Re Hollande, it's depressing how, since de Gaulle stepped down , each French President has been worse than his predecessor.
I don't think they have got worse, its just that France has been in relative, STEEPENING. unreversed decline since about 1970, so they have just seemed to get worse, as French political power and economic strength has dwindled at an increasing pace.
Hollande is a real disaster though. Totally out of his depth.
Re Hollande, it's depressing how, since de Gaulle stepped down , each French President has been worse than his predecessor.
I don't think they have got worse, its just that France has been in relative, STEEPENING. unreversed decline since about 1970, so they have just seemed to get worse, as French political power and economic strength has dwindled at an increasing pace.
Hollande is a real disaster though. Totally out of his depth.
I wondered the same.
But how did France manage to achieve such an influential position in 1970 ?
Humiliated in WW2, humiliated in Vietnam, political turmoil in the 1950s nearly leading to civil war, humilated in Algeria and then the strikes and riots of 1968.
Sounds like a saga of woes but in the early 1970s they were lording it over Europe - was there any substance behind it or was it all a good front ?
Looks like ComRes are going to show a huge UKIP share
Andrew Hawkins @Andrew_ComRes Ahead of our S Mirror/IoS poll coming out tonight....a reminder we were within 0.7% of #ukip vote share in local elections
A very interesting point. Has anyone asked the SNP about their policy for higher education after independence?
You can be certain it will change for sure, charges will still apply unless you believe in fairies.
What sort of changes? Will they bring in tuition fees? Will they disobey EU rules? Will they keep free university education and pay for English students to study there?
What's the view of Hertfordshire / Bedfordshire Conservatives re Cameron and his circle ?
It seems to me we're now locked in a spiral of open abuse within the Conservatives party.
Which means it can't end well and the longer it continues the more damage the Conservatives will suffer.
It may well be in the interests of the Conservatives to have an early general election before the leadership damages the party too much and before UKIP becomes any stronger.
Rubbish. It's Cameron who is the one in touch with voters on gay marriage etc.
The people who are damaging the Conservative Party's election prospects are those massively out of touch diehards who are determined to do everything to reduce the party's chances at the GE.
But in fact I suspect most of this nonsense isn't going to matter one way or the other. When it comes to the crunch people won't vote on these trivial issues. And if Cameron does lose some diehard support it'll be in safe seats where it doesn't matter.
"It's Cameron who is the one in touch with voters on gay marriage etc."
Which voters? The loons in this story are the people who decided a majority of x% supporting gay marriage meant they should support it without checking how many of their own voters were in the x%.
This loonery being doubled by the fact that the whole point of making a big issue over gay marriage was based on the totally wrong modernizer idea that the Tories got toxic after Major because of not hugging enough gay huskies when in reality they got toxic - with people who might actually vote for them - over the fallout from the ERM, sleaze and coming across like spivs.
@TSE I thought the reason for such consistently lame entries to Eurovision is that the BBC don't want to risk winning & then having to host the damn thing. As the Irish found out by winning several times it ain't cheap.
So after a near miss a couple years back (thanks for the reminder @sunil) they are just making sure we don't win.
Consistently lame?
We made the Top 5 in 2009!
EDIT - OK, you referenced my mention of Jade Ewen upthread!
Most of the crying and screaming is being driven by religious people who cannot comprehend that the overwhelming majority of people do not want and will not accept religious views determining the laws of this country.
Fact: 1% of people go to a C of E church on any Sunday.
Their influence is completely gone but they cannot understand it let alone begin to accept it.
Hence the every increasing hysteria as they become more and more desperate.
Everyone else has moved on. It's a great shame that these people cannot accept it - they can't help thinking as they do. But they've lost - their influence is over.
I dont think the C of E is the problem; it has many gay clergy who are likely to be sympathetic to gay marriage. Indeed if it becomes law I expect pressure to allow willing clergy to celebrate gay marriages.
It would be the fundamentalist and Catholic churches, as well as the laity of various denominations who object. Many Muslims and other faiths may well also object.
Like many Christians I am completely relaxed about gay marriage. God knows his own, and can tell the sheep from goats. The book of Matthew is clear that many will be surprised how they are judged, surprised in both directions that is!
In which case you misunderstand the law. There can be no pressure to allow CofE clergy, howeveer sympathetic they are, to officiate over gay marriages because the law expressly states that the CofE are not only exempt but forbidden from conducting gay marriages.
I do understand that it is forbidden by the proposed law, but with permission for Quaker, unitarians and Liberal Jews to host religious gay marriages. It is just as there was a move to gay marriage after civil partnerships were permitted, there will be pressure to have gay religious marriages in time and for the law to be amended.
My own view is that the civil and religious aspects of marriage should be seperated. In many european countries there is a civil marriage and a religious ceremony as seperate events the same day. I have been to weddings in Germany and France done this way. Govt has no juridiction over the religios aspects and rightly so.
Comments
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323716304578479672541661646.html?mod=e2tw#slide/1
But how did France manage to achieve such an influential position in 1970 ?
Humiliated in WW2, humiliated in Vietnam, political turmoil in the 1950s nearly leading to civil war, humilated in Algeria and then the strikes and riots of 1968.
Sounds like a saga of woes but in the early 1970s they were lording it over Europe - was there any substance behind it or was it all a good front ?
I agree with both your points.
Regrettably on the last point about Bonnie Tyler and the UK's future in the contest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz6OPJmhyZU
I hope you appreciated the Depeche Mode reference, and the context.
Chris Huhne, former Liberal Democrat MP and minister, has been released from prison. Should he be allowed to start again where he left off?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/18/should-chris-huhne-resume-political-life
Which voters? The loons in this story are the people who decided a majority of x% supporting gay marriage meant they should support it without checking how many of their own voters were in the x%.
This loonery being doubled by the fact that the whole point of making a big issue over gay marriage was based on the totally wrong modernizer idea that the Tories got toxic after Major because of not hugging enough gay huskies when in reality they got toxic - with people who might actually vote for them - over the fallout from the ERM, sleaze and coming across like spivs.
We made the Top 5 in 2009!
EDIT - OK, you referenced my mention of Jade Ewen upthread!
ComRes 35/29/8/19
https://twitter.com/RedHotSquirrel/status/335819830919847936
My own view is that the civil and religious aspects of marriage should be seperated. In many european countries there is a civil marriage and a religious ceremony as seperate events the same day. I have been to weddings in Germany and France done this way. Govt has no juridiction over the religios aspects and rightly so.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest