You are in:
- Contents » Europe Round-Up
The Pain In Spain
Spain won the Euro 2008 Championships, one of the better international football competitions of the past few years. There seems to be general delight in the press at the success of Europe's perennial underachievers: Despite boasting one of the continent's finest leagues and arguably its two best club sides in Barcelona and Real Madrid, Spain hadn't won a major title since 1964.
But why did sports reporters across the globe have to curse Spain's victory by claiming that it "united a divided nation?"
One Of Our Aircraft Carriers Is Missing
Thanks to Nicolas Sarkozy's defence cuts, France is likely to be short of an aircraft carrier or two. How will the President's longed-for EU Navy set sail with such a meagre fleet?
Well, they could borrow one of Britain's.
Germans Avoid British Tourists
After a British tourist won compensation on discovering that his holiday hotel was full of Germans, the Fatherland's media has retaliated with a guide on avoiding English tourists in the Mediterranean.
Turin Shroud On Display
The Pope has declared that the Shroud of Turin will go on public display again in 2010.
Communism, A Laughing Matter
"The afterglow from the Nazi era is still that of wickedness, whereas that of communism is more sheer stupidity. And human stupidity makes us laugh," writes Christopher Hart in the Sunday Times. Hart is reviewing a book on humour under the Soviet empire, and he publishes a few choice jokes from the publication. Here are two from the Stalin era:
"What were Mayakovsky's last words before he committed suicide? ‘Comrades, don't shoot!'”
“A teacher asks his class, ‘Who is your mother and who is your father?' A pupil replies, ‘My mother is Russia and my father is Stalin.' ‘Very good,' says the teacher. ‘And what would you like to be when you grow up?' ‘An orphan.'”
Devilish
The first time the classic English dish 'Devilled Kidneys' had its literary debut was in chapter 54 of William Makepeace Thackerary's 19th century masterpiece novel 'Vanity Fair'.
The author noted that it was a favourite in army officers' mess halls for breakfast.
EURO 2008 Quote Of The Day
The Euro 2008 football tournament begins on Saturday, and your correspondents are planning their lives around the live games already. As none of the British "home teams" (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales - the Republic of Ireland is usually an "honorary member" of this group) are playing, the press is trying to stoke up interest in the tournament by suggesting good reasons to support some of the other competitors.
German comedian (yes, we know) Henning Wehn made an amusing case for supporting Germany (honest) but we believe most Brits will share the views of Rod Liddle, aired in today's Times:
"I would rather have my prostate gland expand to the size of a pumpkin than watch France win Euro 2008."
Liddle can't believe that former England manager Steve McClaren will be guest pundit on the BBC's coverage. McClaren famously was unable to coach the national side to the finals:
"If he knew anything about football, would be too busy this summer to divest himself of inanities every night to Gary and Alan... Having McClaren give informed comment on Euro 2008 is about as appropriate as getting Kate and Gerry McCann to edit the 2008 Good Parenting Guide, or asking Sheikh Abu Hamza to juggle."
Britain Opens X-Files
Last year it was France's turn to reveal its secret documents detailing encounters with UFOs; now Britain's Ministry of Defence has opened the first set of 200 secret files detailing sightings of strange lights in the sky by policemen, the military and members of the public.
The files document cases from the 1970s to the late 1980s, with a peak in sightings coming in 1978, the year the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind was released in the UK.
A Field Guide To The Birds Of Paris
Pierre-Louis Colin, a speechwriter for the French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, has written a book titled: "The Paris Guide to Pretty Women".
"Just as every region has its gastronomy, every quartier has its feminine speciality," writes M Colin, who has recently co-authored another book with his boss.
Bust Of Caesar Fished Out Of Rhône
France's cultural minister has announced an "archaeologist's dream" - a marble bust of Julius Caesar, sculpted in the Roman's lifetime, has been found in Arles, several metres below the surface of the Rhône river.
Zero Tolerance
Russian football side Zenit St Petersburg arrive in Manchester tonight, along with their unpleasantly racist fans, who notoriously refuse to countenance black players in the team. Britain's sports minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, has warned the Russians that the UK has a "zero tolerance approach" to racism, and fans who step over the line "will feel the full force of the law."
Shoeshine & Shinola
Your correspondent is incredibly lazy when it comes to polishing shoes. While in the US, he notices shoeshines in every airport: In France, they're nowhere to be seen.
His battered Church's (the same as Tony Blair's, embarrassingly) were looking unusually scuffed and rather than give them a decent spit and polish job himself, he Googled "Paris Shoeshine" looking for an easy option.
Turns out there's a reason you can't get a decent shoeshine in Paris. And sure enough, it's all about politics.
Baby Losers
More on the educated, middle class Europeans facing tough times and low pay in the Guardian this weekend.
Last week EURSOC reported on how a generation of Europeans are discovering that jobs and degrees which previously offered a comfortable existence now barely keep them above the poverty line. Thirtysomethings in France, Spain and Germany are becoming aware that they are likely to belong to the first generation to be worse off than their parents in recent European history. Following on from their parents' "Baby Boomer" generation, they're calling themselves the "Babylosers."
Baby Boom A La Française
France now has the highest fertility rate in the European Union, rising from 1.66 to 2.0 babies per woman between 1993 and 2003. For generations the Republic of Ireland was top of the old European league table in terms of birth-rate. Now they have been relegated.
Dosage
Most of what our parents and doctors told us was wrong. You must finish every morsel on your plate. (It's a recipe to make you fat). And you must take your vitamins, and a dose of cod-liver oil.
Now we discover that vitamins are bad.
Europe Round-Up
Beating the Italian Obama: Spiked publishes an excellent analysis on how Silvio Berlusconi's combination of charm, personality politics and better-the-devil-you-know guile beat the left's contender, who ripped off more than Barack Obama's campaign slogan.
A crackdown on "Passive Drinking": Also from Spiked, reports on an EU/UN health campaign that aims to target the "social harm" caused by alcohol. What started as something of a joke could have real clout as drinkers are targeted for the impact their tipple has on crime, violence, drink-driving - even the unborn child.
Don't say "passive drinking", though: The politically correct term is "environmental alcohol damage." We hope Littlejohn is reading this! More, plus some interesting comments, in The Telegraph.
Virtually True
The British TV series 'The Office' and the American newspaper cartoon series 'Dilbert' are still funny but their premise is increasingly out of date.
Nowadays it's time for the 'virtual office'. We have known about working from home or in a cafe with a laptop for a long time. However, it has only recently clicked that the reality of the virtual office is truely with us today.
Crusaders Woz Here
According to the American Journal of Human Genetics, a team of scientists has discovered a 'DNA signature' among men in Lebanon. Almost certainly related to medieval crusaders from Western Europe.
Terminal Disease
The Queen officially opened London Heathrow airport's new Terminal 5 early this month. It cost £4.6 billion to build. Construction started in 2002.
Since passengers walked in the many front entrances there has been nothing less than chaos.
A Long Finnish
They have started growing grapes and making red and white wine in the Reindeer regions of Finland. This may sound like a bad April Fools' Day joke, such as: They have begun harvesting strawberries at the North Pole.
Up North
A surprise box-office hit, the low-budget film, "Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis" is France's favourite film of the moment.
Sugar Pie Honey Bunch
Don't worry about artificial 'sweeteners' such as saccharin or aspartame if you are immune to cancer.
Bagism
In 2002 the Republic of Ireland inaugurated a 15-cent tax on plastic bags to end what was termed a "litter menace".
Coffee Break
It was a quiet morning at the Starbucks coffee house. The only problem was that it was in Saudi Arabia.
The Fan Hits The Sh*t
Look out below! Here's one of Denmark's 5,500 wind turbines coming a cropper over a field in the east of the country during a severe gale.
Danish news says that the turbine was an old model in need of replacement: Nevertheless, they're built to withstand the most severe weather. One would certainly hope so, as it can get quite choppy off the British coast, where the government plans to build hundreds of the buggers in the hope of bringing UK renewable energy levels up to something like the 20 percent the eco-conscious Danes enjoy.
Lost In Space
If you have ever travelled recently with what was once trumpeted as 'The World's Favourite Airline' you will know what I mean. And you will know it is British Airways (BA).
Staying With Hitler In Luxury
Hitler's 'death court' in Berlin has been transformed into luxury flats.
La Concierge Crisis
A Paris concierge in happier days
Yet another venerable French tradition is close to extinction. For as many years as anyone can count the institution of the 'concierge' has been embedded in the Gallic psyche.
Sex & Columbus
Even before the time of Henry VIII, syphilis has been a curse for mankind. The first recorded outbreak was in 1495, after the return of Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) from the Americas. (Syphilis is with us still today with its companions HIV and AIDS).
Turbulent Priests
It sounds like a scene from Father Ted. A football tournament in Rome, which has been supported by the Vatican, is coming under fire because of bad-tempered on-pitch behaviour and rowdy fans in the terraces.
The 18 teams are made up of young seminarians, priests and several lay members working in religious charities. While over 50 nationalities are represented in the tournament, teams and supporters have clustered around national groups. Supporters of a team of North American seminarians have taken to singing doo-wop anthems, while the fans of a team made up of African players have been playing Reggae numbers.
The Happiness Patrol
There is an important institution in Rotterdam in the Netherlands which is almost unknown but contented. It is the World Database of Happiness (WDH).
Charles Appears As Hologram
Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you're my only hope
His illustrious ancestors have appeared in marble, in paint and in photographs but yesterday Prince Charles became the first British royal to be recreated in Hologram form.
The Telegraph reports that the Prince delivered a six-minute speech as a 3D hologram, rather than generate 20 tons of carbon waste by flying to the Dubai conference on the environment he addressed. The newspaper's site has a video of his "appearance."
Something Rotten In The State Of Campania
Naples is a nice place to visit if you don't have to smell it. There is a lot of old (and new) rubbish in the southern Italian state of Campania of which Naples is the capital.
Love's Cooking In The Kitchen
Shock, horror. According to a recent IsoPublic survey and a report from Mintel, a British market-research company, men in the United Kingdom are spending much more time in the kitchen than we thought possible.
First They Came For The Smokers
It's no-smoking time in Europe. However, many German pubs and restaurants have resisted strongly the new ban on smoking which came into effect, technically, on 1 January.
This Britain
Further evidence that Britain has gone from Victorian prudishness to licentiousness bordering on depravity in a matter of years: The Times' weblog has an article on £70 butt plugs.
Another story to warm your cockles (or raise your blood pressure) in these cold winter evenings is the news that in some areas, Britain's traditional Christmas Midnight Mass is being held early to avoid drunken revellers storming churches during worship.
Cross Words
There has been some interesting debate related to last week's post about a Turkish lawyer who planned to sue Inter Milan football club for wearing a strip offensive to Muslim sensibilities.
Fan Sues Over "Crusader" Strip
A Turkish lawyer has lodged a complaint with UEFA, European football's governing body, after Italian side Inter Milan played his team wearing strips he claimed were offensive to Muslim sensibilities.
Big Clubs Spoiling The Beautiful Game?
In the world of English football, the glamour is confined to the Premiership, if you consider footballers buying Aston Martins with a week's wages and "roasting" drunken teens glamourous. The passion, however, is increasingly found in the lower divisions, now labouring under a succession of bizarre and confusing advertiser-driven names.
This tradition of grass roots football is discovering there's a widening gap between the gilt and glitz of the Premiership and the mucky fields of the Championship, or League One, or whatever the geniuses behind lower level football call their divisions now.
Rod Liddle writes on how this often unbridgeable divide is killing English clubs.
It's A Sadness
Depression is considered by many - laymen and psychiatrists and family doctors - as the most prevalent 'illness' of this century.
Mohammed Moves Molehill
The Times has a story on a British children's author who has renamed a mole he called Mohammed to avoid a backlash from Muslim fundamentalists.
Leading To Rome
The only surviving copy of an Imperial Roman road map went on public display in Austria's National Library on Monday.
The Tabula Peutingeriana shows the road network of the Roman Empire's Cursus publicus or courier service, extending from Europe, Persia, India and North Africa. It's in the form of a scroll, 6.5 metres long and only 35cm high: This causes the projection of the map to look somewhat stylised, but features such as the "Boot" and "Heel" of Italy and the island of Sicily are perfectly clear.
Where Rome Was Born?
Italian archaeologists reckon they have found the cave ancient Romans believed was used by the she-wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus.
The Lupercal played an important role in the myth of Rome's founding. Lost for centuries, archaeologists say they found it during a search of the Emperor Augustus' palace on the Palatine Hill.
Barmy Army Gets Encore
Here's an EU-turn the British press hasn't seized on with its usual hunger. The UK's foreign minister David Miliband called for a strengthening of the EU's military capabilities during a speech at the college of Europe in Bruges on Thursday.
This is quite a change in direction for British defence policy under the new government. Only a few years ago, Britain treated schemes to build EU military capability with scorn. Even though former PM Tony Blair was said to be passionate about expanding the EU's "rapid reaction force", he came to believe that moves to promote an EU Army represented mischief-making by German and French leaders eager to undermine NATO.
Paris Match
A warm welcome at the Gare du Nord
British hacks queue up to bash the French capital
This week, Eurostar trains destined for Paris will leave from London's beautiful St Pancras, described by some commentators as the world's finest railway station. The trains are likely to run straight into a typically French strike (more of which in another post), but the faster link between the cities has sparked a rash of articles about what awaits Londoners at the other end of the tracks - and not all of it flattering.
Rising crime in parts of Paris is given some prominence.
The Godfather Part IV
An offer you cannot refuse
This week at a house near Palermo, police got hold of Salvatore Lo Piccolo. He was the most senior Sicilian Mafia boss still at large.
Bringing The Left Bank To The Banlieue
Aubervilliers - it's not the boulevard St Germain...
France's leading intellectuals regularly preach the merits of integrating the impoverished suburbs into the fabric of Parisian life. When Nicolas Sarkozy, then Interior Minister, took a hard line on violent crime in the Paris banlieue, the denizens of France's top colleges were among the first to criticise Sarko for his lack of "solidarity" with the youth of the housing estates surrounding Paris.
Moreover, France's various intellectuals regularly grumble that the historic centre of Paris has become a living museum. The "gauche caviar's" favourite stomping ground, the left-bank neighbourhood of St-Germain, comes in for particular criticism: Philosophers' cafés and artists' garrets have given way to designer boutiques and apartments for rich foreigners. You'd get the impression that they'd be eager to get away from the place.
But when some Paris academics were invited to walk the walk by relocating from their cosy rive gauche offices to a new campus in the grim northern banlieue of Aubervilliers, the radical thinkers didn't ponder long before declaring that the proposals were a move too far.
Marxist Town Planning
How to ensure that Europe's beautiful old cities remain vibrant cultural and economic centres for the third millennium? It's a puzzle that has intrigued politicians for years.
One far-left Spanish novelist who lived in Paris has come up with a novel approach to the challenge: "De-Europeanise" the French capital, throwing its portes open to a new generation of immigrants (mostly from Africa) who will "destroy" Paris in order to recreate it for the 21st century.
Minaret Debate Spreads Through Europe
A minaret in Zurich, one of only three in Switzerland
Islam is Europe's fastest-growing religion. As the numbers of the faithful increase, the demand for space for worship increases, a fact not lost on some citizens of southern Germany and Switzerland, where opposition to the building of Minarets is growing.
In September, outgoing Bavarian premier Edmund Stoiber - one of Germany's most powerful statesmen - said, "Church towers, not minarets, should be what you see when you look out across the state." His complaint echoed criticism of plans to build one of Europe's largest mosques close to Cologne Cathedral, complete with 50 metre (170ft) minarets.
Italian Prefect In Burqa Row
From the Guardian, a report that a prefect in the North-Eastern city of Treviso has caused a storm by permitting immigrant women to wear the burka, provided they remove material covering their face if authorities request that they identify themselves.
The Word On The Street
Rising concerns about the Turkish government's Islamist agenda
Only a few weeks ago, worried Turkish secularists and liberal Europeans were being told (by and large by European newspapers, as it happens) that the August parliamentary election to President of moderate Islamist Abdullah Gul was nothing to worry about.
Now, barely a month after Gul became President, new concerns are emerging about the Islamist agenda of Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and their AK Party.
Jock The Lard
Who ate all the Bridies? Scotland has the second highest level of obesity in the developed world, according to a new report. Only the United States has a higher level of obese adults.
The figures, released by the Scottish Executive, show not only the worrying link between obesity and serious disease in Scotland, but also reveals that childhood obesity has developed at an alarming rate.
Apples And Oranges
No surprises there, then: Orange has announced, as expected, that it will be selling Apple's iPhone in France.
The statement by Orange's PDG, Didier Lombard, followed iPhone announcements from O2 in Britain and T-Mobile in Germany.
Better Nude Than Red
Thanks to Guido, here's a look at Polish Women's Party Partia Kobiet, whose members say they have nothing to hide.
Soviet WW3 Plans Revealed
Trans-Europe Express?
Soviet Bloc would send ground troops into nuclear wasteland
A Czech historian working for NATO has uncovered Warsaw Pact plans for a nuclear assault and invasion of Western Europe.
The documents, produced in 1964, lists as many as 131 tactical targets for nuclear missiles are included. They were found by Historian Petr Lunak among Communist-era files in Prague. Dr Lunak claims that the documents were still listed as an option as late as 1986.
There Go The Belgians
British newspapers are gripped by the idea that the nation of Belgium might be about to split in two. The fact that the state, created in 1830 "by the English to annoy the French" has gone without a government for 102 days means to some correspondents that its days are numbered.
School's Out For Good
Teachers in the northern French city of Béthune are still reeling after a young girl brought a rather shocking item into school for class discussion.
On The Prehistoric Menu...
Snooty foreigners, including a certain former President of France, who turn up their nose at British cooking might be interested to hear that the UK has a long history of producing dodgy dishes. A team from the Centre for Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff spent the summer trawling through archaeological findings and historical records in a hunt for Britain's earliest recorded dish. It has emerged that the unappetising prospect of nettle pudding is what awaited our earliest ancestors at the end of a day in Prehistoric Britain, 6000 years BC.
French Rugby Team Face Firing Squad
Entertaining news from the Rugby World Cup. On Saturday, hosts France met Argentina in the opening game. In lieu of the typical team talk coaches give their first fifteen, France's coach Bernard Laporte asked a player to read from the final letter 17 year old resistance hero Guy Moquet wrote to his parents the night before his execution by a Vichy firing squad in 1941.
Poland Holds Up Death Penalty Day
What are "European values" anyway?
Britain's government must be slipping Poland a few quid here and there to draw some flak on the UK's behalf. After all, isn't Britain supposed to be the leader of Europe's awkward squad? That title has to go to Poland, which since it joined the EU in 2004 has gone out of its way to remind Eurocrats of the folly of trying to get the continent to speak with one voice.
Quote Of The Day
The Spectator's Rod Liddle isn't looking forward to the Rugby World Cup - a game "almost wholly devoid of skill", he writes. He's got it in for other sports, too:
"In rugby, the act of scoring is three a penny, it is all too easy. It is just one step ahead of that most ludicrous of all sports, basketball. In fact, basketball is the only known sport which is improved as a spectacle when played by paraplegics."
Extremism On The Rise In Europe
Islamist no-go areas in Belgium, British mosques run largely by fanatics
More evidence is emerging of the deep roots Islamic extremism has planted in European cities. Today, a British newspaper claimed that "around half" the country's mosques are in the control of followers of a hardline cleric who preaches armed jihad and hate for the west.
Bog Snorkelling
Who needs bungee jumping? If you fancy a real extreme sporting experience, why not try swimming through sixty yards of chilly, muddy water in a Welsh peat bog?
Every August Bank Holiday, dozens of swimmers meet at the Waen Rhydd peat bog, near Llanwrtyd Wells for the annual bog snorkelling championships.
Chase That Cheese!
By popular request, following our report on the Russian craze for whitewater rafting on sex dolls, here is a traditionally British pastime.
Cheese rolling is said to date back hundreds of years in the Gloucester region. This footage is from the 2007 Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling which took place in May: Hundreds of competitors throw themselves down a steep hill in pursuit of an 8lb Double Gloucester cheese. The first to cross the line wins the cheese. It's a wonder that Health and Safety hasn't tried to ban this...
The Bubble Baba Challenge
And you thought the Brits were mad with their cheese-rolling, bog-snorkelling and Morris dancing... here's footage of Russia's Bubble Baba Challenge, a white-water rafting event where contestants surf a choppy river on blow-up sex dolls.
All Roads Lead To Rome
Here's Italy's PM Romano Prodi on plans to restore the Via Francigena, the ancient pilgrimage route from Canterbury to Rome:
"The pathways of our ancestors are a great heritage. It really makes me angry that we do not have pilgrims walking towards Rome any longer.
"To rebuild the great pilgrims' path we do not need great investments, but heart. I am pressing everyone to make it happen."
Anything For A Quiet Life
Increasing numbers of Europeans are seeking respite from city noise in rural peace. But one French village is warning newcomers to stop whinging about the "natural" noises of the countryside.
The World Health Organisation says that stress from noise could be killing people: Perhaps one in every fifty heart attack deaths could be caused by excessive noise, it reports.
Nazis In The News
More than sixty years since the end of the Second World War, and Germany's Nazis are still making the headlines. This week sees two bizarre auctions of Nazi memorabilia, while in Australia, a former refugee now in his seventies recalls his life as a "Nazi mascot."
Brussels Parade Update
The EU Referendum Blog is pointing to this, so we ought to too. The Mayor of Brussels has banned an anti-Sharia law parade from taking place on September 11 because he fears it will offend Muslim sensibilities. However, a parade by a group claiming George Bush was involved in the September 11 terror attacks has been given the go-ahead.
It's A Gas
Europe's "sleeping gas thieves" strike again, according to a story in the Telegraph. This time it is reported that the UK's Foreign Office is warning Brits camping in France to install alarms on their caravan doors, following claims that tourists are being gassed by thieves who clean out their mobile homes while they are knocked out.
French Bosses Top Euro-League
For a people who trust capitalism far less than the citizens of any other developed or developing country, the French are very good at it. A survey showed that half Europe's top twenty executives are running French companies.
The Name Of Death
The Polish don't like Auschwitz being Polish. After all, the infamous death camp was created by the Germans. And Hitler decided it should be situated in Poland.
iPhone To O2
It looks like British network O2 (they used to sponsor Arsenal) is set to announce that it will be launching the much-awaited iPhone in Britain this autumn.
What's Made In Italy?
It's one of the great problems of globalisation. Europeans are told to specialise, to stick to what they're good at and what they can compete in, forget about their sentimental attachment to manufacturing and agriculture except in those rare cases where it is cost effective. Trouble is, in parts of Italy what they're good at happens to be manufacturing, and manufacturing high-end clothing at that.
The Other Woman
The French blogosphere buzzes with the name of the journalist Socialist leader François Hollande is rumoured to be having an affair with
Once upon a time, French voters were kept in the dark about their leaders' affairs. Some members of the elite might have argued the public liked it that way, preferring discretion over the Anglo-Saxon kiss-and-tell tradition - while all the time the restaurants and cafés frequented by the political and media classes rang with gossip about who was having an affair with whom.
The internet has put an end to that. On Sunday, Ségolène Royal announced that she had booted her partner of 29 years out of the house, adding that he was free to enjoy his romantic life alone. The press tentatively reported that Hollande was having an affair... but with whom?
Walking The Walk
President Nicolas Sarkozy brought thirteen new junior ministers into his cabinet yesterday. While rival parties talk the talk about fighting discrimination and promoting minorities, Sarkozy prefers to let his appointments do the talking.
Several of the new ministers are from what Britons would call "diversity-friendly" backgrounds: They represent a wider range of political views than most opponents would welcome in their cabinet, too.
Sail Away
It is a sad fate for a grand old lady. The world's most famous ocean liner, the Queen Elizabeth 2, will end her life in Dubai, in the Middle East.
London Calling
"How many people sit down with the travel brochures every year and think, "This year, for our summer holidays, let's go somewhere really multicultural and green"? - Jeremy Clarkson, in the Sunday Times
A new cost of living study shows London comes second only to Moscow as the most expensive city in the world.
The Other National Sport Of Italy
Now you know how Italians can afford to look so damn good all the time in those fine clothes: Dodging income tax is a national sport.
The Telegraph reports today that one-fifth of Italy's GDP is lost in unpaid taxes: "A quarter of Italians claim that their salary is only £4,000 (€6,000 / $7850) a year, while the residents of Milan, one of the richest cities in Europe, claimed average salaries of just £5,400 (€8000 / $10,630)."
PM Romano Prodi has launched a crackdown, calling the level of tax dodging "indecent."
Socialists Find A Hook
France's beleaguered Socialist Party has finally found a policy to rally voters for the final round of the Parliamentary elections on Sunday. Socialist leaders reacted with glee when Prime Minister François Fillon remarked that he might need to raise VAT (TVA in France) five points to 24.6 percent to pay for a reduction in other taxes.
The Socialist Party (PS) promptly ordered thousands of election posters emblazoned with the slogan "Vote against 24.6 percent TVA", due to be delivered today.
Sarkozy And Israel
In a speech to the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, Armand Laferrere said that Nicolas Sarkozy's Presidency will represent a strong change for the better for French foreign policy, particularly where Israel is concerned.
EURSOC has the full text: Click more to read this fascinating insight into the Sarkozy team's thinking on the Middle East and France's place in the world.
Baby You Can Drive My Car
The Love Bug
Volkswagen is Europe's largest carmaker. Now it is renowned for something completely different. According to revelations by Germany's mass-circulation newspaper, 'Bild', six prostitutes are to reveal all about a "love nest" operated by VW executives.
Quote Of The Day
"Elgar, with his mass popularity and his unforgivable sin of patriotism, is anathema to the cultural commissars who run the arts subsidy racket."
Stephen Pollard in the Times on the Arts Council's refusal to pay for celebrations for the 150th anniversary of Sir Edward Elgar's death.
The Arts Council has commissioned 50 mobile phone ring tones to celebrate its change of office in England's South West. It also paid a Midlands artist £12,000 to kick an empty curry box down a street.
From Russia With Hate
Gay protestors beaten, arrested in Russia
Gay rights activists claim that Russian riot police allowed Neo-Nazi counter protesters to attack their march in Moscow on Sunday - and then arrested the gay protesters, allowing the attackers to go free.
Several European parliamentarians were among those arrested.
Little Mermaid Gets Muslim Makeover
Copenhagen's famous "Little Mermaid" was found draped in a Muslim headscarf and robes on Sunday, in one of a series of incidents where Islamist attitudes to the female form made the headlines.
Females Make Better Spies
MI5, Britain's internal security service, is recruiting more women than ever before. It has been known since the days of Mata Hari that a clever woman who can use her personal attraction wisely is a very formidable weapon.
(Sylvia Kristel, of Emmaneulle fame, played Mata Hari once. This seems as good an excuse as any to look at Ms Kristel's career: Mata Hari wasn't really all that. And to this day, Emmaneulle remains one of France's most successful films.)
An international alliance of journalist unions question Thomson-Reuters deal.
The Reuters news information service, the 156-year-old news agency that started life using homing pigeons and went on to become the news giant that it is, risks becoming a sideshow in the mega-merger with Thomson, driven by synergies in their business information services.
A Sign Of Civilisation?
Here's a good article for anyone who has been troubled by the level of public rudeness in Britain (or elsewhere for that matter). A Guardian writer made a short rail journey across the country and ran into belligerent teenagers and rowdy mobile-phone users.
What happened to common decency, she asks: Is politeness a sign of social solidarity, that is, something the left should be concerning itself with, or is it a symptom of bourgeois respectability, and thus conservative territory?
Honour Killing
In last night's French presidential debate, centre-right candidate Nicolas Sarkozy invoked suspicion of Turkey's neighbours as a good reason to keep the Turkey from joining the European Union.
"We do not want Kurdistan to become a European problem", he said, noting that Iran and Syria also share a border with eastern Turkey. The Daily Mail has horrific photos of the execution by stoning of a 17 year old girl in Kurdish Iraq. She was accused of falling in love with a Sunni Muslim from a different tribe.
Euro 2012 For Poland
Football: Italy may be world champions, but the country's recent history of crowd violence and match-fixing seems to have damaged its standing with European soccer's governing body, UEFA.
Today it was announced that Poland and Ukraine will jointly host the Euro 2012 football championship, not Italy, which was previously a firm favourite for the tournament.
The New London
Does Zurich need more bankers? Switzerland's finance minister Hans-Rudolf Merz seems to think so: During a series of meetings with business leaders aimed at giving London some competition, he was told that a ten percent tax rate for fund managers might be the best way to lure "high net worth individuals" away from the British capital.
Ain't Nothing Like A Dane
You'd think Mediterranean sunshine, wine and la dolce vita would make people happier than Lego, Carlsberg and Peter Schmeichel but you'd be wrong: Denmark's citizens are the happiest in Europe, while the inhabitants of the EU's more glamourous southern nations are the most miserable.
French Election Diary
With the first round of the presidential election only eleven days away, it is becoming increasingly clear that the contest isn't so much the four-way race the media is depicting, but rather a struggle between Nicolas Sarkozy and Everyone Else.
Sarkozy has a lead of somewhere between six and eight percent over his nearest rival, Ségolène Royal, for next Sunday 22 April's first round. In the second round - presuming he and Royal come first and second, as most polls predict - opinion polls suggest he could win by a margin of between four and eight percent.
For many in France, the presidential election has become a referendum on Nicolas Sarkozy.
Quote Of The Day
"The difference is that the French spend their rail investment money on engineering — while we spend ours on consultants’ fees, legal bills, diversity officers, £1.1 million in bonuses for the directors of Network Rail and just about anything other than physically building railways. The result is a bizarrely inflated cost of running trains — which is costing taxpayers four times as much in subsidy as before privatisation."
- Ross Clark in The Times on the differences between British and French railways, the day after France's Paris-Strasbourg TGV train broke a rail record of 574.8km/h (356mph) in a test run.
County Life
A forgotten English county is in the news
Winchcombeshire, England's smallest former county, is celebrating its 1,000th birthday on 7 May. While it only lasted ten years as a county, the area has once again been in the public eye.
First, earlier this month, Liz Hurley's wedding to Arun Nayar brought the world's paparazzi to the tiny village of Winchcombe. Then today it was revealed that the Christening gown worn by the future Queen Elizabeth I was discovered in the village's Sudeley Castle.
Kissing Continental Cousins
Look around England and you will see that Englishmen are virtually immune to a hand-shake let alone a hug or a kiss.
There is the royal exception that when the Prince of Wales or the Duke of York or the Earl of Wessex meet, they kiss on both cheeks.
The history books tell us that Englishmen of the 15th century were big on kissing.
News Round-Up
EU fingerprint files; Russian paw on Europe's fuel supplies; The Right goes wrong; Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's claims played down
Civil liberties groups have condemned plans to create a database of personal information for citizens of the European Union, the Times reports.
Britain is expected to join the scheme, submitting personal information and fingerprints even of people released without charge. Earlier this week it was revealed that Britain's Home Office plans to extend fingerprinting to people caught speeding or dropping litter.
Globalisation's Capital
In the Times today, business editor James Harding makes a case for London as the capital of the world.
While most Londoners are quietly proud of their city's status, no-one asked them if they wanted to host the world's billionaire blow-ins: As one New Yorker points out, at least the Big Apple's billionaires pay taxes. In London, property costs are rising faster that the price of Zimbabwean bread, public services are crumbling, violent crime fills the newspapers.
What do EURSOC's readers think?
A Boy Named Jihad
Berlin's Interior Ministry is appealing against a Berlin court's decision to allow a father to name his son Jihad.
Reda Seyam - a self-described Islamist who has praised the September 11 attacks and the 2002 terror bombing in Bali - claims the name is "loved by Muslims" worldwide. However, Berlin's City Police Department argues that naming the boy Jihad goes against the child's interest. The district council originally argued that a name "associated with terrorism" could "endanger the child's well-being."
Genius School
If you want to be a genius, go to Budapest and visit Laszlo Polgar. An eccentric citizen of Hungary, he says: "Geniuses are made, not born".
An expert in the theory of chess, he taught his daughters to play the game ten hours per day. Now, his youngest, Judit, is ranked as the 13th in the world, and is considered as the best female chess player in modern times.
In Britain, for example, there is a different idea: brain power is innate, not taught.
Sister Morphine
New medical research has indicated that if you have a 'chronic cough', the answer is morphine.
As many doctors have suspected for a long time, the opiate drug, morphine, is effective in easing long-standing coughs.
Until now, there was no hard evidence. But after an intensive study of patients with an 'intractable cough' doctors at Britain's Hull University have published their findings in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
They found evidence that patients responded quickly to morphine treatment.
News Round-Up: 9-11 Nutters
Monbiot spikes Moonbats; Ambulance-chasing in London
This isn't something you expect to read on EURSOC everyday: What a great piece by George Monbiot.
Monbiot, best-known for championing ecolo-leftist views which contributed the term Moonbat to the blogosphere, wrote a commentary last week on how the recent trend for 9-11 conspiracy theories was, to put it politely, misguided. His article was the subject of hundreds of readers comments on the Guardian, many of which condemned him as a traitor to the left, a dupe of George W Bush and a sell-out.
Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
With all the fuss over frontrunners Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal, one could be forgiven for ignoring the scraps continuing on the fringes of French political life. The far-right's Jean-Marie Le Pen's prospective performance is a "known unknown", but what about his counterparts on the extreme left?
Trotskyite Arlette Laguiller has been a regular fixture for six presidential elections. Revolutionary Communist Olivier Besancenot is running in his second - he'll have just turned 33 in the first round. Marie-George Buffet is running too, and trying to reverse the Communist Party's inexorable decline in votes (if not influence). Throw in a couple of minor candidates, including anti-globalisation campaigner José Bové, and the far left looks like a crowded field.
Just how does one stand out in this market? Well, in 2006, Marie-George Buffet had the bright idea of holding a convention to chose a "joint candidate" for the far-left. The Communists organised the event; students of international Communism will not be surprised to learn that the Communist candidate won the nomination. Buffet's rivals walked out; lacking the means to carry out the traditional Communist strategy of liquidating her opponents, Buffet now has to run against them.
A look at the campaign posters covering the walls of east Paris gives some idea of how the far-left's candidates are trying to brand themselves in the electoral marketplace.
The best route, it seems, is to act as a wrecker for Ségolène Royal's candidacy.
News Round-Up: Fast Track
France's high-speed train breaks another record, Royal gets an unexpected boost, Pakistan Muslims avoid vaccines and EURSOC is delighted by a colourful Aussie expression
France's high speed TGV train has broken its own record, according to tabloid newspaper Le Parisien. The paper reports that the train à grande vitesse hit 553km/h (344mph) on part of the new Paris-Strasbourg run on Tuesday. This comes a couple of months before an "official" attempt to break the TGV's 515.3km/h record, set in 1990.
The millions of passengers (EURSOC included) who are looking forward to using the Paris-Strasbourg TGV Est when it opens in June won't reach those speeds, however. The "civilian" line travels at a more sedate 320 km/h.
Like, Totally helping Royal
Still in France, Ségolène Royal might be trailing in the opinion polls, but she may have found a boost from an unexpected quarter. Thierry Desmarest, the outgoing chief of France's oil giant Total, has had a go at Royal for plotting a rise in company taxes.
Spot The Ball
More football. Many of EURSOC's British readers were snowed in yesterday, while the cold snap continues across the pond in the United States and Canada.
But the tough guys of Belfast's Glentoran and Linfield FC wouldn't let a spot of snow get in the way of a game. Here's a video of highlights from the 1995 Boxing Day match between the two Ulster sides: Stick with it until half way through, when the orange ball bursts and is replaced, bizarrely, with a white ball. Or is that an invisible ball?
QPR-China Friendly Ends In Brawl
You'd think a friendly between London's Queens Park Rangers and the Chinese national football team would be an innocuous enough fixture... not yesterday's, though, where a series of off-the-ball incidents ended the match in a full-scale brawl.
Look closely at the opening seconds, though. Is that Conservative MP Boris Johnson in a QPR strip? We later see this player wading in to the melee. Regular Boris-watchers will remember that their hero has "previous" when it comes to football violence. In a friendly last year, he got away with an horrendous flying tackle on unsuspecting German player Maurizio Gaudino:
Quote Of The Day
"I'm just waiting for the editorial in the Daily Mail which explains how, at this time of great stress to the Motoring Community, it is important for us not so much to condemn, but to understand the terrible pressures which must have driven a car driver to come to believe that he (or she) had no alternatives but to attempt maim, at random, four employees. I wonder if we'll see calls for the Government to end the spiral of violence, by talking urgently to the representatives of the Motoring Community with a view to seeing how their justifiable demand to discontinue the Congestion Charge can be met.
"And I'm waiting for a spokesman for the AA to theorise that, in fact, the letter bombs were sent by the Government, in a false flag operation, as a cover for installing more speed cameras."
David T on Harry's Place, taking a wry look at the recent spate of letter bomb attacks on the vehicle licensing offices, the company running the billing system for Britain's speed cameras and a company linked to London's congestion charge.
Britain Faces Wave Of Attacks On Jews
Anti-Semitic violence in Britain reached its highest level for two decades, according to an authoritative study published in the Daily Mail this morning.
In 2006, close to 600 anti-Semitic assaults, incidents of vandalism, cases of abuse and threats made against Jewish individuals and institutions were reported to the Community Security Trust, a Jewish charity. According to the newspaper, the most intense wave came in the summer following Israel's attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon. A disproportionate number of the attackers came from ethnic minorities: Fewer than half of those whose backgrounds were known were white, while over a third were of "Arab or Asian" extraction.
The office of mayor Ken Livingstone questioned the figures, saying that while all racist attacks are unacceptable, "the level of racist attacks on black, Asian and Arab people in London is significantly higher than the level of anti-Semitic incidents."
Quote Of The Day
"I don't mean to denigrate the mental acuity of Jane Fonda - this, after all, is the woman who has produced and scripted no fewer than 23 workout videos, culminating in the 1995 triumph Abs, Buns and Thighs - but the presence of actors at the forefront of a political campaign usually tells you that trivialisation cannot be far behind."
Dominic Lawson in the Independent on do-gooding actors, Xenu and Ségolène Royal.
Belgian Split No Laughing Matter
Belgium was struck with an Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" panic last night when state broadcaster RTBF announced that the northern, Dutch speaking part of the country had declared independence.
Distressed viewers called the television offices and politicians as the broadcast showed groups of merrymakers waving the Flemish flag outside government offices, spliced with library footage of traffic jams cramming routes to Belgians airports. King Albert and Queen Paola were reported to have fled the country in a military jet.
Only later was it revealed that he show was a spoof.
London Bones
Discovery of a 6th century burial points to early Christian site in London
Archaeologists excavating a site beside London's Trafalgar Square have found evidence suggesting the area was one of the major centres of early Christianity in Britain.
Quote Of The Day
“A lot of these types of very violent young people are thermostatically impaired. They’ve been exposed to so much violence and trauma that they almost get addicted to operating through adrenalin. This adrenalin recharges their system into a violent state of being...
"They have very poor self-soothing repertoires because they’ve been deprived of loving care... they are supercharged with traumatic memories which disregulate their management of energy.”
- As Britain undergoes another bout of soul-searching thanks to its murderous youngsters, Woman of the Year 2006 and the founder of the charity Kids Company Camila Batmanghelidjh tells the BBC what's to blame. Quoted by Rosemary Behan in The Times.
Quote Of The Day
"We want no more racists in the stadium, no more Nazi salutes, no more monkey calls when a player of colour touches the ball. 'There will be sections half-empty - that is not important. It's better to be alone than to be in such bad company."
- Nicolas Sarkozy on football crowd violence in France. One fan was shot dead by police following an assault by far-right Paris St Germain supporters on a Jewish fan after PSG were defeated by Israel's Hapoel Tel-Aviv.
The Media Gap
More evidence that the best independent comment is on the blogs: EU Referendum looks at double standards, Hizbollah and France's green light to its soldiers to fire on Israeli plans swooping on their positions. One of the few British or European observers to challenge the consensus on Lebanon.
It's not only comment, though: EU Referendum's work on the MSM's complicity in broadcasting Hezbollah's version of this summer's conflict was first class.
Royal To UK: Fall Into Line Or Clear Off
France's far right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen came up with a snappy summary of his views on the integration of immigrants earlier this year: La France, Aimez-là ou quittez-là (France: Love it or leave it) will be one of the slogans of next year's presidential elections.
Who would have thought, then, that the office of Socialist Party candidate-elect Ségolène Royal would have come up with a similar sentiment - only this time, to apply to Britain's relationship with the EU?
To be fair to M Le Pen, Mme Royal's office, via her foreign adviser and spokesman Gilles Savary, is not asking Britain to love Europe. Rather, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Britain was advised to "Do things the French way or clear off."
Chirac Might Run Again
Jacques Chirac's wife told reporters that the president is "in great shape" and hasn't ruled out running for a third term in April.
The Vatican And The Veil
Speaking of cultural sensitivity issues (see story below), a senior Vatican figure has entered the debate over the Muslim veil. Cardinal Renato Martino, who heads a Vatican committee on migration and immigration, said that immigrants must respect the traditions, culture and religion of the nations they go to.
The New Age Of Rail
Good news for Euro Travellers with fear of flying - and, perhaps, for eco warriors concerned about the damage aeroplanes cause to the environment. Eurostar, which currently connects London with Paris, Lille and Brussels, revealed plans for a join-the-dots network connecting several more European cities via developing high-speed lines.
Ségo Sails Into Teaching Storm
French presidential hopeful Ségolène Royal has run into her first serious obstacle to winning the Socialist Party's candidacy for president. In a video apparently smuggled out of a party meeting in her Poitou-Charentes département ten months ago, she appeared to insult a group that makes up much of the Socialists's support: Teachers.
Royal was filmed arguing that more must be done to keep teachers in schools. At present, they spend around 17 hours of the 35 hour week teaching. The remainder is spent supposedly preparing lessons, though Royal seems to claim that many teachers are off moonlighting for private academies.
Quote Of The Day
"Safety experts said yesterday that launching a rocket from the backside was a practice that contravened the firework code."
- The Times reports on a UK serviceman who decided to liven up a fireworks display and ended up with with fire in the hold.
News Round-Up
Egypt hates Denmark, Vatican virgins, Britain gets (more) Orwellian
Egyptians count Denmark among their deadliest foes, according to a poll published yesterday. A random sample of Egyptians told pollsters that only Israel (92 percent) was more hostile to Egypt than Denmark (60 percent).
Quote Of The Day
“This is a left-wing university which has a social project... It is not an institution designed for professional training.”
- Daniel Filâtre, President of Toulouse II-Le Mirail university. From The Economist's survey of France.
Poll: Scots Want Independence
An opinion poll carried out on the eve of the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union between Scotland and England shows that for the first time since 1998, a majority of Scots want to break away from the rest of the UK.
I Predict A Riot
NEWS ROUND-UP: French cops complain hoodlums in the estates have launched a jihad against the law; British and American universities lead the world (still); a 72 year old councillor faces compulsory sensitivity retraining for cracking a stale joke.
Don't Mention The War
Have you signed the Oneseat.eu petition to end the European Parliament's crazy gravy train between Brussels and Strasbourg yet? One man who doesn't want you to is the EU Parliament's president Josep Borrell, who attacked northern European MEPs (the main drive for the petition has come from Sweden), adding that "some Nordic country" does not understand the significance of Strasbourg because they did not suffer enough during World War Two.
News Round Up
Neo-Nazis make gains in Germany, al-Qaeda calls for attacks on France, Pope declares holy war.
Boozers Sans Frontieres
The news that the British government is planning drastic action against teenage binge drinkers should come as no surprise. However, reports that French kids are adopting the boozy habits of their peers across the Channel has set alarm bells ringing in Paris.
Opium Of The People
Germany is having a great World Cup. Tonight, the hosts play Italy in the semi-final. Win or lose, much of Germany is going to have on hell of a hangover tomorrow morning - just as Angela Merkel's government slips in reforms and tax raises likely to make everyone from populist leftists to progressive liberals fume.
Closed Shop
More on the fraught world of "economic nationalism" - or protectionism, if you speak English. The Times warns that the planned merger of Suez and Gaz de France, engineered by the French prime minister, might be blocked. Also in France, President Jacques Chirac is considering whether a Paris stock exchange should be bought by the Germans - who might diminish its influence - or the dreaded Americans.