The attack on Charlie Hebdo was an atrocity calculated to outrage, to intimidate, to silence critics of Islam, and to remind the West that terror attacks can strike at the heart of its capital cities. It has provoked an outpouring of anger and solidarity with the victims, and not a small amount of stupid bigotry. […]
Posts Tagged ‘France’
France’s ‘rigid’ labour market: Manuel Valls should get his facts right
Oct 29th, 2014 by Tom Gill.The French Prime Minister has revived the idea that the French labour market is overly protective of permanent employees. However, international comparisons show that this is not the case, argues Duval Guillaume The functioning of the labour market is not satisfactory because it is not creating enough jobs, it generates significant inequalities between highly protected employees […]
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Austerity is the cause of the crisis in France. Investment can end it
Aug 29th, 2014 by Michael Burke.The French economy is in a grave crisis, much worse even than the sluggish growth of the OECD countries and almost as bad as Britain. In the 6 years since the beginning of the crisis the OECD economy as a whole has grown by just 4.5%. Over the same period the French economy has grown […]
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94 reasons why French trade unions have boycotted Hollande’s job summit
Jul 10th, 2014 by Tom Gill.François Hollande’s jobs summit is becoming a farce. Unemployment in France has risen to a new high of 3.4 million. The socialist President is desperate to be seen to be doing something about it. But Monday yet another union walked out of the two day ‘social summit’, an unprecedented desertion by organised labour for any administration in Paris, let […]
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Support the French rail strikers
Jun 17th, 2014 by Tom Gill.The French rail strike – now in its sixth day — is a pain. Nobody likes seeing their train cancelled. High school exams are being disrupted too. But why are the railway workers on strike? They are protesting against the railway reforms of the Government of President Francois Hollande and PM Manuel Valls. The Government claims […]
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French ‘socialists’ go the way of PASOK
Jun 11th, 2014 by Tom Gill.France’s left is in a sorry state. It took a bashing in local elections in March and then European elections in May. The ruling socialists plunged to an all time low of less than 14%. The radical Front de Gauche, comprising the communists and other leftists like Jean Luc Melenchon, polled just 6.3%, down from […]
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French PM ploughs on with austerity but at what price?
Jun 4th, 2014 by Tom Gill.Translated by Tom Gill from the French original by Guillaume Duval Despite the political thunder of the European elections of 25 May, France’s President and Prime Minister Manuel Valls chose the moment to stay the course of their “stability program” presented a month earlier to the National Assembly and approved by it after a fraught debate. […]
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The abdication of the king ends Spain’s imperfect transition
Jun 3rd, 2014 by Tom Gill.Translated from the original by Vicenç Navarro The message that the Spanish establishment – the power structure for the financial, economic, political and media elite – has been promoting 24 hours a day, three hundred sixty five days a year and through thirty- six years of democracy, is that, as result of a model Transition, […]
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The battle for France’s national industry jewel
May 3rd, 2014 by Tom Gill.France has been in a state of shock since it was revealed last week the company that built the high speed TGV train and steam turbines for EDF’s nuclear reactors was about to be taken over by the yankees. Things scarcely improved when a desperate Paris sought to bring in the Germans for an alternative […]
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Why the Left shoud rejoice that the champagne is flowing again
Apr 28th, 2014 by Tom Gill.Champagne has been flowing again in copious quantities in London and New York as bankers enjoy a return to the good old days of runaway millionaire bonuses on the back of one-way bets. But that flow of lovely bubbly has been under threat by a strike by employees of Veuve Clicquot, Moët & Chandon, Krug, Ruinart and […]
