With all the
noise about the continuing crisis at Calais, there is one matter that should
concern all. The Calais Dover rail and
sea links are one of the crucial trade and communications junctions in both
European and World trade.
Yet the French
authorities, they cannot be called government, have failed to cope with a small number
of disorganised but determined individuals either each alone or in groups. They have been given literally the run around
by them. Their answer is to blame
anybody and everybody else.
This is the
standard response of the incompetent and foolish who have either made major
blunders or who lack the capability and intellect to deal with even relatively
simple problems. One possible reason is
that the French pay too much attention to intellectuals and too little to the
practical application of mind over matter.
To all intents
and purposes and looking over the full range of activity France has become a
failed state that cannot see its own failure or begin to understand why it has
happened. So its leaders puff and
posture and engage in the sorry dirty and corrupt politics that has been its
downfall.
To fully
examine this would take a big book covering many fields that might begin with
the time of King Louis XIV and take in three centuries of history. In journal or blog form it could run to one
of those very long items that you might just put off reading. So this is short and blunt.
There was a
time when France could claim to exercise leadership in both Europe and the
World in many respects and it was common for many in America, Britain and many
other places to see Paris as the place to go to inform the mind and see the
future. Now it is just another tourist
dump with low grade government and financial facilities located there as a
legacy of the past.
In 1789 the
French revolted against an entrenched monarchy and elite that was European in
scope and connections. The French saw
themselves as prisoners in their own country and serfs to rulers who were
unaccountable and held them in contempt.
In 2015 France
has allowed itself to be governed by an entrenched political and administrative
class and controlled by a European intellectual elite that is unaccountable and
dictates the rules and styles of life.
It is a
pensioner of the EU, its agriculture depends on vast subsidies, its industry on
state contracts and its investment on state spending fuelled by debt that is
out of control.
In many ranges
of human thought and activity at one time France was among the leaders of the
world in science, the arts, literature and other fields. This is no longer the case. There are still a number of able and notable
people but the French are now rarely leaders they are mostly followers and in
some cases are a long way behind.
It is not that
France is trapped in its longer past.
That is long since gone and is history.
It has allowed itself to be taken over by a creature of its own
creation, the EU. It assumed that
because of history and its central role it could always be the final authority
in the EU.
But then the
EU expanded and in doing so distributed power to others who looked elsewhere
for leadership. The Euro was introduced
and the Germans put the War behind them and took over the reins of power having
the money and political direction to do so.
By promoting
the expansion of the EU and the Euro and the rest of the control systems as
well France has fallen into the trap of its own making. Intended to curb other major states and
notably Britain, France is now subsidiary to others and paying the price.
It's internal
politics have long been corrupt and a severe hindrance to good government. If anything Europe has worsened this to the
point where it is so extensive and necessary for function that France's major
decisions depend on it.
So there is
employment protection that almost guarantees unemployment. A benefits system for the least
deserving. And administration that does
not administer and a legal system that protects crime and criminals. Then there is all the debt and to whom it is
owed.
It has long
been a joke about France that how can you govern a country with 400 Cheeses and
1000 variations of these, all distinctive and with strict rules of production.
But the EU now
rules that powdered milk can be used.