I thought we agreed the other day it was in her manifesto? I know nobody reads them, but secret seems to be going a bit far.
Harry Haddock's Ghost
No, she’s removed it from the current manifesto, which apparently makes her more electable.
Boganboy
I’d have thought that frexit’d make her even more electable among those who’d consider voting for her at all.
Bloke in North Dorset
Apparently she has declared she doesn’t want to leave the EU, according to Euro Intelligence, however her policies require France to leave to be implemented. Hence the claim of a secret plan.
Ottokring
It is a bit like Hitler secretly wanted to invade the Soviet Union. Everybody but Stalin knew about it.
Roué le Jour
I recall Sarkozy saying Cameron was mad to have a referendum, he’d never have one in France because he knew the bastards would vote leave. So that’s no longer true?
bloke in spain
The consensus of opinion in the UK chipwrappers is still she’s Trumpian unelectable. So presumably she’s a shoo-in.
BiS – nah, happens every French presidential election. The media makes a big Gallic fuss about les racistes possibly winning, then the second round happens and the conservatives and socialists unite to vote for more of the same guys who turned Paris into Le Shithole du Afrique.
BiTiN
Steve
To be honest, Madame Hidalgo has made Paris even more of a sheeshHole; and I think much more in debt.
Of course she got elected to a second term as mayor with a 5% turnout (Covid was at the time laying its usual frightful percentage, of course – good timing, eh)
bloke in spain
Going on what I’m hearing, this time maybe not Steve. But then the people I know are in the north or Cote d’Azur/Provence. But she does seem to have made inroads in la France Profonde. Which are strong RN
France is like the UK. The liberal media bubble all live in the fashionable cities & you’re dealing with a country, the majority of its people believe they live under an Occupation government in Paris.
bloke in spain
I’ll rewrite that, so it makes sense.
Going on what I’m hearing, this time maybe not Steve. But then the people I know are in the north or Cote d’Azur/Provence. Which are strong RN. But she does seem to have made inroads in la France Profonde.
France is like the UK. The liberal media bubble all live in the fashionable cities & you’re dealing with a country, the majority of its people believe they live under an Occupation government in Paris.
BiTiN
BiS
Plus there really is a visceral hatred of Macron.
Apparently it’s much more important to be a “man of the people” than to have any competence.
Not that Macron can claim anything approaching good judgment – he’s still intent on being God-Emperor of Europe (much more important to him than being prez of France, one gets the impression); he still appears to love Greenery; France under his government did as terribly as all other western nations; and now there’s hell to pay with inflation etc…
But he has at least had *some* experience of employment outside government.
Whereas the beauteous Marine has – as best one can tell – a history of just politics, politics, politics.
And the other first-round contenders – it is to laugh. Or cry.
Chris Miller
Apparently she has declared she doesn’t want to leave the EU, according to Euro Intelligence, however her policies require France to leave to be implemented. Hence the claim of a secret plan.
It wouldn’t be the first (or even the thirty-first) time that France has blatantly ignored EU rules and regulations. The most the Commissars can do is to issue a small (in the context of national economies) fine.
BiTiN
I think she’s not calling for Frexit, but – in essence – for the EU and EU law to change.
She wants French national law to trump (ho ho) EU law.
Now, whether she’s sincere in this, or just another conniving politician, is easy to decide (obvs. she’s a conniving politician who’s saying what she thinks will bring n the votes, like the rest of them), but were she to succeed, then the EU would become an internally free-trading bloc with no need for an EU government.
So it’s more the death of the EU she’s after, rather than Frexit.
This might be to the good for everyone.
bloke in spain
@BiTiN
I was reading a Brit been living in Normandy the past 20 years. He says it’s the people in the villages there that have been favouring RN. I think it something Brits don’t understand about the Gilets Jaunes movement, because transport fuel costs aren’t really a big thing in the UK. Because the UK’s too small to worry overmuch about fuel prices. Where I lived in the South-West it was a 90km round trip to find a decent supermarket if you didn’t want what they had in the village corner shop at village corner shop prices. A lot of France is like that. There’s much more difference between living in rural France & its cities than the equivalents in the UK.
PJF
If only, eh?
But is Britain better off with France tied up in the EU?
John B
The EU is not as popular outside of the cities as Macron thinks.
Diogenes
The bit about nationalising the motorways is the puzzler. Does she want French motorways to deteriorate until they are similar to British or Belgian roads?
BiTiN
Diogenes
Have you recently travelled on an autoroute?
Driving Bernay to Barcelona cost about 150 euros (round numbers), and the same back…
In Catalonia we had the pleasure of seeing the auyopista tollbooths closed and removed; the contract gave the builders 20 years of tolls. 20 years is up….
BiTiN
BiS
We’re lucky; there’s a medium (“market”) carrefour just 10 km away which has a reasonable selection for daily stuff; and big Leclercs only 20km away.
Yep; the gilets jaunes initially had a real beef with fuel prices.
Of course once the movement took off it was mostly unemployed wankers out there blocking things and burning bits of Paris, best we could see.
Apparently it’s more older folk vote macron than country folk want the beauteous Marine.
But the choice as it seems it is everywhere is strangely bereft of folk seeming to have substance and competence…
Diogenes
BiTiN have you driven on a UK motorway recently? It might not cost you anything but it takes a toll on your tyres
Who knows
… and UK is anyway headed for road use pricing…
But to the original point, when the assembled punditry espouse a common viewpoint, it’s time to consider the obverse a serious possibility
BiTiN
Diogenes
Actually, yes.
Dover to Torquay and back. Once past London, not bad at all.
But I assume m5 and m6 are still as sluggish and volley crowded…
rhoda klapp
Le Pen obviously cannot win, just like Trump. And, just like Trump when she does win every Enarque’s hand will be turned against her and she’ll be blocked out.
bloke in spain
Brit Roads! Last I did it, it took me as long to get from Dover to North London as from Rennes to Calais. 550km as opposed to a bit over 100.
bloke in spain
And for the ultimate in squalor, the Tilbury service area on the M25. Third world levels. I remember there’s a road sign as you approach recommends DON’T DRIVE TIRED. TAKE BREAK & that they charge you something like £5 an hour if break lasts any more than an hour. Although I can’t imagine what cash inducement would be required for anyone to go the distance.
Diogenes
Bis.. At least you didn’t hit the Bromsgrove triangle. I wonder how BiTiN would cope with the M4 near Bristol on the August Bank Holiday. Membury services flooding… Yes of course it gets busy in France round Paris, Toulouse etc but…..
Chris Miller
It’s all essentially about population density. Central England has 700+/km², France is under 120. That’s why you’ll be unable to travel from anywhere to anywhere this weekend, because everyone else is travelling as well.
I thought we agreed the other day it was in her manifesto? I know nobody reads them, but secret seems to be going a bit far.
No, she’s removed it from the current manifesto, which apparently makes her more electable.
I’d have thought that frexit’d make her even more electable among those who’d consider voting for her at all.
Apparently she has declared she doesn’t want to leave the EU, according to Euro Intelligence, however her policies require France to leave to be implemented. Hence the claim of a secret plan.
It is a bit like Hitler secretly wanted to invade the Soviet Union. Everybody but Stalin knew about it.
I recall Sarkozy saying Cameron was mad to have a referendum, he’d never have one in France because he knew the bastards would vote leave. So that’s no longer true?
The consensus of opinion in the UK chipwrappers is still she’s Trumpian unelectable. So presumably she’s a shoo-in.
@RlJ Macron too https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/21/emmanuel-macron-uk-yes-no-brexit-vote-mistake
BiS – nah, happens every French presidential election. The media makes a big Gallic fuss about les racistes possibly winning, then the second round happens and the conservatives and socialists unite to vote for more of the same guys who turned Paris into Le Shithole du Afrique.
Steve
To be honest, Madame Hidalgo has made Paris even more of a sheeshHole; and I think much more in debt.
Of course she got elected to a second term as mayor with a 5% turnout (Covid was at the time laying its usual frightful percentage, of course – good timing, eh)
Going on what I’m hearing, this time maybe not Steve. But then the people I know are in the north or Cote d’Azur/Provence. But she does seem to have made inroads in la France Profonde. Which are strong RN
France is like the UK. The liberal media bubble all live in the fashionable cities & you’re dealing with a country, the majority of its people believe they live under an Occupation government in Paris.
I’ll rewrite that, so it makes sense.
Going on what I’m hearing, this time maybe not Steve. But then the people I know are in the north or Cote d’Azur/Provence. Which are strong RN. But she does seem to have made inroads in la France Profonde.
France is like the UK. The liberal media bubble all live in the fashionable cities & you’re dealing with a country, the majority of its people believe they live under an Occupation government in Paris.
BiS
Plus there really is a visceral hatred of Macron.
Apparently it’s much more important to be a “man of the people” than to have any competence.
Not that Macron can claim anything approaching good judgment – he’s still intent on being God-Emperor of Europe (much more important to him than being prez of France, one gets the impression); he still appears to love Greenery; France under his government did as terribly as all other western nations; and now there’s hell to pay with inflation etc…
But he has at least had *some* experience of employment outside government.
Whereas the beauteous Marine has – as best one can tell – a history of just politics, politics, politics.
And the other first-round contenders – it is to laugh. Or cry.
Apparently she has declared she doesn’t want to leave the EU, according to Euro Intelligence, however her policies require France to leave to be implemented. Hence the claim of a secret plan.
It wouldn’t be the first (or even the thirty-first) time that France has blatantly ignored EU rules and regulations. The most the Commissars can do is to issue a small (in the context of national economies) fine.
I think she’s not calling for Frexit, but – in essence – for the EU and EU law to change.
She wants French national law to trump (ho ho) EU law.
Now, whether she’s sincere in this, or just another conniving politician, is easy to decide (obvs. she’s a conniving politician who’s saying what she thinks will bring n the votes, like the rest of them), but were she to succeed, then the EU would become an internally free-trading bloc with no need for an EU government.
So it’s more the death of the EU she’s after, rather than Frexit.
This might be to the good for everyone.
@BiTiN
I was reading a Brit been living in Normandy the past 20 years. He says it’s the people in the villages there that have been favouring RN. I think it something Brits don’t understand about the Gilets Jaunes movement, because transport fuel costs aren’t really a big thing in the UK. Because the UK’s too small to worry overmuch about fuel prices. Where I lived in the South-West it was a 90km round trip to find a decent supermarket if you didn’t want what they had in the village corner shop at village corner shop prices. A lot of France is like that. There’s much more difference between living in rural France & its cities than the equivalents in the UK.
If only, eh?
But is Britain better off with France tied up in the EU?
The EU is not as popular outside of the cities as Macron thinks.
The bit about nationalising the motorways is the puzzler. Does she want French motorways to deteriorate until they are similar to British or Belgian roads?
Diogenes
Have you recently travelled on an autoroute?
Driving Bernay to Barcelona cost about 150 euros (round numbers), and the same back…
In Catalonia we had the pleasure of seeing the auyopista tollbooths closed and removed; the contract gave the builders 20 years of tolls. 20 years is up….
BiS
We’re lucky; there’s a medium (“market”) carrefour just 10 km away which has a reasonable selection for daily stuff; and big Leclercs only 20km away.
Yep; the gilets jaunes initially had a real beef with fuel prices.
Of course once the movement took off it was mostly unemployed wankers out there blocking things and burning bits of Paris, best we could see.
Apparently it’s more older folk vote macron than country folk want the beauteous Marine.
But the choice as it seems it is everywhere is strangely bereft of folk seeming to have substance and competence…
BiTiN have you driven on a UK motorway recently? It might not cost you anything but it takes a toll on your tyres
… and UK is anyway headed for road use pricing…
But to the original point, when the assembled punditry espouse a common viewpoint, it’s time to consider the obverse a serious possibility
Diogenes
Actually, yes.
Dover to Torquay and back. Once past London, not bad at all.
But I assume m5 and m6 are still as sluggish and volley crowded…
Le Pen obviously cannot win, just like Trump. And, just like Trump when she does win every Enarque’s hand will be turned against her and she’ll be blocked out.
Brit Roads! Last I did it, it took me as long to get from Dover to North London as from Rennes to Calais. 550km as opposed to a bit over 100.
And for the ultimate in squalor, the Tilbury service area on the M25. Third world levels. I remember there’s a road sign as you approach recommends DON’T DRIVE TIRED. TAKE BREAK & that they charge you something like £5 an hour if break lasts any more than an hour. Although I can’t imagine what cash inducement would be required for anyone to go the distance.
Bis.. At least you didn’t hit the Bromsgrove triangle. I wonder how BiTiN would cope with the M4 near Bristol on the August Bank Holiday. Membury services flooding… Yes of course it gets busy in France round Paris, Toulouse etc but…..
It’s all essentially about population density. Central England has 700+/km², France is under 120. That’s why you’ll be unable to travel from anywhere to anywhere this weekend, because everyone else is travelling as well.