Maybe we should actually look up to the French!

October 29th, 2007 Written by Biz

Recent events have caused me to reflect upon some long held and cherished beliefs…and I have been shocked to find that after all these years, I have probably been very ignorant and very badly mistaken!

The two events that have caused such a fundamental shift in my thinking, are the recent public transport strikes in France and Gordon Brown’s agreement to the thinly veiled ‘EU Constitution’.

The French public transport strikes initially caused me to rail against ‘those poncy, whinging, cheese and snail eating French frogs’; but whilst pausing for a moment to catch my breath in order to continue my tirade of abuse, I stopped and for the first time asked myself why I REALLY disliked the French.

Imagine my amazement when I found that I didn’t know! Ok…there must have been a reason…let’s see;

• They eat Garlic…yes, but most of us do these days.
• They eat smelly cheese…most of us like all manner of cheeses too.
• I’ve got it…they eat snails! Granted, but how many of us haven’t rounded off a great day at the seaside, with some ‘cockles & mussels’…in other words snails (of sorts).
• They eat frogs legs…true, but we eat jellied eels and fried Mars Bars!

No…I just couldn’t figure it out…but hang on…back in the recesses of the past, I identified the source of my Franco phobia…the media and stupid unquestioning people (including myself)!

Newspapers (and I use the term in the very loosest sense) like The SUN, had been telling us for years what no good people the French were and most of us unquestioningly just ‘parroted’ their opinion. A vast majority of us, expressing such opinion though, have either never even been to France, never met a Frenchman, or if we have, how many have gone to his country not knowing even some basic French and have expected a positive interaction. This realisation was a definite ‘wake up call’ for me, I can tell you!

Two valid points of the anti-French camp though, are that their government is always trying to grab power and a greater share of EU subsidies for France…they are always vetoing anything they don’t like and that the French strike and blockade ports and roads if they don’t agree with some government policy…and undeniably, this is true.

But you know what? Good on them!!

The French Government has one and only one aim…to do its best for French interests. That’s what our Government should be doing for us…instead of that, the ineffectual, self-serving whimps that represent us, concentrate on maintaining their positions, their exorbitant salaries and their ridiculously generous benefits. We can’t blame the French for having a Government that works for its people…more fool us for NOT having the same…and for putting up with it!

And therein lies my last point. We slate the French for blockading and striking but this shows the difference in relationship between the French people and their Government and between ourselves and our Government. If the French government does something that the people just won’t put up with…they take action…and every Government so far, has caved in. Contrast that with our behaviour. Our Government constantly puts up tax’s, messes with our bin collections, constantly brings in more nanny state diktats…and what do we do? We whinge a bit and just take it.
The bottom line is this:

If the French Government step over the line, the French people tell them to stick it up their A*se.

If our Government step over the line with us, we just bend over and take it up the A*se.

Maybe we should actually look up to the French instead of disliking them!

Entry Filed under: Rants & Views