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frankly_francophone

Listed below are comments made by frankly_francophone between Friday, 28th August 2009 and Monday, 26th October 2009.

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The word on the street 09:31am on 26 Oct 2009 #681 JRMacClure

What explains the apparent nuttiness is the fact that Gallagher is sponsored by the so-called National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, DC, which is widely considered to be a front organization for the CIA, which is an assertion which itself may seem nutty to some, but check it out, starting far down in the right-hand column at my site:

http://frankly.yolasite.com/

At the very least, Gallagher may be viewed as a political propagandist exploiting academic credentials which may lead some to assume that he is to be taken seriously.
The plebiscite to end all plebiscites 10:51am on 13 Oct 2009 When will Gordon Brown's fall from grace come to an end? This is the question that media commentators are asking in mainland Europe. As you don't need me to tell you (unless, apparently, you are BBC Scotland), the Labour UK PM himself is now at the centre of the Westminster expenses scandal, which is once again on the front pages of what pass for newspapers in Blighty: 12,500 of your English pounds to be paid back! Tut, tut.

The President of the United States gets the Nobel Prize for Peace. The first minister of Blighty gets a huge bill for hugely overclaimed expenses.
The plebiscite to end all plebiscites 01:31am on 13 Oct 2009 #684

All I did was recommend a book: Michael Keating's newly-published The Independence of Scotland: Self-Government and the Shifting Politics of Union.

As I appear not to be permitted to say anything about it here, I can only redirect you as usual to

http://frankly.yolasite.com/

Nighty night.
Paper trail 1:08pm on 30 Sep 2009 As John Law of Lauriston, the Scot who was effectively the first minister of France in 1719, was leaving his residence in the Place Vendome one day, taking care to avoid as far as possible the tedious crowds of aristocratic and bourgeois would-be investors in his various over-subscribed financial schemes that had transformed the economy of the country, an elderly lady succeeded in accosting him.

Stunned at her success in confronting the most influential man in the kingdom, apart from the Regent himself, she struggled to find the right words to express her desire to be granted a concession. Unfortunately, what the first minister heard himself being asked was that the old lady be granted a conception, to which Law replied, inevitably, "I am afraid you have left it a bit late, my dear", as indeed she had.

Whatever it was that the Scottish first minister of England was trying to say to the Great British public yesterday on the subject of what he imagined that a heavily-indebted state could do by way of providing improved and extended public services in the hope of being granted the concession of a further term in office, I think we can take it that he realizes that it is too late for Labour. Behind the Lib Dems in UK opinion polls and abandoned by The Sun in England, he must know that he is done for. Whereas Law's bubble had yet to burst, the Brown bubble has exploded, I venture to suggest, leaving him and his party with no credibility.

Henceforward, therefore, The Sun in England will grant him no concessions, it seems, and will presumably set about assassinating what remains of his vaunted Scottish presbyterian character from now until election day. This will, no doubt, translate into an unsophisticated anti-Scottish rant, of a type with which we are familiar, throughout the length and breadth of England. It is, therefore, unsurprising that that newspaper will be adopting a different approach so far as its Scottish readership is concerned, its inconsistency losing it, one may conjecture, whatever credibility it may have had itself in Scotland.
'Knives out' for SNP budget 10:52pm on 18 Sep 2009 #154 mrbfaethedee

Some indication of Jorion's ideas can be found in The Crisis of Anglo-American Capitalism at

http://frankly.yolasite.com/

This item consists of an authorized translation of the accompanying video.

What I can do for you additionally is to give you a link to Dr Jorion's English-language blog, which, although worth consulting to see where he is coming from, is not kept up-to-date in the way in which his French-language one is. The reason for that, as he has explained, is that, whereas the French-speaking world has responded with enthusiasm to his radical ideas, it is a different story in the English-speaking one.

Essentially Jorion regards the current crisis not so much as an economic one as a crisis of civilization, in the course of which capitalism as we know it is dying, as it has become unsustainable. He advises the creation of a global economic constitution, arguing that global economic anarchy can now no more be tolerated than political anarchy.

Jorion, who is an anthropologist as well as an economist, has published in English, in which he is extremely fluent. See

http://www.pauljorion.com/

His English-language blog is at

http://www.pauljorion.com/blog_en/

If you post a comment there, he might respond to it himself when he can find time.

Nouriel Roubini (Dr Doom) operates in English from New York. He is more circumspect, but his blog is definitely worth consulting:

http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini/

He also broadcasts frequently, as indeed does Paul Jorion in France.

As for Attali, he has a Franch-language blog that provides translations of his posts. The link to this is in my site's blogroll.
'Knives out' for SNP budget 1:30pm on 18 Sep 2009 #146 mrbfaethedee

"Thinkers needed."

Look no further than

http://frankly.yolasite.com/

where there are introductions and links to the latest expert analyses, diagnoses and prognoses of Drs Jorion, Attali and Roubini. A new edition of Paul Jorion's prescient opus The Crisis of American Capitalism is published by Fayard on October 15th.

As you may know, both Jorion and Attali have well developed ideas on the subject of a global economic order to replace the present global economic anarchy from which we are suffering. There is no shortage of thinking or thinkers. What is lacking is political will to impose the needed remedies in a globally concerted manner.
'Knives out' for SNP budget 12:07pm on 18 Sep 2009 The failure of the Labour UK government to build up the public finances in the good times means that the crisis of Anglo-American capitalism has caused it to take measures to prevent an economic depression which have involved spending money that it did not have in order to save financial institutions and stimulate the economy.

In other words, it is dangerously deeply in debt now. Right up to its neck in doo-doo, not to put too fine a point on it. This is a position which is unsustainable, as you don't need me to tell you if you have ever been up to your neck in doo-doo. Public debt needs to be reduced, and the process of reducing it cannot be put off for long, unfortunately for the Labour Party, which was evidently hoping to put it off until after the UK general election.

Unfortunately, tax revenue, due to rising unemployment and other factors, is going down just at the time when it would have needed to go up to keep government expenditure cuts to a minimum. Taxes cannot be raised to make up the difference, because the UK economy is in far too fragile a condition to tolerate this without further damage to it which would make the exercise rather questionable. Therefore, there will have to be very substantial cuts in UK government expenditure, starting very soon, and the budget allocated to the Scottish Government cannot be expected to be exempted from this process, naturally, as Joe Blogs in Sidcup would have a seizure.

Brian Taylor is right:

"In the longer - but only slightly longer - term, politicians of all parties will face the necessity to process much more substantial cuts in public expenditure as the bills for the banking crisis come in.

When that happens, today's sound and fury will seem like a tame dress rehearsal."

The reality of the economic upheaval which the UK is undergoing is about to grip you by the throat and translate itself into a political upheaval. Which party is more likely to benefit from all of this in Scotland? The one that is reducing the Scottish budget or the one that is merely administering it?

Clearly, Scottish Labour has every interest in confusing the electorate on the subject of where ultimate responsibility lies for cuts affecting what remains of its heartland, but it cannot seriously expect to conceal the fact that, under the present constitutional arrangements, the size of the Scottish budget is set in London. That budget is being reduced by the Labour Party and is soon going to be reduced very substantially, necessitating in due course further difficult prioritizing in Edinburgh.

Time to face facts: government spending in the UK must go down alarmingly. The pips will squeak, and the pipsqueaks in Scottish Labour will squawk. Then will come the UK and Scottish general elections, and all hell will break loose. Have a nice day.
Different perspectives 03:07am on 02 Sep 2009 Mr Taylor, will you ask Iain Gray if he unequivocally agrees with Gordon Brown that it would have been wrong for al-Megrahi to die in jail? I have re-posted this question because I cannot but agree that a journalist should be eager to ask it, just as eager, probably, as Gray will be reluctant to answer it.

A further point: Mr Taylor, will you ask Jack McConnell if he unequivocally agrees with Gordon Brown that it would have been wrong for al-Megrahi to die in jail? Jack will not welcome this question either, of course, as he is a good lad not given to biting the hand that feeds him, the Labour Party having been very generous to him since he left the SNP.

For more on lesser-known aspects of the third First Minister's career turn to

http://frankly.yolasite.com/index/crossed-wires
Rumblings of discontent 10:32pm on 28 Aug 2009 #60 kipcarter

You and your wife may find that the French - and indeed the European Union as a whole, for both principled and pragmatic reasons - are not hostile to the decision which the Scottish Government has taken in this case.

An indication of this can be found in the penultimate paragraph of 'A Declaration of Independence' at

http://frankly.yolasite.com/index/a-declaration-of-independence
Rumblings of discontent 10:17pm on 28 Aug 2009 On the subject of other opinion polls conducted since the announcement of the decision to release Mr al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds to allow him to die at home, I came across one the other day which appears to give a somewhat different indication of Scottish opinion on this matter.

Information on the poll and the results produced by it are given in 'SNP Support Holds Firm' at

http://frankly.yolasite.com/

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