Who'd be French? Not me!

Who’d be French? 

A beautiful and diverse country producing goodish wines, certainly, however, consider the negatives.

Think about the last 18 months.  130+ people killed and mutilated at the Bataclan, 84 innocents murdered while celebrating Bastille Day, in Nice.  A priest murdered and beheaded while celebrating mass.  A policeman and his wife killed in their own home, journalists killed while carrying out their daily work, in their police-guarded offices, in the capital of France.  These and other horrors have been visited upon France in this period. 

The French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls  has essentially told the French people that they should get used to it.  That they must learn to live with such terror. 

Many older British people will not be surprised at such comments.  They will recall the French defeatism during 1940, when the French nation, largely, capitulated to the Nazis in a matter of days.  One cannot help wonder what it will take for a modern day resistance to form to defeat the enemy that is now very clearly, within.

People say that the upcoming Presidential election, in 2017, will be the catalyst for change.  That the platform of the Right – Republicans or Front National and that of the Left – Socialists, will reflect the populist disquiet with the internal threat - the concern about the no-go areas in many French cities, where migrants congregate and provide a safe haven for their co-religionists, the concern about the lack of integration by certain groups – let’s not beat around the bush – the lack of integration by Muslim immigrants and 2^nd and sometimes 3^rd generation immigrants. 

I doubt it though. 

France is an economic basket case.  It’s not just the recent spasm of rampant socialism, under President Hollande, damaging as that has been.  No, France has been on the slide for years.  Hollande’s predecessor, form 2007 to 2012, President Sarkozy, who is now seeking a return to power, was elected to shake things up and take on the deeply entrenched and very powerful trade unions.  He did somewhere next to zero.  Indeed, I would suggest that his abject failure emboldened the unions and continued the decline of the French economy.

The Front National will make Islam and migration a key election issue and right now, they are leading in the essentially three-horse race.  However, we can expect the Republicans and the Socialists to try and steer clear of any meaningful discussion about this subject. 

Indeed, we are seeing this already.

I opened by asking ‘Who’d be French?’ because were I saddled with such, rather than being blessed by being British, I would be so shamed. 

All of those atrocities mentioned earlier and then the focus of current French political debate?  The burkini! 

Now I do find this dress somewhat offensive but honestly, I think it’s a matter of personal choice.  If Muslim women want to show evident signs of their subjugation by and subservience to, their male ‘overlords’, then that’s their business.   I don’t really think it’s the business of government, local or national, to legislate on what people wear on the beach. 

I could understand if these politicians had nothing else to occupy them.  You know, like terrorist atrocities on their streets, like a fifth column seeking the overthrow of French culture and law but – you know where this is heading.

I guess this falls into the ‘false flag’ category.  The big problem is Islam and its highly threatening position in the West but rather than face this, governments pick-up on trivial issues and try to make them seem significant so that they can deflect attention from their otherwise abject failure to deal with the substantive matter. 

France isn’t alone in this ‘head in the sand’ approach but given the recent terrorist atrocities and the mayhem visited upon its own people, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect some ‘steel’ in the French response.  Instead, France’s authorities mimic a poodle when faced with a Doberman or Rottweiler – they make whimpering noises and lay down.  And I am sure I don’t need to be too graphic and describe what else happens to the poodle.

So is France lost?  Sorry to say that things are certainly heading that way.  I write this blog not in support of the Front National, though they have trumpeted the issue for years, but in the hope, probably forlorn, that France’s politicians will awaken and defend their country and their culture.  There’s a lot at stake, make sure you do your bit to push the fight-back agenda.