1st Round Regional Elections in France

Some places to go to for news about the first round of the Regional Elections in France which took place yesterday. The Second Round takes place next Sunday (June 27th)

Le Monde - national newspaper which has published all the results online on its website 

News pieces on the elections can be accessed by clicking on the name of the news outlet

Reuters

Politico Europe

The Guardian

BBC

France 24

Time for a Break?

A question which can apply at many levels.

Today Britain takes a break from the European Union. I hope it won't be a long one.

But the break I propose to address this evening (when I wrote this), is whether it is time to take a break from "the News". I have been a compulsive news consumer for as long as I can remember. Whether it was newspapers; radio & TV news from the 1970s onwards - through to the era of rolling news, and the explosion of access to news (and some that don't deserve being called that) sites. As of the 1st January this year I had subscriptions to The Guardian (UK), Le Monde (France), Washington Post (USA) and China Daily (China). I also took news via alerts on my iPhone & iPad from all of those and others - as well as being signed up for emails from Roll Call; The Hill; the House of Commons Library; and as a result of being the Labour Party Candidate for Buckingham during the recent General Election, I still receive all the news from the Labour Party Press Office including Overnight Media & Broadcast briefs on a daily basis. I have also been a frequent user of twitter.

Enough is surely enough?

I've been cutting down - I'm so disillusioned by the News and Current Affairs output of BBC TV & Radio, that I no longer listen. I'm running my subscriptions to newspapers down - and unsubscribing from alerts and emails - and rarely look at Twitter.

Is that going too far?

Whilst down in London recently (one of the British Museum visits) I popped into Foyles and purchased a book called "STOP READING THE NEWS" by Rolf Dobelli. It really is a good read - with some very sensible points. It is subtitled "A Manifesto for a Happier, Calmer and Wiser Life', I would thoroughly recommend it to you.



Its contents include
- How I gave up the News (did I mention it was a signed copy?)
- News is to the Mind What Sugar is to the Body
- Radical Abstinence
- The Thirty-Day Plan
- The Soft Option
- News is |rrelevant
- News gets Risk Assessment All Wrong
- News is a Waste of Time
- News Obscures the Big Picture
- News is Toxic to Your Body
- News Confirms Our Mistakes.....
...
- News Encourages Terrorism
- News Destroys Our Peace of Mind

Dobelli also deals with potential objections to his argument, including 'What About Democracy'

In my view he makes some very good points. Do read it yourself!

I've been reflecting on what he says, and how I feel about some of the news and certain news organisations (and last night went to see the excellent film, "Bombshell" (French Title - "Scandale") about Fox News - part of the truly awful Murdoch Empire) - and came to the following conclusions -

I will "stop reading the News" - that doesn't mean that I won't be keeping myself informed about what is going on in the world. But instead of "consuming news", I'll be harvesting information about issues that matter to me. (Spoiler alert - Education, The Environment, Transport, Health (particularly avoidable illnesses)

There are a number of sources - I will still use (for the time being) the Daily editions of Le Monde, China Daily & the Washington Post - but only look at the in-depth pieces about issues. I'll still dip into France 24, Euronews, CGTN & CNN for in depth stories - but will make more use of the House of Commons Library, and regularly visit the websites of the British Parliament, the French Parliament, US Congress, the National People's Congress of China - and the Executive websites for those countries.

I'll still be making notes on the issues - what they are, and how different countries or International bodies are seeking to tackle them.

I'd welcome any comments or suggestions - you can post them here - or send to MorganBuckinghamLabour@mail.com (I might as well recycle the email account I used during the election - but just for Washminster responses.

Thankyou.

My Personal News Sources

I use a number of news websites (or subscriptions) to keep up to date with the news. These are my personal favourites.


Le Monde - France (Newspaper, French)
France 24 - France (24 hr news, available in a number of languages)
RFI - France (Radio, French - website in 16 languages)
Washington Post - USA (Newspaper, English)
The Guardian - UK (Newspaper, English)
Politico (European)
China Daily- China (Newspaper, English)
CGTN - China (News Channel, English, French, Chinese, Russian & Spanish)

For coverage of US Politics

RollCall
The Hill
Politico

















Sadly, I've not been able to include the BBC. I still have a great affection for the Corporation - but in recent years it has succumbed to political pressure - the Government sets the Licence Fee, and Conservatives have used that power to intimidate the BBC - and as a result the BBC has lost his reputation for fairness and balance. In the Last General Election it was little more than a mouthpiece for the (ruling) Conservative Party - and I was distressed by the way it decided to run some stories and ignore others (which were widely reported elsewhere). The BBC still produces some great non-News programmes (and one should never forget the value of BBC local radio) - but again it is not as good as it used to be. I find now that I watch more BBC produced programmes on PBS America - than I do current output.

Why is Emmanuel Macron having such success?

Le Monde has published this short video (in French) which may be of great interest if you are following the French Presidential Elections. To date - Marine Le Pen and François Fillon are facing investigations. The Parti socialiste has chosen Benoît Hamon - and some PS deputés are threatening to quit the party.

Macron is doing well in the polls  - this video suggests some reasons



1 He has positioned himself outside the main political parties parties (as, if not more, unpopular than the parties in other countries) - and established his own movement 'En marche!

2 He has successfully distanced himself from the unpopular legacy of François Hollande

3 He is running an American-style campaign

4 He has developed his international credibility

5 He has not yet revealed too much detail about his policies - so hasn't suffered the detailed criticism that would follow closer analysis.

Le Monde

Some years ago I studied French Law - and in the first lecture at the Universite de Poitiers, we were told by the lecturer that we needed to read, on a regular basis, 'Le Monde' - the newspaper published in Paris on each afternoon (except Sundays) - though it's masthead date is the following day.

It has been published since 19 December 1944.

It's website is http://www.lemonde.fr/. I enjoy a subscription which allows me to read each edition, but so much more. A short video is available at



Découvrez la nouvelle Editions abonnés by lemondefr

The coverage of French politics is excellent - and a supplement is produced after national elections (which I have been collecting for years in the print version). I like the ability to download the paper to read when I don't have internet access. Online there are lots of videos - and a new application - "Journal Tactile enrichi" has been launched for iPads. (which I quite like!)

Extreme Conservatism?

In Britain, so it is said (I have my doubts whether things really were less partisan), we had a period of "Butskellism" - a term coined to cover the political consensus of the 1950s. Butler was the Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer (1951-55), who succeeded Gaitskell (who went on to lead the Labour Party).

In the US, there was once a time when Members of Congress worked across the party divide.

But today extreme language is used - and bipartisanship is a long forgotten tradition. What's gone wrong?

Well - as I wrote in my first sentence, there may be a bit of 'rose-tinted glasses' at work here. Elections and policy battles have always been hard fought. Many of this generation's predecessors could be extremely acid tongued [Winston Churchill for example].

But partisanship certainly has increased. I thoroughly recommend Sean M Theriault's "Party Polarization in Congress" and Mann & Ornstein's "It's Even Worse Than It Looks"  for descriptions and explanations.




(These link to the 'Kindle' versions - but you can also get them as paperbacks or Hardbacks).

Can I suggest my own thesis - and please come back to me with your comments via comments@washminster.com - and that is that in the US, UK and France one of the key (but not the only) factor is the resurgence of what can be described as 'Extreme Conservatism'. This isn't the 'One Nation' Conservatism associated with Harold Macmillan and the Tories who supported the post World War Two consensus - who saw a positive role for the State and didn't seek to aggressively redistribute wealth from the many to the few. It isn't the conservatism associated with the Republican Party under Martin, Halleck, Ford, Rhodes, Michel and President Eisenhower.

This is a conservatism that is fundamentally in favour of a minimal state - still around to fight external and internal enemies - but not providing for the needs of citizens. (Private companies can do that - with their own profit as the primary motivation); a State which doesn't 'interfere' by regulation - except as a temporary response to yet another scandal (be it in banking; in food manufacturer; or after a 'disaster').These extreme-Conservatives treat their political opponents as 'illegitimate' (see the false claims about Obama; the language being used by UMP politicians in the debate in France over 'mariage pour tous' [See Le Monde 31 March 'L'electorat de droite se radicalise' p1, 2-3, 16 - "a rhetoric of de-legitimation of the President Francois Hollande")] - and will refuse to work with their elected opponents [see the activities of many Republicans in Congress].

"Conservatism" is a phrase which suggests the good old ways of the past; 'traditional' even reactionary - but this extreme-Conservatism is radical - it seeks to tear down not uphold.

But it isn't new!

Richard Hofstadter described previous versions in the aftermath of Joe McCarthy and as Goldwater led the Republicans to defeat at the 1964 Presidential Election. His book (The Paranoid Style in American Politics) is a classic - and I've been re-reading it whilst away in Southampton; Sheffield and Suffolk. In its final version it may be 48 years old - but it describes what we would so easily recognise today.

My Favourite Newspapers

We all have our favourites - mine are the Guardian (UK); the Washington Post (US) and Le Monde (France). It's interesting to compare stories - and news priorities across these papers! It is amazing how easy it is today to follow news in other countries. I remember when things were very different - when satellite broadcasts were rare and short. Now thanks to the internet we can get the latest news as it happens and often unfiltered by a broadcaster. (Yes - I can - and do - watch the US Congress; UK Parliament; European Parliament and Assemblee nationale on my computer.)

I do regret that there is less coverage of what is actually said in Parliament/Congress/EP & An. As a youngster I used to enjoy reading the Parliamentary reports - now we have sketchwriters (I love Simon Hoggart's pieces) and journalists explanations - but you can't beat the raw material!

What do you think? Is it time for the papers to revive the parliamentary page?

French Legislative Elections

Francois Hollande won the Presidential Election - but will he enjoy a co-operative Assemblee nationale? Some people have spoken of the possibility of a "Vague rose" (in French that means 'pink wave' - referring to the the success of the Left - a delayed 'coattails effect')

The Opinion Polls are not hopeful - Le Monde reported yesterday:-

"The balance of power favors the Left, but we are not moving towards a tidal wave of (soft) red to the Assemblee nationale. This is the main lesson from the first survey of voting intentions on the parliamentary elections by Ipsos-Logica Business Consulting for Le Monde, France Television and Radio France.


In this study, (carried out on 25 and May 26 from a representative sample of the French population of 962 people), the UMP {the party that backed Sarkozy} and its allies (New Centre, Valoisien Radical Party, various right of centre parties) are credited with 35% of the vote in the first round, before the Parti Socialiste {Hollande's Party} and its allies (Radical Left Party, Republican and Citizens Movement, various left), who obtain 31%. The Front National {Le Pen} (15%), is behind them, ahead of the Left Front (8%), Europe Ecology-Greens (6%) and the extreme left (1.5%)."

While these figures give more support to the parties of the right - the expectation is that in the second round - when only the two leading candidates are on the ballot - because the Right is divided (The Front national will not pick up some of the votes given by centre-right voters) - Hollande should get a majority - but it may be a small one.

Historic win for the Left?

Elections for the French Senat take place on September 25th. Le Monde suggests that there is a real possibility the Senat may, for the first time under the 5th Republic, fall to the parties of the Left.

In an article in the Le Monde of 26th August, Patrick Roger writes that the Left needs 22 gains to become the majority - and estimations by Le Monde currently suggest a gain of 20 seats. Too close to call!!!

170 seats (out of 348) are being contested. There is an electoral college made up up members of the Assemblee nationale; Regional and Departmental Councils and delegates from municipal councils. The system has been frequently criticised for having an inbuilt over-representation of rural areas giving an advantage to right wing parties. Roger points out the difficulties in predicting the results, but - for the first time, as a result of recent successes in local elections - the Left can see the possibility of an historic win.