muslim kids. It is now that we shall react !
OUR ARMS ARE THE PHONE AND THE EMAILS !
If you want to protect French and European culinary traditions and especially the freedom of Europeans to live on their own soil according to their ancestral customs, phone, send a email and ask your friends to do the same to :
– the Prefect of Bas-Rhin, Jean-Paul FAUGERE :
chantal.jaouen@bas-rhin.pref.gouv.fr – tel. (33) 03 88 21 67 68),
– the Mayor of Strasbourg, Fabienne KELLER :
– fkeller@cus-strasbourg.net – (tel. (33) 03.88.43.65.08)
– the Mayor’s « Premier Adjoint » Robert GROSSMANN
– rgrossmann@cus-strasbourg.net – (tel. (33) 03.88.43.65.03),
– the local newspaper: redaction@dna.fr (tel. (33) 03.88.21.55.00),
– please copy us using the following address (this will be used to count the emails sent) : contact@les-identitaires.com
This call is sent in more than fifteen European countries as well as in North and South America, Canada and Quebec. Our objective: that the Prefect, the Mayor and the local newspaper receive each 100.000 emails asking for freedom for Identitary Soups. No insult, no threat, no attachment, just these few words as a title :
FREEDOM FOR OUR PORK SOUP !
LIBERTÉ POUR NOTRE SOUPE AU COCHON !
For any information on Identitary Soups :
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