±«Óãtv

If, as you say, "Sarkozy is the next Gallic Thatcher", I am left wondering if there ever was a previous Gallic Thatcher....

Very much looking forward to Jeremy's slant of this rather historic day.

Blair, Clinton, Adams, McGuinness, Hume, Trimble are to be credited with today's achievment. It was a good day's work.

On Madeline, I cannot understand how parents should put 2 year old twins to sleep, with three year old maddie. Then they exited the apartment, walked along a public road and into another restaurant complex for dinner. No money to pay for a babysitter. Sheer madness and lunacy, In many other parts of the world, police would query the abandonment of three defenceless kids in an apartment block with no line of sight to them, A difficult case

Has anybody ever seen anyone share power?? Humanity always plays for positions...

We wonder what publication would be appropriate to read to get more experience of such riskily contentious socialisms as those that follow Northern Irish leadership...

Theosophically: Contemporary Satan could not bring anyone under his command for long

Theosophically: Contemporary god could not get people to be the way he liked

Militantly: They say only the army had power... the rest had trouble strife and jobs to do...

At any workplace only those who can play for positions to do the work get it...

So all we have to protest about is that mutineers assume privileges that ignore the duties of work or the expectations of office ... they inflict their will on us believing it is essential to do crime to maintain their self esteem above and against our knowing lawful popular companionable bossing perceptive supportive tolerant but monarchically over powering chaps ....

Sarkozy will have to persuade France to give up parts of its expensive social safety net it can't afford. In order to do that, he will probably have to propose cuts in such a way that everyone will feel the pain. At the same time he will have to create conditions which create jobs for the now unemployable, many of them foreign immigrants and their French citizen descendants. White French will not take kindly to making that kind of sacrifice, they showed that to de Villepin when he tried to make a modest change. I don't think Sarko will be able to do that, at least I don't rate his chances as very high. It will be hard for the French to admit that they have been living beyond their means all of these years let alone agree to give up benefits they consider their birthright. These are people ruled largely by emotion rather than logic. They'd sooner they all went down in flames than admit American economists were right all along. Anyway, it's probably already too late to salvage anything like the current situation for the long term. The best and brightest have fled the country and most are not likely to return, they have no outstanding industries which are best in class world beaters to sustain them, they have huge social problems. Reality is fast catching up with them, the time has come to pay the piper. In the long run, I think France will resemble a third world country. Perhaps Paris is destined to become the capital of Eurabia after all.

Hi,
love Jeremy and have great respect for him. However once again didn't show the Irish pm or much from Sinn Fein. I know there was only one side involved in the violence apparently.
Also I live in Ulster, though in the Republic of Ireland, ie Northern Ireland is six counties of Ulster.
There are 9 counties in Ulster altogether.
As I say normally love newsnight, but felt a bit let down this time,

There are three major things which have brought peace to Northern Ireland.
1. The Republic of Ireland in it's constitution claimed Northern Ireland as part of it's territory and harboured terrorists throughout the troubles as evidenced by the security measures which were concentrated on the border - The constitution was changed and terrorists were pursued within the Republic.
2. September the 11th - Terrorism, its support, and its romantic mythology became unacceptable in America and the western world.
3. The IRA has gradually stopped murdering the men, women and children of Ulster and other innocents who got in the way of their bloody machine. Over the past years their preparedness and state of readiness has been wound down.

May God save Ulster from any more bloodshed!

So the Northern Irish are demanding ever more subsidies, guess this will mean more cuts in public services for the English!

Alan Little's report was so typical of the nonsense the ±«Óãtv so often talks in relation to France. Sarkozy is the darling of the old and wrinkly. The young and middle aged voted for Royal. Whatever the wrinklies voted for it certainly was not change. So a completely incorrect analysis Mr Little. The voting demographics confirm it. I give "Tsarkozy" about two years before he brings France to a grinding halt. He will turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to the French left. Alan Little has quite obviously little (no pun intended) knowledge of how the French think and react. A hackneyed report, completely predictable, so typically ±«Óãtv!

Could someone please mention Mo Mowlam in the context of what has been achieved in Northern Ireland, pleae?

When did Mark #6 last live in France? Will the Sarko-Monarchiste-Bonapartiste that the French have elected have a legislative programme based on adherence to 49-3 or acceptance of any advice he receives when the composition of the French Parliament is known in June?

Will he force across the mandate of June 2007, like in the Parliament Act 1911 in the UK, a programme detested by his seasoned advisors? Why does Newsnight focus its coverage on who "won" the vote on 6 May? The result of the French Presidential Elections is still in contention. They were warned not to adopt the quinquennat in 2002. 5 years of potential co-habitation is worse than 2.

Cross your fingers that the PS gets its act together in good time. Appointing François Fillon as Prime Minister does not excuse the mistakes Sarkozy made in his explanation of the UK pensions system that he used as an example during his televised debate with Ségolène Royal.

Mark #6 mistakes the adherence of the French to decency for a weak economic performance. In fact the productivity of the French is already envied by Gordon Brown.

It's soon to talk about Sarko's future actions . Because from "Promise" to "Real Action" has along distance . Let's wait for his next steps .

Roland Baker #6, the last time I lived in France was from 1972 to 1974 and not in Paris. While France may have changed physically somewhat, one of my objectives was to get outside of my own head and into theirs, to experience day to day life from their perspective in order to understand them and not to make judgements while I was still there. The local mentality is the kind of thing which changes very slowly if at all. Towards the end, I kept reminding myself that although I lived more comfortably than about 90% of the French people and that I would soon forget the frustrations of living there, the one thing I would always to try to remember was that I was counting the days until I left for home for the last time. They have a way of making everything in life as complicated and hard to do as possible. It's enough to discourage even the most determined person. They are not entirely rational by my standards, it's hard to believe if you haven't experienced it first hand. If you have casual contact with it, you may find it amusing (until you have an emergency) but if you have to live with it, that's a different story entirely. I could tell you countless stories but here are a couple that are illustrative. Two Canadian friends rented a large room in a private house and had use of a downstaris kitchen, most of the rest of the family lived upstairs. To make their room more cheerful, with the consent of the owner they painted it. The owner immediately doubled their rent because he said they had a better room. Here's another. Work had to be done on a major traffic artery into the city. Digging in the middle of this wide avenue choking off traffic was done by hand with pick and shovel, not with a backhoe. The workers were there one shift a day and not on weekends. They tied up traffic around much of the city during rush hours for the duration. What could and should have taken a day or two took weeks. Nobody seemed to care and barely took notice because "that's how things were done, that's how things were always done."

It has taken the skill of the world's best economists nearly a century to figure out and learn to tweak the US economy and even so it's not always completely under control even if it seems that way from time to time. Figuring out how to realign the French economy to optomize it will take much more than one man with some vague notion that he'd like to copy America's methods. Every time someone or some group which thinks they know how to fix an economy such as the IMF, the World Bank, even think tanks, as they did in the developing world and in the conversion of command economies in the former Soviet bloc to market economies. The advice is often inappropriate for the conditions of that particular society, not fully followed, subject to political forces which tamper with it or alter it, and can cause unexpected and unacceptable social upheaval in the process of being implimented even if it ultimately works.

The French economy cannot subsist on the repatriation of overseas profits by large corporations alone. It's domestic economy must be more productive and it cannot afford the social consequences of high unemployment no matter how efficient it gets on paper. Its per capita GDP even taking into account overseas profits is only about two thirds that of the US. It is driving away business investment in its domestic economy, technical talent, and fostering a culture of mediocrity and complancency. In short it is selling off its future. Of course it has the most generous medical care system in the world, it spends half of everything it earns on it, why shouldn't it be. Yet the best cutting edge medical technology is still in the US.

Roland Baker, a weak economy is a weak economy, and even the French know it and fear that they might have to give up their make work government desk jobs and actually work to earn a living. If Gordon Brown admires the French economy, perhaps he should try to become PM there while France's best and brightest leave their garden of Eden for greener pastures including the UK.

based on the Northern Ireland anaolgy we won't have peace in the uk until the jihadists and the neocons power share?

Never, never, NEVER was paisleys usual mantra, well who would have thunk it; McGuiness and Paisley working in unity. Its a pity a 16th century Pope did not give the king of England his wish to divorce his queen.

religion eh, its got a lot to answer for..

Why can't we be just glad that the Northern Ireland problem appears to be settled, without harping on about the problems of the past, bad as they were.
As to the apparent wolf lying down with the lambs and the "history" of the new "leaders", I recall how we made peace with that "Terrorist" Priest Makarios in Cyprus and Eoka.
AS Churchill said "Jaw, Jaw is better than War War".
Yesterday was a good day and we should wish all the people of Ireland well and a peaceful and prosperous life, but now I am straying into politics and politicians who never seem to be doing what the electoate wants. As with all politicians they will soon start "falling out" but that is for the media and Newsnight to "stir-up" in the future. I enjoyed the day.

The new justice system: Well can anyone explain to me how we can have an effective justice system with no prison places? its a question from a base level i admit, but is not the ability to lock up criminals and ±«Óãtv TV licence evaiders, a primary sanction to ensure laws are obeyed? I would have thought that was key.

The opening report, with a rather candid interview from a chap who worked in a shop(computer repairs) that was frequented by individuals who had a jihadist bent, which were later discovered to be home grown terrorist involved in 7/7 attack, was interesting and revealing, not to me i might add, just hopefully to the 'head in the sand chattering classes and the left wing media. The ±«Óãtv and newsnight still insist on going down the route of critising the intellegence services; by all means report on our secret services shortcomings, but is there not a bigger question that could be asked on newsnight regarding home grown terrorism, i am still waiting to hear it...its a base level question.

MArk# 6&15

I am Franco-British. I was born after you left and brought up in both Britain and France (not in London or Paris, admittedly!).

The fact, that the French sometimes appear less rational than the British is not a reflection of the logic of a social system. It is no more rational to claim, that what is needed is more work, more consumption, less taxes and more patriotic fervour. Humans are social animals and in that sense, solidarity is a human trait.

France is far from being the perfect model. It's true, that France is one of (if not the) biggest consumers of anti-depressants. Perhaps this is because of the generous welfare system. This should not, however be a justification for doing away with solidarity.

Sarkozy wants to merge the culture and education ministeries. His justification for this, is to save money, and, no doubt, make government more efficient. He doesn't seem too worried about the cost of 'defence' (which includes, of course, selling arms at a loss to dictatorships such as Saudi Arabia).

Be wary of your own prejudice and be prepared to listen to others. That's the best advice I can give.

mister jeremy paxman has a book out but i caught the last
few seconds of that interview
and i would ask what is the title of his book. i thank you
all.
yours,
francois c viletta