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Big Boys Rules
France continues to defy the rules of the EU stability pact, cornerstone of the Eurozone's economic policy. Smaller countries, many of whom have made huge sacrifices to stay within the pact's limits, are furious. Last week, France's prime minister was contrite and promised to do better at some unspecified date in the future. His latest excuse, however, threatens to spin his critics into even greater anger.
Also today: José Bové stands up for hefty farm subsidies, Sweden's pro-Euro PM tries smoke and mirrors to win votes and the Telegraph keeps an eye on BBC bias.
France, according to prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, should be an exception to Eurozone rules because it is too important to be trifling with such matters. France has international committments. Diplomacy and armed forces to maintain. Why should it bother with balancing the books, "to satisfy someone in some office in some other country?"
Raffarin's outburst comes as smaller countries are resisting French pressure to sign up to the EU constitution. It will remind Europeans of president Jacques Chirac's pre-Iraq war claim that smaller EU countries should learn to shut up, rather than express views on foreign affairs that might differ from France's.
France is still trying to figure out ways of balancing its books, despite Raffarin's claims. While the stability pact is probably not worth the paper it is written on, it is likely that the French will make some moves to reduce its deficit - a tax on wine has been proposed. However, it is unclear if France's government possesses the will or the capacity to force through changes that would make a difference. Its unions are already spoiling for a fight over unfinished business before the summer, while the country at large, still coming to terms with the heatwave deaths, will likely resist any attempts to whittle away at spending on services.
No Way, José
José Bové, darling of the anti-globalisation movement, has been in the news again recently. In the unlikely event that he reads the Economist, he will have been unsettled by the comparisons that newspaper makes between him, far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen and populist rabble rouser Pierre Poujade.
In Poujade's obituary, the newspaper writes that Poujadism lives on,
"Anti-tax, anti-Semitic and anti-establishment, its blend of gruff nationalism, direct action and arcadian nostalgia can be seen in the campaigns of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of France's xenophobic National Front, and José Bové, the leader of its anti-globalisation movement."
José won't be happy. But nor will many of his supporters in the anti-Globalisation movement, or the altermondialistes as they like to call themselves. Speaking out before the trade conference in Cancun, Mexico (an event which he has been banned from attending) Bové defended farm subsidies, which keep his colleagues in France's peasants movement in clover while squeezing producers in the developing world. Instead, he said, farmers in the developing world should be defended from exports from the United States. Ah well, if all else fails, invoke the Great Satan.
Someone should point out to Bové that his beloved peasants don't benefit from subsidies to anything like the extent that they benefit France's huge agribusiness sector. Surely this industry threatens traditional French farming far more than the developing world. Unless of course Bové and his friends don't want to soil their hands by selling their produce, and prefer to live in tax-subsidised "agrarian nostalgia" - rather like the late M Poujade.
British commentator Stephen Pollard should top Bové's reading list (sadly unlikely): Pollard and others are behind a report detailing how subsidies effect developing world farmers.
In his weblog today, Pollard delivers a powerful summing up of the message:
"Yet while the four blocs talk endlessly about the liberalization of world trade, they have been ruthless in keeping their domestic markets closed to agricultural and textile exports from the poorest countries. The worst of these rich protectionists, by far, is the EU.
The EU runs two sets of protectionist policies that could have been designed expressly to wreck the trading chances of those poorest countries that have comparative advantages in food and textiles."
Swedish Vote Hots Up
In the Swedish Euro-entry vote, the No voters still lead but the Yes vote is catching up fast: No surprise, says the Telegraph, when one considers that most of Sweden's political parties, its media, employers federation and largest unions have been cheerleading Euro entry since the campaign began.
Nevertheless, Goran Persson, the Swedish prime minister, has pulled a clever trick, telling voters that even if they vote yes, entry to the Eurozone might not happen straight away: A yes vote will only admit the possibility. A no vote will rule it out altogether.
Will this change voters minds? All eyes are on Sunday's vote - not least Britain's.
Keeping An Eye On Auntie
Elsewhere in the Telegraph, editor Charles Moore announces the launch of Beebwatch, a monitoring activity which invites readers to send in examples of the broadcaster's bias.
Let's hope that Beebwatch gives due credit to Biased BBC, a weblog which has been doing an excellent job of monitoring the BBC's bias for ages.
