Monday 14 November 2011

JE SUIS DE RETOUR (OR TO PUT IT ANOTHER WAY, I'M BACK)

I had a great break in Paris. It was warm, it was sunny, the people were polite, the streets clean (apart from round Gare du Nord and Gare de l'Est), there were virtually no fat people and no incredibly thin ones, there were no drunks, no one was wearing "What Every Gadgy Wants" chic and the food was out of this world.


For just €30 I could buy a travel ticket which entitled me to use the Métro, Buses, RER, Trams (yes, they are splendid) and the funicular up to Sacre Cœur. What more could you want?


Oh yes, the concert.... well, it was all you would expect from Pet Clark...perfection. The French are more boisterous in their approval (or disapproval) of an artiste. (I think they are a bit like a good old fashioned Glasgow audience: if they like you, they like you a lot; if they don't like you.....God help you.) We were all along the front row, Jerseymen, English, Scots, Canadians, Norwegians, Germans, Australians, French, Belgians, and although I had, by this time a serious dose of la grippe, or flu, I was up dancing and shouting with the rest. 


It's always good to get home to Scotland, no matter how good the holiday, but the journey this time involved a hold up of around an hour in England because some poor sod had jumped in front of a train. Life in Yorkshire had presumably become too much for them. So we had to wait, and then, because we were a diesel train and could go round the 'accident' area, we were obliged to pick up, on our already "standing room only" train, the passengers of two other expresses, so that we became dangerously overloaded.


I couldn't wait to get to Edinburgh... to let the train disgorge what seemed like several hundred thousand people... and to get to a toilet, which had hitherto been impossible. If there is an alternative, my advice would be never travel by East Coast Trains. This is the line owned and run by the English Department of Transport. 'Nuff said.


Anyway, the journey was probably the only bad part of the whole break...


And so I got back to read figures on unemployment which, without wishing to seem to be a smart ass, the only thing I can say about is...I told them so. The idea that the private sector would take up the slack of the public sector as the country headed for a double dip recession was just risible. When is Gideon going to come up with a real plan for the economy?


He is, of course far too busy continuing his long time assault on the SNP and the independence referendum. He seems as idiotically blind to the futility of this campaign as he is to the stupidity of the Plan A nonsense he came up with to return the country to boom.


The Eton, Westminster, Winchester, Cambridge, Oxford, Bullingdon millionaires lecturing Scots on how poor, wee and stupid we are, and how we need England's munificence to keep us upright is music to my ears and I hereby invite the entire cabinet to lecture us non-stop on the subject in their plummy tones for the next 3 years. 


They should really realise that its all counter-productive. But no. They think that their words will stir the true Brit that they imagine to be at the heart of all of us. They might as well be Vietnamese, they are so foreign to the average Scot. Still I wish them a hearty cheer. They are wasting their time, but as least while they are doing that they are keeping away from other dangerous business.


I read in French papers about Cameron ranting about lack of patriotism and respect for soldiers in Remembrance Week. I'll bet he was not best pleased to find that there had been a leak that the government was reducing the subsidy for a couple of military charities, and that they would now be making more forces personnel redundant than they had  previously announced. Denied of course, by Pip Ham-mond... but then, who would believe anything he says?


So, all in all, am I glad to be back? 


No.


*****


Craig Murray has asked us all to make sure that this article gets the biggest amount of publicity possible. He apparently sent it to the Main Stream Media for which he regularly writes, and which has never rejected his work before. Despite checking its veracity, they have, to a man (if that's the word), refused to publish it. 


It makes grim reading. Fox and Werrity were up to more dangerous business than enough. War is almost certainly planned by the MoD and no one will answer questions about Werritty's and Gould's part in it. Even to MPs in the House.


Makes you wonder where the pay off is.

22 comments:

  1. Welcome back Tris. Beautiful picture of Pet onstage!

    Isn't the best part of being British the fact that you live close to Paris?

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  2. Welcome back Tris.
    You survived the frogs legs, snails, Sarkozy, EUSSR and Petula Clark ( I thought she had long since departed this earth).

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  3. Thanks Danny... LOL It's the only thing about being british that makes life bearable...

    Of course I can't tell you the number of times in Paris that I had to say " No, pas anglais, écossais.

    It seems that they can't tell the difference between French spoken with a Scottish accent, and with an English accent. Although one bloke thought I was Swiss!

    But once they find you're Scottish, they love you, and you get really good treatment. I had a great time with a lovely couple who, once they found out about my Scottishness, couldn't stop talking about the rugby (about which the French are passionate).

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  4. Welcome back you slacker.

    Now all we need to get is a new post from the hairy Hootsmon Ed in chief

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  5. Thanks Monty...

    You have to go to quite posh restos to get "cuisses de grenouilles" and that's a bit beyond me. (It's also a devil's job of a word to pronounce for foreigners).

    So I didn't have that, but I did have snails in a resto in Montmartre. They are quite good for anyone on a diet, because they use up all your cash and you use up a considerable amount of energy to get them out of the shell, and they are, of course, absolutely tiny.

    As for Sarko... well, fortunately when I was in Paris, he was in Cannes or somewhere in the south playing at the being le grand fromage with all the world leaders there. He's so like Cameron, only smaller.

    And probably cleverer. (I only say that because it's hard to imagine anyone stupider.)

    The EU doesn't impinge on French life like it does here. They go on much as they have always gone on. I dunno why the Brits blame all the Health and Safety and sundry other inconveniences of life on Brussels. None of it seems to affect the French.

    As for la belle Petula, she is getting on a bit. In fact, today is her 79th birthday, but she can still lay down a good tune and rock with the best of them...

    So no, she's still with us and I'm told by fans that next year she will celebrate 70 years in showbiz... Not bad.

    Apparently she's just recorded with Irish band, the Saw Doctors, and they hope for a chart success in Ireland... Not bad at 79!

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  6. Slacker... me?

    I'll have you know that my trip to France was an information gathering exercise, and that my expenses will be deductible.

    ... but thanks for the welcome.

    Has the Hootsperson got a new Ed in Chief, and is he or she hairy... Oh the news one misses when one is on foreign duty..

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  7. Conan is slacking it too. I winder if he is off somewhere to an Iron Maiden gig?

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  8. Ah Conan, the hairyman... Yeah, he's much cooler than me. (Maybe he's gone to see New Direction!)

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  9. Funny, there was a lot of hairy guys in TLS over the week-end, sipping there café-lattes on the pavement cafes. They all spoke English with a distinct type of accent and wore pink shorts. They were nearly all hairy too, just like Conan.

    I thought it was a special convention of the Beverly Sisters appreciation Society.

    Turns out they were rugger buggers from Gloucester.

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  10. It’s always good to get back to a country that is competently administered and not one that is set on implementing the crazy agenda of a bunch of half-wit loonies. In this instance I think that both France and England are being run according to a political agenda that for the motley crew that are in charge of both nations is far more important to them than actually being a competent administration. Whereas, in Scotland the SNP are more interested in being a safe and competent pair of hands and getting on with running the country rather than implementing their own grand schemes, and that is hugely to their credit and much more so now that they can do whatever they like thanks to their historic majority. If that were not the case then the referendum would now be at the top of the agenda and not some time down the line. And this restraint is incredibly something that the Unionistas criticise the SNP for!!

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  11. The fact that the MSM won't publish Mr Murray's piece or ridicule him for making mischief only adds to it's apparent veracity?
    It's remarkable how quickly Mr Fox and Co. have vanished from public view. Global Research recently published an article http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27510
    with background details of the next likely war scenario with the clear consent and involvement of the UK.

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  12. Hmmmm

    Geez... you want to try to miss out on the Beverley Sisters Appreciation Society weekends. A bit strenuous for the over 16s. Is Conan a big fan?

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  13. Lordy Munguin, do you want to start a war?

    The English and the French would rather blow themselves up than be thought similar.

    And Sarko and Camo hate each other...

    Scotland, on the other hand is traditionally a great friend of France.

    But yeah, the more I see of things that are happening in England, the more I have fear for them.

    And I can imagine then all pouring over the border to access all our services which they no longer have.

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  14. Tris if you were on East Coast Trains you will have enjoyed the hospitality of Justine Greening MP for Putney and Secretary of State for Transport. They have apparently invented a new beverage which I hope you tried. You have possible heard of: Omelette Arnold Bennett; Raspberry Pavlova; Eggs Benedict; Beef Wellington and Waldorf Salad? Well now we have a whole new culinary experience which I am going to dub Coffee-al-la-English Government.

    This new beverage is very cheap to make and stretches one ordinary jar of coffee out to give a cup for all the passengers seated in cattle class. Simply sprinkle a few grains of coffee into a large paper cup of hot water and charge £1.70 for it! The resulting brew takes taste to whole new lows of insipidness and tastelessness with a dirty water colour not experienced before for lovers of coffee, but with the satisfaction of feeling that you have been swindled by Ms Greening.

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  15. Hi Clarinda. Welcome to the Republic. I don't think you've commented here before.

    That's a fairly scary analysis, and backs up pretty well what Craig is saying.

    t seems that the evil duo were up do no good even before the Tories got into power.

    How they can contemplate a war with Iran (loads of oil) at the moment is beyond belief, and the fact that they do it at the same time as they are leaving Syria (no oil) to stew in its own juice in even more dangerous.

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  16. Ah yes Munguin. The less said about the English Transport Department's idea of what constitutes a cup of coffee, the better.

    Still the Eurostar seems to have learned that one of the important ingredients for a cup of coffee is...erm coffee.

    I note that ECT use Nescafé Gold for cattle class customers (whom they really do treat like like cattle). It's disgusting at the best of times, but mixed with a gallon or so of water.... pfffff.

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  17. Surely the English should not be expected to know how to brew any beverage except tea. ;-)

    Years ago, Her Majesty was in California hosting a party for Ronald Reagan and other California big shots. (It's shown in a TV documentary.) Sensitive to American beverage habits, she served coffee instead of tea. I have no idea how the coffee was brewed, but Ronald Reagan asked the Queen if she had decaf. (He really did!) She motioned to a young guy, issued royal orders, and he immediately disappeared.....to return with hot water and a package of instant decaf. Reagan deserved no better of course.

    I hadn't thought about the natural historic attachment between Scotland and France being reflected in current attitudes. As for France and the EU, I can't see why France adopted the Euro. Surely France's devotion to its franc could not have been less that the British love for the pound sterling.

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  18. Hi Tris and good to see you back though it may not be quite as warm or welcoming over here (may be why he jumped in front of the train eh)
    Thanks for the piece (link) to the Gould/Fox/Werrity thing (that sounds a bit suggestive digestive somehow) very interesting will re blog it for him tomorrow...anyways good to have you back on the tinternit, I've missed you!

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  19. Hi nominedeus

    Thanks for your very warm welcome.

    I've heard that suicide on the railway is much more widespread than we might think.

    I'm disturbed by the fact that Fox and Werritty seem to have disappeared from our now almost exclusively "tabloid" newspapers... (unless the news is sensational it is not covered).

    It does appear that they, with Gould, have been planning war on our behalf.

    It's almost unbelievable, but it may well be true. But why is it not being covered?

    I'm glad to be back on the net (although I'd rather be doing it from Paris :¬)

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  20. I guess that's right Danny,

    Everything they make is so weak and insipid... Scots too. A Chocolate Chaud in France is lovely thick dark chocolate. Here it's a rather insipid pale liquid a mixture of water, milk and a hint of chocolate.

    Coffee is much the same.

    I think I've seen that clip of Reagan. I guess the poor old soul couldn't sleep at nights if he drank proper coffee.

    I'm not sure why the French joined the Euro. You're right they are very protective of their Frenchness. I suppose it all have to do with the raison d'etre of the EU... to stop France and Germany going to war again...

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  21. tis reblogged now tris, sorry was a bit busy sorting out the new blogsite!

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  22. New site looks great nom! Will add to blog list.

    http://www.nominedeus.co.uk/

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