France's finance minister François Baroin: 'It's better to be French than British'

[Lateralthinking1]

I like to think I like the French but angles are based on our experience. Occasionally, life suddenly provides friends who leave us as quickly as they arrived. Oddly, you find yourself staying with them, once, unlike many who are close for 30 years. So it was that one summer I happened to be in the high hills above Nice with a bohemian couple, the woman's son and several scruffy dogs.

Had I been looking for a stereotypical picture, I couldn't have been more thrilled. The setting was idyllic. We dined al fresco among trees beside their modest ramshackle house. Both adults were communists with a hint of having once been on the run.

They had a mild drug habit, of course, but it was pretty innocuous. The records were all Zappa and Gong. And there they were in middle age, he a gardener to film stars and she leading the revolution. How I enjoyed the well-meaning but maniacal drive from town to town as she battled against the closure of local swimming pools.

I learnt from this brief stay that all the French hate their politicians. They are disgusted that every one of them is so right wing. So I am more worried by the comments of Noyer this week than those of Baroin. The bankers seem determined to start a war.

[vinteuil]

of course it's better to be French than British - provided that you are French...

was it Palmerston? - who, when a flattering Frenchman said, "If I wasn't French, I would like to be English" - countered: "If I wasn't English, I would like to be English!"

[Biffo]

(1) Apologies, you're right!
(2) From when to when? A Euro was worth 65p two years ago.
(3) I love your word 'invitation' but I'm alluding to our so-called 'special' relationship with the all-powerful protector across the pond (sic).
(4) Last week 26 States agreed to sign up to euro zone fiscal pact, there was but one veto........
(5) A tough one to resolve, let's say the debt is very similar.

Surely we would do better to stay inside the EU (I used EEC to differentiate from the Euro zone) and be a positive influence, respected by other members, rather than the reluctant member we have positioned ourselves to be. Our attitudes and posturing have enabled France to maintain her 'influence' alongside Germany when we could have taken a third seat at the 'senior table' and helped to guide policy and finance into a better position.

(1) The deployment of Cruise missiles came about because Margaret Thatcher and Helmut Kohl had fears about the US commitment to the defence of Europe. They specifically asked for the deployment to take place.

(2) Last week 26 States agrreed to sign up to a Eurozone fiscal pact.... and already at least two of them (Czech republic and Hungary) are having second thoughts. Francois Hollande, Socialist candidate and front-runner in the French presidential election has said he will seek to renegotiate the accord if elected. It is also likely that Ireland will have a referendum on the matter. Sweden and Denmark are also not as enthusiastic as we were led to believe when Sarkozty was crowing about 26 to 1. By Wednesday Angela Merkel was talking in conciliatory terms and there has never been any question of us leaving the EU (except in thefevered imagination of the extreme Tory eurosceptics).

(3) Exposure to Greek debt is not 'very similar' , total French exposure (private and governmental) is $56.7bn; the equivalent figure for the UK is $14.6bn. France is by far Greece's largest European creditor.

(4) In the recent summit there was never any chance of taking a 'third seat'. Merkel and Sarkozy had decided what the terms were going to be and there was to be no discussion. Cameron knew this as he had a meeting with both of them before the main meeting took place.

[handsomefortune]

the beeb journo paul mason and sarkozy live video - (scroll down).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/correspondents/paulmason/

imv the best bit is when sarkozy demonstrates the curvey bit with his hands, to augment his point about the uk being an island .....and therefore apparently 'unable to understand the complexities'!

va va oooomph.

listening to the tory spin, post conference, the french pm might well be perfectly correct .....

perhaps caliban is only trying to heat up a freezing friday with some trans channel snippets, but frankly, the alleged statement by the french finance chap 'reassuring' his people, is just a bit desperate.... and i wish i hadn't read it.

so, imv greenilix is about right - both sides of the channel are delluded.

as far as normal everyday citizens go, either side of the channel, i agree with teamsaint, there is more that unites us than divides us. though i suspect the taboids will be busy compiling their scraps of venim so as to look (vaguely) coherent amid the christmas tinsel, turkeys and sport. so, it's a suspiciously timely piece of 'news', in this sense perhaps? i imagine jeremy clarkson flying into a rage just as he's opening his christmas golfing jumpers and sock selection, realising that he can't verbalise publicly because his last gaff was so recent. whereas, of course, there's dave to think of....

everyone's happy(ish) as long as no one mentions that despite the punch & judy dramas the fact remains, along with the unwanted reality, that we are both run by the banks, most other news, french of british, is arguably 'non news' in comparison.

[Stillhomewardbound]

Well, we put two fingers up to Europe and now they're making the same gesture back. It's hardly surprising.

Daily Mail is busy no doubt dusting off the old headline: "Fog in channel. Continent cut off'.

[scottycelt]

Sorry to disappoint all right-wing Tory MPs and our resident Franco/Europhobes here, but M. Baroin has, er, been kind of misreported in true Daily Mail style.

What he actually said was that the current French economic situation is better than its British counterpart. Who knows, he might well be proved correct eventually and, let's face it, the British media and some of those wretched right-wing Tory MPs are forever saying the same thing in reverse.

Yet again an hysterical and largely UK media-fabricated non-story ... Vive La France!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yer a jacobin traitor scottycelt and orf with yer 'ead!

[french frank]

Daily Mail is busy no doubt dusting off the old headline: "Fog in channel. Continent cut off'.

They've got bigger fish to fry. This morning the banner was: THE TREACHERY OF NICK CLEGG - Deputy PM and Lib Dem ministers plot to rally business chiefs against Cameron after Europe veto

[mercia]

Nimrod from Vaughan Williams' Enigma Variations

[Nick Armstrong]

perhaps caliban is only trying to heat up a freezing friday with some trans channel snippets

[Nick Armstrong]

Nimrod from Vaughan Williams' Enigma Variations

[Anna]

Well, basically, what it means is that the UK is totally stuffed at next year's Eurovision, don't it?

[John Skelton]

It was a joke.

[Pilchardman]

So, you think this bit is factually correct, then?

or further North where they all play bagpipes & wear hairy underwear

[ahinton]

Sorry to disappoint all right-wing Tory MPs and our resident Franco/Europhobes here, but M. Baroin has, er, been kind of misreported in true Daily Mail style.

What he actually said was that the current French economic situation is better than its British counterpart. Who knows, he might well be proved correct eventually and, let's face it, the British media and some of those wretched right-wing Tory MPs are forever saying the same thing in reverse.

Yet again an hysterical and largely UK media-fabricated non-story ... Vive La France!

Vive la france indeed (well, we Scots would say that, wouldn't we?!). That said, the French and British economies are each in parlous states, albeit not in quite the same ways, so this is all incredibly silly...