Salut!

Minding our language: Hollande and the CGT - a plague on both houses?

Just liked the photo - and there's no copyright

France, yet again, is in the grip of turmoil between government and unions. When governments talk of reform in France, they vaguely hope to make the country economically more viable, more attractive to investors, less a pays poubelle that is so used to living beyond its means that it can see no alternative. For the unions, reform is higher pay, even shorter hours, ever stronger protection for employees (unfortunately not a combination that appeals greatly to business).

I instinctively support unions when in legitimate dispute. Political strikes trouble me; a nominally socialist government is running out of time, both in the presidency and parliament. If the CGT and other unions dislike their policies and laws, there are elections coming up next year. I strongly suspect a lot of their members will be pleased with the support they're getting from the odious far right.

Unions and I also fall out when they and/or their members act as if under no civic obligation to obey laws against violence, criminal damage including arson and intimidation. And that's all before even mentioning the CGT's unforgivable attacks on an already enfeebled press.

Against that, Francois Hollande's government has handled the contentious "loi du travail" abysmally and is hugely responsible for the ensuing chaos. Here are some more thoughts on the subject* ...

Maybe ISIL/ISIS/Daech are not so technologically smart as they think

In a world where great reporters are regarded as dispensable - I take off my hat to confreres of the calibre of Richard Spencer, Phil Sherwell and Colin Freeman, among those fired by the Telegraph in almost the same breath that the management was promising to reward to talent - I am grateful still to be publishable with arguably more modest talents. This is a piece written between expeditions in search of petrol in strike-ridden France. It was the "splash", ie main front page story, in today's edition of The National* ...

Police in at least four European countries have been alerted to a backfiring ISIL propaganda stunt in which sympathisers based in the West were apparently urged to show their allegiance in social media posts.

The use of handwritten messages photographed against mostly European backdrops, intended to demonstrate the strength of support for ISIL in Europe and elsewhere, has enabled the discovery of the precise or likely locations in which these images were taken.

Paris, ISIL/ISIS/Daesh and the writers of Muslim origin denounced by the left

If you read French, get the book at https://www.amazon.co.uk/13-Zineb-El-Rhazoui/dp/B019O9QAXI/280-9574135-5482361?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&tag=salusund-21


I wrote this for The National*, Abu Dhabi. I would not wish to suggest that the left suddenly embraces some sinister characters who would suppress freedom of expression. I am broadly of the left and am well aware that censorious elements have always been there, from Stalin apologists onwards. But this issue, of current interest especially in France, struck me as worthy of a closer look ...

Zineb El Rhazoui is known as the most protected woman in France, under constant police surveillance to keep her from harm.

She is not a double agent, an underworld informer or a whistleblower whose information might bring down a rogue corporation. She is a writer, one of a small number in France of Muslim origin who have suffered abuse and even death threats because of the way they challenge extremism.

Sadiq Khan: who else would any sane Londoner have voted for?

One of my guilty pleasures is liking Boris. We always got on as colleagues, he greets me warmly on chance encounters and he writes - see his book on Churchill - like a dream. But now he's gone from the office of Mayor of London and I can revert to tribal loyalties. I am delighted at Sadiq Khan's election and, perhaps even more, at the Tories' defeat. Here's how I reported it for The National* ...

Sadiq Khan’s rise from the son of an immigrant bus driver to the first Muslim mayor of an EU capital has been accomplished with skill and commitment, but also the toughest of skins.