Salut!

Muslims and employment fairness: something's not working

Here's a short, sharp look at the overt and covert discrimination felt by Muslims in the workplace or just hoping to find one. With more space* I might have argued that the point about alcohol in out-of-office activities and networking should be no more a problem for those with a faith-related objection than it is for people who simply prefer not to drink. The photo shows Louis Reynolds, main author of the report I discuss ...

It is a familiar lament among Muslims in the West.

However tough job-hunting may be in strained economic times if your name is Martin, Manfried or Michel, imagine what it must be like to sign your application Mohammed.

The rise and rise of la famille Pinault (despite uncommunicative communications people)

As L'Express saw the empire 17 years ago

How, even at this late stage of my career, can I get a job as a French press officer? It is as innocent a question as you will surely imagine. The French PR way is to demand an e-mail explaining the inquiry, and then to ignore it. Indeed, it may now be nine of 10 years since one French government department promised to send an important statement. I am still waiting. There have been other times when I have wasted parts of my life trying to deal with such people. Gizza job - it seems a doddle.

My first encounter with the woman who speaks for the French billionaire François Pinault's Artémis group, was highly promising. Despite being away from her Paris office, she undertook to provide all the information I was seeking once back at her coalface the following Monday. That would have been August 17. Sadly, the first encounter turned out to be the last and, despite repeated phone calls, e-mails and assurances from her office that she'd get back to me, there hasn't been a word since. Still, the poor thing must have been unbearably busy, too busy to drop a line saying she couldn't after all help.

Gallantry has driven me to a late decision not to name and shame. And I was naturally a model of professionalism and fairness in the piece I wrote in any case ....

Nadiya Hussain's Bake Off win: not PC gone mad, just deserved success

One of those stories that speak for themselves. Until last night, i had not watched a single episode of Baked Off. I like chocolate, coffee or ginger cakes if put in front of me but have no great passion for, or even interest in, baking. But once I had been asked to write about* the final of the contest, I warmed as others have to the winner, Nayida Hussain (photo from her Facebook pages) ...

A Muslim mother-of-three who captured the affections of millions of Britons with her cake-making skills – and eye-catching facial expressions – has been hailed “an inspiration” to women of her faith after being crowned Britain’s best amateur baker.

Minding our language: pop lyrics, Morissette's unironic Irony, Hilary Duff's illuminating thought

Maybe it's always been thus ...

A row over France's attachment to cultural protectionism accompanied my big annual return for hibernation in the UK. Radio stations are obliged to ensure that 40 per cent of the records played are in the French language and the government complains that they are making a mockery of the quota system by playing the same pop standards over and again. This can be jarring for the long-distance driver. Much more jarring is the wretched quality of English-language pop music lyrics ...

A 1,400-kilometre slog from the Mediterranean to London brought a useful reminder of one of pop music’s functions. It makes a long, tedious motorway drive more bearable.

French Connexion: it's autumn so let's all go on strike

Buy Emile Zola's Germinal at Salut!'s Amazon link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140447423/salusund-21

Take away the right to withdraw labour and you rob working people of one of only two available responses to employers with little to learn from Victorian coalowners. But is the right always used responsibly and with concern for the other working people who are invariably the chief casualties of the effects? Tricky issues arise, This is my latest column for The Connexion, a monthly newspaper for English speakers in France ...

Imagine a France without pesky trade unions intent on causing maximum disruption to public services and industry.

Michel Houellebecq review: when stopping Le Pen makes France an Islamic-led state

The grim prospect of Marine Le Pen at the Elysée unites the French political establishment in reluctant support for the Muslim candidate for the presidency. Michel Houellebecq's novel Submission (translated from the French by a New York Francophile, Loris Stein**) describes what follows this imaginary election deal ...

To the western liberal conscience, few election outcomes could be worse than the suddenly plausible scenario of victory for one of the far right movements and their ragbags of nationalists, racists and fascists.