Free thinking in France

France is not like Britain. Obviously. But nowhere more obviously than in the variety of media political leanings. Brits might complain about newspapers, but at least you get a choice depending on whether you support right-wing attitudes (Daily Mail) or  lefty points of view (Guardian) or a bit of this bit of that (Independent although more lefty if their reader commenter-ship is anything to go by), etc.

In France we have far left, trendy left, left of centre, left left and all points in-between. The left have decided that they have the monopoly of 'competitivité moral' and if you want anything else the internet is the only place you'll find it. So, if your sources of news and information are newspapers and the tele which is nauseatingly left-wing then your world view will be based on the biased and politically correct attitudes of French entertainer-journalists. I wouldn't flatter them with the title of pure journalist because they have little capacity or indeed need for independent thought in their work.

Last night I watched 'Ce soir ou jamais' on France2. I usually avoid these 'discussion' programmes because all they offer is smug, self-satisfied verbal diarrhoea from a bunch of self-proclaimed leaders of opinion. Or you get a media lynching, or trial by vicious media luvvy where 4-6 politically correct moralisers 'debate' with one person who doesn't agree with them. They turn on the victim with the aim of humiliating, criticising, ridiculing, and breaking them so that they become destabilised and aggressive whereupon they are accused of being dangerously enraged.

Anyway, last night I watched the programme and, as usual, it was squatted by those-who-believe-themselves-superior-because-they-own-the-nation's-moral-compass. They were discussing economics, the rise of violence and the Boston bombings. One guy, a supposed humorist who I've never heard of, Alevêque, declared that he knew nothing about economics or geopolitics but he had a 'donneur de leçon' opinion anyway. Why he was there I have no idea unless it was to expose us to the 'common man' understanding of what was being said. Not that he would identify himself with the common man, heaven forbid. He was a peculiar shade of orange too.

Basically he had nothing to say, but he was given the same amount of speaking time as those who did have sufficient intelligence to say something worth hearing, and his idiotic statements were regarded with as much consideration as those who knew their stuff and added to the debate. He did not add to the debate, too stupid. He was just there to add moral fibre I suppose, a bit like verbal All Bran... (and similar in colour).

The same day, funnily enough, I received through the post a letter telling me about a new television channel called 'Notre antenne'. It is being set up by Philippe Milliau as an antidote to the nauseating mono-thinkers that pollute our screens on a daily basis. You may remember when I wrote about an exchange on a chat show where the star presenter declared that anyone who does not bide by politically correct diktats should be banned from the tele: "Mais on a le droit de penser ce que l'on veut" -"Non!".

There is an urgent need for a channel where you can think what you like, where debate covers both sides of an argument equally, where people who represent both sides of an issue are invited onto programmes in equal numbers and which does not pander to the lobbies of vocal minorities. The majority exists too, but they are not represented as such in the msm except to be criticised for not thinking or behaving politically correctly.

The channel will be available on the internet mainly because a politically incorrect group has no chance of obtaining the necessary authorization to broadcast from the CSA (body that dishes out television broadcast licences). New technology has made it possible to create a television channel for the internet which is less costly to produce than traditional television. More and more people have access to fast broadband connections thus by-passing their dependence on multi-national group/-millionaire owned, publicity-dependent tele.

Their first test broadcast was the Bobards d'Or 2013 which I watched, and which was very professionally produced.

The letter I got was asking me to support this fiscally advantageous project (66% off donations) with money, and/or four other types of contribution: an office in Paris, voluntary help from those with televisual experience, ideas for programmes, or time to give a hand with manning the phones, administration, etc. for those living in Paris.

I think it's a very interesting project and I'll be watching out for further news on its progress. If you have any ideas for them, you can contact them by a gmail address: projectnotreantenne.

Not worrying, but living

I thought I'd write a post about the sort of stuff I do when I'm not worrying and not at work (the two are not mutually exclusive, mind).

I'm not actually a dessert person but I appreciate this idea :)

This weekend, for example, my DB gave me a choice, as my boys had gone to see their dad. We could either go away somewhere or eat out in a nice restaurant. An image floated into my mind of a nice hotel room and me spending Saturday evening munching on a tomato. I wondered where we could go in this cold weather and decided that I couldn't be fagged to go anywhere if it meant something crappy for dinner.

So I voted for staying put, with bed warmer, cosy cat and dinner out. We went to a restaurant called l'Authentique and had a lovely evening eating, drinking and chatting. After a fishy mise en bouche, I started with a millefeuille of brandade de mourue with prawns, mussels and a red pepper sauce, followed by taureau steak (Aubrac), all washed down with a delicious and perfectly balanced red from Domaine Henry, le Paradines 2010 at €25 per bottle. It was well-presented, very tasty and with good service. The place was full too.

Yesterday I went a bit cooking mad. I had cooked a turkey leg in the slow cooker on Saturday so turned it into individual pies in a leek sauce, meat for wraps or maybe turkey pasties, and stock for soup. Then I cooked a lamb Madras dish from Saturday Kitchen which I got into a bit of a mess with as I don't have a spice grinder and my small food processor does a crap job. By the time I'd decided that the burnt bits were not going to affect the overall flavour, the dish was almost ready, not to eat mind because my DB doesn't eat lamb. The boys and I may have it tonight, or I might be so fed up with it that I'll just chuck it in the freezer until I've forgiven it for being such a pain in the arse.

It brought home to me the importance of having the right tools because 'good enough' just isn't when it comes to some things.

This brings me to my favourite tele programmes at the moment. Right up there at the top is Saturday Kitchen which is great fun in a jovial, blokey kind of way, has some delicious-sounding recipes, and interesting guests. Last Saturday, they had Swedish chef Magnus Lisson who made a complex Porridge of grains from Jämtland. They cooked a haggis in a potato pancake dish which I might try as I'm partial to haggis and have a tin of it for emergencies.

When I'm not being nagged to free up the tele, I also then watch The Good Cook with Simon Hopkinson who demonstrates how to make restaurant-quality food in your own home. He was particularly enamoured with this recipe for grilled aubergines with olive oil, garlic, parsley and feta cheese.

On Mondays at 10pm (French time) we have Lewis, on Tuesdays there's Death in Paradise, on Thursdays and Fridays there's Silent Witness and on Sunday there's Mr Selfridge which I like watching because I used to have a summer/Saturday job there. If I have to miss one because there's something worth watching on French tele, then I can just catch up with BBC iPlayer on my IP hider.

Last weekend, my DB and I watched a French film, Poupoudidou with Jean-Paul Rouve and Sophie Quinton. We were not expecting much joy from it (because we are not great fans of French navel-gazing films), but this one turned out to be a bijou. It's set in Mouthe, the coldest town in France and focuses on the murder of Candice Lecoeur, a (bottle) blond bombshell who is convinced she was Marilyn Monroe in a former life. The police chief has his reasons for deciding her death was a suicide, but a visitor to the area, David Rousseau (JP Rouve), a successful author of 'polars' (thrillers), is not convinced. He decides to stay for a bit, not necessarily because he wants to interfere in the police work, but because he wants to investigate Candice's past and hopefully find some inspiration for his next book.

The deeper he digs, the more dirt he finds, and his life becomes the target for someone who wants to keep him quiet. We really enjoyed the dark humour and irony in this film, the intriguing scenario, and the muffled ambiance reflecting the stifling effect of snow on sound.

C'est Incroyable

France 'as got talent, roight

Last night I caught the end of 'La France a un Incroyable Talent' which, in my mind, doesn't exactly trip off the tongue like 'Britain's got Talent' and I think tends to be reduced to 'Incroyable Talent'. Anyway, I suppose it's basically the same programme - a qualifying 2-minute round before 3 judges, semi-final and final.

One of the judges is Sophie Edelstein, artistic director of Pinders circus which means certain acts might not only get through to the next round but are told, "the doors of my circus are open to you". The singer Dave is another judge, and the third one is Gilbert Rozon, creator of the festival 'Juste pour rire' (Just for Laughs).

I'm not a great fan of talent shows, but my boys like watching this and it makes for a cosy family moment watching it together; having a laugh, giving opinions on the acts, and guffawing at the crap. Enhanced, natch, by the fact that there are some very talented people out there.

One of the acts yesterday was Sacha la Grenouille, an amazing 36-yr old contortionist who gave a stunning show that had everyone on their feet. Sophie had already seen him in action and told him the doors to her circus were open. His act was colourful, funny and charming. And we squirmed as he achieved impossible positions.

There was an hilarious impersonator, Jérémy, who gave a slick show where he imitated 20 voices in two minutes. At the end, Gilbert said he was disappointed he hadn't done Frank Sinatra whereupon Jérémy broke into song with New York New York, and had everyone on their feet again. He has a really funny face, is full of humour and seems like a very jolly guy. Brilliant! Off stage, he imitated a camp gay man in the post-show interview which had us in fits.

We don't have any show-worthy incroyable talent in our family, but my youngest is set on becoming the voice of Floppy the Monster. I've been writing flipcharts to go with the book and story-builder this week. As they are aimed at pre-school children who can't read, they are full of images and sound. I've been doing one on maths, counting up to four, and a language one describing Floppy's house and garden. My youngest is doing the voice in French, and counting in English.

I was thinking this morning how I loathe children in adverts with their cute voices saying how much they love ham and yoghurt,and how I refuse to buy anything that's been advertised using a child to manipulate me into wanting it. Advertisers don't understand that we find our own kids cute, not everyone else's, and especially not those in adverts. Or maybe I'm in a curmudgeonly minority...

Which brings me (enfin) to my niggling doubts that I should not be using a child to be the voice of Floppy the Monster in French, but maybe a more mature, professional-sounding native Frog. But then I say to myself that small children might identify with a child's voice more than with an adult voice, and listen to the words more enthusiastically because it would be like playing with the child rather than learning from an adult.

For the moment we'll carry on, trying to overcome the raspberry sound that accompanies every 'ppy' and speaking slowly and clearly: Voici Floppy le Monstre. Il a un grand sourire...

You never know, we may make a voice-over/dubber incroyable talent of him yet! It's about time there were more voices used to dub films. I hear the voice OuiOui (Noddy) in all sorts of films and tele shows, it's most bizarre and distractingly irritating.

Call out cost

I watched the Panorama programme on the Royal Mail last night. The management are not happy with some of the posties, and some of the posties are not happy with the management. Between these two groups is a 'dialogue de sourds' and the threat to the Royal Mail is that the whole lot implode. What with the threat of competition as well, it's a wonder the archaic structure is still creaking on.

It sounded all too familiar. Here in France, La Poste is having similar trouble modernising. It's due to be privatised which is probably a recipe for disaster in such a public service, and the employees are not happy. Spurring on the unions is Olivier Besancenot, a postie by profession turned militant politician of the... yes, far left. France is a deeply socialist country and he was even a leading opponent of Nicholas Sarkozy in 2007 with his anti-capitalist party (NPA).

Today he got embroiled in an arm lock with a policement during a demonstration against privatisation, and broke a finger in several places. They were just climbing on the railings of the Assemblée National to throw over postal bags of public signatures against privatisation. Unfortunately for him, it's illegal to climb the Assemblée National railings, so it's to be expected that the police intervene. They may have asked him nicely, and then used force when he refused to come down.

I foresee strikes.

Talking of which, BA air stewardesses are threatening to go on strike over the Christmas holidays. How tediously predictable, I say. There's always someone going on strike in the air industry at this time. It's either the baggage handlers, air traffic controllers, pilots or cabin staff. Why anyone still flies over Christmas is a mystery. I gave up many moons ago and now take the train.

Also on strike at the moment are RATP employees so the RER A is disrupted, to be joined on Thursday by RER B. I'm always amazed that this is allowed to happen. The government spends a lot of time and money trying to get people off the roads and onto public transport. All well and good, except when public transport is on strike so the people who use it instead of their cars are buggered.

How can they get to work? How can they create wealth for the nation so they can pay taxes for the government to spend on losers and wasters (and other services)? There should be a more than minimum service because the government has practically forced people off the roads and onto the metro, trams and buses. A few tetchy lefties can bring the whole capital to a grinding halt. Is that right?

The French government is way too laxist with strikers. Respecting the right to strike is one thing, but disrupting millions of working people in the process should be illegal. Striking over Christmas should be illegal too. Have they never heard of limits?

Sounds like they need a week or two with the World's Strictest Parents to drum a bit of respect for others and the need for cooperation into them. All of them - management and employees alike. It's not just all about you, guys!

Religion Rage

I'm having a bit of an anti-religion rage at the moment. Not God-rage, but religion-rage, religion being that man-made codifying of manipulation and bossing about by power-hungry greedy abusers of people's fears and weaknesses.

Take the Catholic Church, for example. Last May we heard how children sent to institutions in Ireland were abused from the 1930's up until the 1990's. Yesterday a report was published on the Catholic paedophiles that rampaged through the priesthood with impunity between 1960 and 1990. Similar reports have been published in the US, Australia, Austria, France, Poland and Canada.

It makes me want to vomit with rage. This is what power does. It corrupts. It always corrupts. We humans are not fit to have excessive amounts of power and influence, and yet it continues and we see it time and time again.

Islam is the same but worse because it's in the fanatically violent phase that reminds me of the Catholic Church's fanatically violent phase, the Crusades. If they aren't threatening to blow us all up, they are surreptitiously taking over tolerant western societies with their high birth rates and slippery slope demands.

Last night I caught an excellent programme on BBC4, the History of Christianity with Diarmaid MacCulloch, a History professor at Oxford University. He'd arrived at the period of the Reformation when Calvin, Luther et al were promoting an alternative protestantism to the illogical and money-grabbing Catholic Church. It was a fascinating look at how protestantism took hold in northern Europe and how Catholicism reacted by gaining new adherents (and lots of wealth...) in the New World, sending Christopher Columbus there with missionaries.

One of the most interesting points of the programme was that both Catholicism and the new Protestants had no interest in progress (neither does Islam), and it's in the next programme that we discover how it was the American Evangelist Protestants who made America the progressive successful nation that it is today.

The programme has been made with the Open University, and they've set up an online survey to find out what it means to be a British Christian in the 21st century. It's an interesting survey, and gives space for you to write what you think are the most important values for the 21st century. I took the survey and wrote

• being free to think critically
• accepting that men and women are different but equal
• progress is a force for good
  
• learn the lessons of history - appeasement leads to power-grabbing
• rejecting of totalitarianism both political and religious
• human rights should favour victims of violence, not the violent
• political correctness should not be an excuse to offend the majority of a tolerant society

Take the survey and add your own ideas. I'm hoping that politicians will start to get the idea that the citizens of western societies are feeling under threat, and do not want to find themselves a few years down the line in an impossible situation just because a few bleeding heart lily-livered woolly-balled liberals in power thought that they could make everyone happy all of the time.

Remember the words of Lord Acton: "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". That includes religious power.

I'm Watching...

One the best things I ever bought was a Sky Digibox. I absolutely detest watching dubbed programmes in French, so it's saved much ranting and moaning.

My favourite series at the moment is The Mentalist and it seems I'm not alone in that judging by the ratings and the Mentalist evening last night. I hadn't realised it was so popular, or that Simon Baker is Australian, or that Owain Yeoman (Rigsby) is from Chepstow (went to Oxford and left to attend RADA)!

In an interview with Simon Baker, he said that when he got the part, he decided he wanted to have as much fun as possible, and it's true that he plays the role with much cheekiness and humour. This is a lot of the serie's charm in fact. It's also a huge contrast to the way he had to play Nick Fallin in The Guardian which is on early evenings at the moment. There he is a repressed corporate lawyer who always seems to be dashing out of rooms and avoiding close relationships.

On the other hand, I've stopped watching 'Poubelle la Vie', oops, I mean Plus Belle la Vie on French television. Not because it's dubbed, because it isn't, being French, but because the storyline has got a bit ridiculous and it's on at the annoying time of 8.10pm which is when we eat dinner.

This means that if we want to watch it, and when one is following a soap, one usually wants to keep up or lose the plot, we can't have a nice chatty meal. I don't like the television being on when we eat, so weaning myself off PLV and banning it from the dinner table will enable us to engage in something resembling conversation when the boys get back.

I think a lot of French people must eat and watch tele at the same time, either the news or PLV because 20H seems to be the prime viewing spot and it must be because there's a captive audience. FR3 caused a riot on the other channels when they rescheduled PLV to 8.10pm because of its popularity which meant audiences were not watching the news with their highly paid anchor newsreaders. French news programmes are also pretty crap.

Competition is so cool for stirring things up, don't you think?

There's nothing on French television that I watch avidly actually. As I don't like dubbing, that removes a huge chunk; I find Arte pretty boring on the whole, and while there are some interesting programmes like Capital, there's nothing I would think twice about not going out so I could watch it.

Thank God for Sky!

Well Played Sarko

My dilemma last night was resolved by my decision simply to 'have it all', which meant I watched PlV then switched over to watch Sarko strut his stuff.

How did he do? Well, I thought he did very well which means that he lived up to my expectations. He was coherent, poised, intelligent, respectful and serious. As a natural in front of an audience, he came off well, but what he said also sound un-hysterical, feasible and not pandering to the PS wet blankets.

I loved it when he announced that those who are in charge would be held responsible because the tendency is in France to be 'responsable, non-coupable' (responsible but not guilty). That disgraceful era is apparently at an end and good riddance too. It might make those in charge reflect before they act, knowing that if they fail, they will be held accountable, as the Prefet of the Manche region found when he didn't ensure public safety during Sarko's last visit there. He's been sent to sit on the Conseil supérieur de l'administration territoriale de l'Etat, a Prefet without a Prefecture. Au placard, quoi.

The impression I got was that France has a Captain at the helm - someone who is in charge, ready to assume his responsibilities, and who won't jump on every bandwaggon proposed by the loony left or anyone else for short-term advantages.

The loony left, naturally, thought he did terribly, and criticised him endlessly. However, this is to be expected because all they can actually do is criticise or be ineffectual. Martine Aubry (known affectionately as 'mémé' - granny, and she's not that old, just seems it) claims that Sarko did not say what the French wanted him to say. I'm not sure which 'French' she's referring to however. The left does like to think it has the monopoly on knowing what le peuple is thinking and wanting, and believe that they are their only true representatives. I think they are referring to the bottom end of the social strata which is a limited percentage of the total population.

There are a lot of people who don't live in social housing, are not on RMI (revenu minimum d'insertion) and are quite able to take care of themselves thank you. These represent les sales bourgeouis, however and are of no interest to the loony left. It's worth remembering too, that the PS just lost the last election so obviously they don't represent le peuple, in the eyes of le peuple, quite as much as they think they do.

Of course, as Sarko was not dishing out euros left right and centre, not handing everyone a house on a plate and was not waving his magic wand to right all the wrongs of the land instantly, the left accused him of being 'à coté de la plaque' (not with it).

As the general impression of his interview was positive, it seems that they are the ones not with it, and should realise that many people are getting very bored with their constant sniping and doom-mongering.

Of the journalists participating in the interview, Laurence Ferrari - the one who bed-hopped her way to ousting much-loved PPDA (so the rumour goes) to read the 8pm news on TF1 - was totally crappy. She had this narquois little smile on her face that I wanted to slap off; thought herself very clever, but Sarko had the measure of her and she got away with nothing. It's due to her (and PlV) that the news on TF1 is now something of a joke - the audience numbers are such that France 2 news has never been so popular. When the other journalists tried to sneak some clever remark, Sarko always had a cleverer ripost. He's not a lawyer for nothing!

For a serious political interview then, it was pretty entertaining.

PLV vs ODP

There's a real dilemma brewing for tonight.

Do I watch Poubelle la Vie, or Our Dear Prez? It's a tricky one for sure.

On the one hand PlV is dead exciting with the dénouement of one of the stories about to unfold, and on the other we have ODP Sarko who will be attempting to explain to the nation his ideas to save the country from rack and ruin.

Many on the loony left are calling for us all to boycott the programme which is on at 8.15pm (same time as PlV). I'm not quite sure what logic they are using for this. How can you criticise a set of ideas if you refuse to listen to them in the first place? They really are very stupid and, themselves, barely worth listening to, so I will not boycott the programme.

I may choose not to watch it, but then I like Sarko so he'll be preaching to the converted. I can also read a summary of it all in Figaro tomorrow instead of sitting through 90mins of policitican-speak. Thus leaving me free to see whether Bruno, making a run for it, gets gunned down by his racketeer uncle and dies in the arms of his lover Thomas (PlV = media trendy lefty series par excellence...).

I highly disapprove of the left at the moment in France. They seem incapable of accepting that they LOST the last election. This is especially true of Sego Royale, the loser, who cannot, either, accept that she lost the election to be big boss of the PS (Partie Socialiste). Their playground antics are a terribly poor show by those who would be in power and lead the nation, God forbid.

Personally, in hard times, I think the nation should rally behind the one(s) in charge and do their best to support the decisions made, as long as those decisions are based on proper consultation. Sabotaging all efforts to make reforms and find solutions to problems will not resolve the crisis any quicker. On the contrary, the nation will just sink even faster even deeper. And when we're on our knees outside under 10cm of snow, the left will still be quibbling about petty internal party issues and calling for poor Bernard Kouchner's head.

Who on earth votes left?