Comments on: No special favours

By: Payday Loans

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By: Darren

Darren — Fri, 24 Dec 2004 11:46:30 +0000

The supposed kidnap and subsequent release of the two journalists was a massive success for Chirac. Remember that they were kidnapped by ‘some unknown group’ (read: not controlled by the CIA) approximately two days before a law was to come into force in France that forbade people from expressing religious conviction in the manner in which they dressed etc. Mass demonstrations and social disorder were planned to fight this attack on individual freedoms which dissipated when news of the kidnap was released. The law came into force without incident and the freed journalists are saying that they played upon their nationality in order to be spared death. Perhaps they should consider themselves fortunate that France wasn’t trying to prosecute an illegal war in the region which may have entailed committing war crimes; otherwise, in order to stave off any demonstrations at home: they would have been beheaded.

By: maria

maria — Thu, 23 Dec 2004 21:02:43 +0000

No worries Nic – in retrospect my initial post was assuming everyone’s still as steamed about the heatwave response as I am… Should have included a link to make it clear.

By: nic

nic — Thu, 23 Dec 2004 16:03:25 +0000

Er, paternity is not determined by marriage…

By: Nick Kiddle

Nick Kiddle — Thu, 23 Dec 2004 15:43:37 +0000

backword dave: unless my information is out of date, the child in question is not Blunkett’s son legally, because the mother is married to someone else.

By: nic

nic — Thu, 23 Dec 2004 12:15:26 +0000

Maria, sorry, you’re right, I hadn’t really got the kind of contrast you were pointing out with that heat wave situation. I see what you mean now.

By: Maria

Maria — Thu, 23 Dec 2004 11:26:04 +0000

It’s irritating because Chirac didn’t consider it important enough to cut short his holiday when thousands of elderly French people were dying, due at least in part to government policy failures. This went on for about 10 days amidst statements from the French dept of healt that all was well – Chirac getting off his fat one would have done a lot to galvanise people and save lives. Maybe you had to be there… OTOH, in this instance, when the work is already done and all he will achieve is a nice picture in the papers and a warm glowing feeling, off Chirac flies on the government jet on a couple of hours’ notice. Don’t you find this contrast striking? It reminds me of the time an Irish football team came home covered in glory, and the prime minister of the day hopped up on the stage in Dublin city centre, hoping to leech some of the success. He was booed off. And rightly so. (anyone remember who it was…?)

By: nic

nic — Thu, 23 Dec 2004 09:59:50 +0000

I don’t get it. Why should it be irritating? There obviously had to be someone from the government to greet them. The same happened when they released the Italian hostages (on both occasions, the men, and then the two women). Chirac is the President, what’s so hypocrite about him being there when they arrived? It would have been weird if he hadn’t.

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 23 Dec 2004 03:16:11 +0000

For rather deeper assessments of Blunkett in the press, try: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/20/labour_spins_blunkett/ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1059-1406198,00.html

By: Backword Dave

Backword Dave — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 23:29:42 +0000

Since the visa in question for the nanny of Mr Blunkett’s son (‘alleged’ son to Mrs Quinn, perhaps, but two DNA tests are very unlikely to both be wrong and point to the same person), the point isn’t about “someone he knew” but about “someone he should have been paying to care for his child.” There’s also the hint that he does favours for “friends”—fast tracking for a family member is understandable; that a minister can be bought (or influenced—which is much the same) by who he dines with is unacceptable.

By: Aidan Kehoe

Aidan Kehoe — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 22:14:29 +0000

Wonder how different British politics would be if constituency work mattered?

By: P O'Neill

P O'Neill — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 22:11:23 +0000

Chirac must be thanking God that he wasn’t on one of his customary important visits to Reunion around key holidays, so that the trip home to greet the hostages was so easy to pull off.

By: Ded Fisch

Ded Fisch — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 20:39:29 +0000

I’d just like to point out that Maria’s post means that CT’s gender balance for today is exactly 50:50. I hope no dead white males will be so inconsiderate as to upset this. I’d say more, but I have a pile of ironing to get through ….