I do think there’s a lot of closet and not so closet Le Pen supporters around us in the Var. Sort of nobody admits it but in conversations one can sense their right arm levitating in a Dr. Strangelove manner.
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I disagree, in the Var, a very high percentage of people vote Le Pen and they’re proud of it, quite unashamed to admit it. They see it as “people power”. Strange the bizarre similarities with the far left. It’s not just about racism and immigration, there are so many other things drawing people towards the far right in France. In fact many who vote far right are second or third generation immigrants themselves, mostly from Italy in S.E. France.
I must be chatting to milder more discreet people than you, or maybe they know I’d be a bit uncomfortable. 
Thing is, do they chicken out in the second round?
They certainly don’t chicken out in the second round. In fact many voted Zemmour in the first round and Le Pen second round
That sounds iike “champagne socialists” in the Var.
I wonder what wording is the equivalent in France? Something like “les communistes BCBG”, perhaps?
Champagne socialists exist for sure, but the people voting far right are mostly hard working working class people who feel disillusioned with Macron. They are rebellious people who feel that their lives are being controlled too much by the government and that the government is just doing what the lobbies and big business want. They tend to get their information from internet and not from mainstream media which they despise.
More then 330 000 excess deaths have been attributed to Tory austerity policies.
330 000
I will write it one more time for good measure
330 000
I don’t trust Starmer at all, this idea that he will somehow change once in power seems fanciful, how many politicians do? He repeatedly refused to back the nurses strike.
His position on Gaza is sickening. I heard yesterday that 40% of the Labour shadow cabinet receive donations linked to pro Israeli lobbies. So maybe it is no great surprise, especially after the anti-Semitism accusation was used so successfully to paint a life long anti-racism campaigner as an anti-Semite.
Currently there seems little difference between Starmer and a Tory of yesteryear. He wants to be that to win power. The current conservatives are fascists. There is no doubt in my mind. Dangerous and incredibly incompetent.
After the fiasco of the Conservative -LibDem coalition and the fact they are rampant free-marketeers I don’t think the LibDems are the answer.
So a most unappealing set of options in a first past the post situation.
My tendency is to vote Green.
And yet maybe I will be forced to vote Labour or Lib Dem if that is the only realistic chance of stopping the Tories killing of hundreds of thousands more people.
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I’m not so sure this doesn’t need a bit of a rethink.
I was listening yesterday to a radio program featuring Tim Baldwin, a writer who has written Sir Kier’s biography, so knows him well, on why the Labour leader is sticking to not calling on Israel for a ceasefire despite pressure from others in his party.
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the issue is about the form of words of an opinion by a party not in government about a conflict not involving Britain, in a statement that we know will be ignored by both Netanyahu and Hamas
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there is a sense of frustration for Sir Keir when the Labour Party has become in part the story while it has absolutely no purchase on the outcome whatsoever.
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Britain in recent years has lost much of its previously prominent position of global influence. President Biden is a progressive global power who does have influence and is pulling back on the issue.
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The leader of UK needs to show they are a stable partner of US. An incoming new Labour government will need to show it can be this even before it takes the reins of power.
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being a stable partner of US doesn’t mean trying to outflank the US president while waving a flag to prove we are more radical. It does mean letting the US president know that the UK will back it up. (Poodle maybe but this is now the reality.)
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eventually, hopefully soon, there will be a ceasefire and political settlement. Both Biden and the Labour Party are calling for a ‘cessation’.
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Posturing and trying to outflank Joe Biden isn’t grown up politics. Sir Keir wants to act on these issues as if he were in government, showing US he is going to be a stable partner.
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Sir Kier, a former acclaimed legal defender, may also be seriously considering the position of Britain in the world; whether a ceasefire now would actually be a good thing or just mean an endless repetition of violence. His Chatham House speech doesn’t say no ceasefire ever, just not one now. He has made a decision and stuck by it, a good sign of how he will govern.
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if, when faced with the first major foreign policy crisis, a leader were to blink, the opposition would smell blood. You can hear the Tory cry already: “A PM under pressure from a few Muslim MPs immediately caved!” “He can’t be trusted with Britain’s national security!”
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It’s been a really tough week for Sir Kier but he’s shown he has some backbone fronting up to his party’s rebellious insiders.
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the situation in Gaza is dynamic. Sir Kier recognises there needs to be a permanent solution and as he has said before, there cannot be black and white on this, “the colour of peace is always grey”.
In conclusion, is there anything to be gained by calling for a ceasefire, outflanking President Biden and posturing by taking a stand he knows has zero influence on the hostilities in order to please street protesters?
Foreign policy is tough. Governing is tough. Sir Kier is showing he is willing to take tough decisions on foreign policy, he will not blink when he comes under a bit of pressure from his back benchers. He is a human rights lawyer. He knows international law perhaps better than anyone else in the House. He opposed the Iraq war because he felt it breached international law. And, he has said several times Isreal needs to abide by international law.
What matters most now is getting aid into Gaza, working on a ‘pause’ or cessation or whatever words materialise into a halt in the bombing; standing beside a US president exerting the only pressure Isreal will actually hear, and not posturing or playing into a petty Westminster game.
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And anyone wnho criticises the Israeli government is antisemitic.
Starmer and Labour can’t have it both ways. They have been shouting very loudly that they are ‘a government in waiting’ and have demanded a GE but on issues that really matter (Israel and the public sector strikes for example) they stay silent.
This, in all countries now is rather worrying. As biased as some may think the mainstream publications, there is an alarming bias built into the algorithm of social media.
Many young people now find their news on Tik Tok and the like, but even Google has a feed that perpetuates more of the same of anything you view. If you read a couple of articles about monkeys flying planes, you will almost immediately be supplied with an endless supply of articles on monkeys flying. If you read one hate speech article, the system will send you more and more.
This is not an unbiased supplier of information.
Many of my grandfather’s employees. I think they feel disillusioned tout court. They are very poujadist and feel got at by life in general and have a huge chip on their shoulder about pretty much everything. They don’t feel recognised at their true value but short-changed with all that should be theirs going to women/students/foreigners/parisians etc and so a populist politician who plays into that is going to have a lot of success.
I agree that there are lots of French people in the SE who think the Le Pens are marvellous, including a lot of people who ought to know better but use that rhetoric to defend their own xenophobia and dislike for poor people of any colour. They were also mad keen on COVID conspiracy theories and big fans of that ghastly Raoult.
If I sum that up quickly in my head Susannah.
Tim Baldwin is obviously very biased.
Poor Keir may be a bit frustrated, poor pet, but 4K+ women and children are dead.
If Starmer’s vision for Brexited Britain is being the US poodle, well need I say more.
Blair tried not “outflanking” the US on Iraq, we all know how that panned out.
Biden and Labour can call for what the want, calling isn’t stopping the genocide. Action is required.
If “grown up” politics involves letting thousands of kids die I don’t think Starmer should be attempting to play “grown up” politics, and I wouldn’t’ dream of voting for anybody who did.
Foreign policy is tough, but Starmer isn’t. He’s the opposition for goodness sakes, not Sunak light. He should be challenging the Government not supporting its despicable position. As you mention Susannah the UK is not at war, there is no need for a Government of unity. There is zero risk to UK security, apart from terrorist reprisals for the UK’s position on genocide. His position is making the UK less safe, not more so.
The Gaza situation is dynamic, you can say that again. Having slaughtered people in the north, Israel is now about to slaughter the people they forced to the south. They are making hay while the western political cover lasts.
In conclusion 
I think Starmer’s a coward and has no moral compass. As Groucho once said, these are my principals and if you don’t like them, well I have others. What matters now for me is… number one, stop killing people, number two, get aid to people, three, sanction Israel and four, investigate the war crimes.
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All these are a given but the difficulty still lies in how to achieve. Isreal is listening to no one, indeed, larger pro-Palestinian protest marches are being seen in Isreal and by the Jewish diaspora as a growing and ever present threat. Publicly pouring more oil on the fire will not put it out. Extremism and rage is how this has come to pass. Isreal is locked in a cycle of fear and hate.
It is not that Palestinians should not have an immediate ceasefire, or be provided water, fuel, food and medical aid. It is how is this to be done while the IDF is in control. Trying to force them at this point will not work and words are just words.
Sometimes, in an unbalanced fight, you have to yield to overcome. Someone has to be able to speak to the occupying force to persuade them to yield. They will not listen to a declared enemy. I agree that every day the situation is dire in Gaza. Short of declaring war on Isreal i can only hope wiser heads are frantically working.
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I think one problem with Starmer is that he takes reasoned pragmatic positions on things but fails to explain why.
This has two problems, for the majority of the public who want a polarised all or nothing position it makes him look weak and indecisive.
For the few of the public who might comprehend that life is not black and white it leaves a frustration that it is not possible to see what his underlying position and motivations are, so it is impossible to work out which way his public position will flip when the direction of political pressure changes.
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I agree Billy, life is nuanced and not simple. I spent most of my career trying to square circles. Starmer may be taking a cerebral and logical approach to this and I’d normally laud that, but… there are no nuances in the killing of children IMO, this is a visceral matter. Furthermore, the complete lack of any independent evidence that anything other than wanton destruction has taken place so far doesn’t sit well with me. I truly believe this is ethnic cleansing, that’s not new but for the US and EU to stand by is. One rule for Ukrainians and another for Palastinians. How ffffing despicable is that 
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One day of a full transaction ban sanction on Israel’s banks and it’s all over Susannah. In fact the mere threat of same will have them running for the hills.
Plus a declaration that Israel and Israel alone must pay for the rebuilding of Gaza would soften their cough. The cost for bombing an apartment block shouldn’t stop at the price of the bomb.
Instead the doddering idiot Biden wants to send them more weapons to kill children with, as if they needed any more.
Ukrainian civilian bodies in the streets bad, Palestinian ones, ahhhh, not so much.
I’m truly distraught at this double standard.
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As I said before it is racism, not just racism obviously, but mainly.
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Absolutely perfectly describes 84 too.
The village is exceedingly friendly towards us but I do hear of some upsetting behaviours towards my beautiful Indian student brothers. I really have a hard time understanding this contradiction.