French Austerity measures

RenovationMan

Rochdale_Pioneers wrote: »

Surely in the UK the people who still can retire at 55 are the people who are telling the rest of us to work until we're 80?

You can retire at age 40 if you like and have sufficient funds in place. No one is stopping you.

ruggedtoast

Hard hitting austerity measures have seen the average French worker's lunch break cut to only three and a half hours. In addition to this use of the words "Haw he haw he haw" have been slashed 30% per sentence, and people might be expected not to take the entire Summer off each year.

Generali

martyn4764 wrote: »

I think it was at the usual 19.6% until, from memory, three or so years ago, when it was reduced to 5.5% to encourage trade.

The same reduction was applied to renovation works, which are about to go up to 7%; I'm not sure whether the new restaurant rate is 7% or 19.6%.

A quick Google shows that you are correct and things changed since I was last in France.

Rochdale_Pioneers

Wookie makes a point about when the political establishment of various nations becomes trapped under policies they cannot change. In the UK both Tory and Labour ran neo-liberal free market models. In France both Socialist and Gaullist protect retiring at 24. In Spain the Socialists got thrown out for having to implement the cuts proposed by the populist party. Who having won the election will now have to enact the stimulus policies not enacted by the socialists. America had Bush nationalise half of Wall Street and order mergers of the rest.

None of the problems the west faces can we labeled as the responsibility of one political ideology or party - the free market deregulated model was adopted by all. Until we get political leaders who can identify this systemic failure and move onto the next model, we're going to continue in this stage of siege/panic.

ILW

Rochdale_Pioneers wrote: »

Wookie makes a point about when the political establishment of various nations becomes trapped under policies they cannot change. In the UK both Tory and Labour ran neo-liberal free market models. In France both Socialist and Gaullist protect retiring at 24. In Spain the Socialists got thrown out for having to implement the cuts proposed by the populist party. Who having won the election will now have to enact the stimulus policies not enacted by the socialists. America had Bush nationalise half of Wall Street and order mergers of the rest.

None of the problems the west faces can we labeled as the responsibility of one political ideology or party - the free market deregulated model was adopted by all. Until we get political leaders who can identify this systemic failure and move onto the next model, we're going to continue in this stage of siege/panic.[/QUOTE]

Is it the leaders or the people that vote them in on short term policies that is the problem?

Rochdale_Pioneers

ILW wrote: »

Is it the leaders or the people that vote them in on short term policies that is the problem?

Short term. Voters are flexible on what is and isn't politically acceptable. For decades we had a Tory party enacting policies which today's Labour party would think of as too pinko to consider. The political terms of debate were firmly in the centre left until the corporatist model was demolished by a combination of revolutionary communist union leaders and the neo-liberal coup inside the Tory party. Since the mid 80s the goalposts have been centre right with the Labour party enacting policies which one nation Tories would have considered heartless and inhumane.

What has changed is media driven, which who got the best soundbite the only thing that matters. Last week in parliament was a case in point, with Ed Milliband trouncing Cameron in the EU debate followed by Cameron trouncing Ed (for a change) in PMQs. the week before that it was the imminent coup d'etat faced by Cameron over his weakness in Europe. This forces political leaders to formulate policy by headline and twitter rather than by having a political appraisal of events.

julieq

Rochdale_Pioneers wrote: »

Short term. Voters are flexible on what is and isn't politically acceptable. For decades we had a Tory party enacting policies which today's Labour party would think of as too pinko to consider. The political terms of debate were firmly in the centre left until the corporatist model was demolished by a combination of revolutionary communist union leaders and the neo-liberal coup inside the Tory party. Since the mid 80s the goalposts have been centre right with the Labour party enacting policies which one nation Tories would have considered heartless and inhumane.

What has changed is media driven, which who got the best soundbite the only thing that matters. Last week in parliament was a case in point, with Ed Milliband trouncing Cameron in the EU debate followed by Cameron trouncing Ed (for a change) in PMQs. the week before that it was the imminent coup d'etat faced by Cameron over his weakness in Europe. This forces political leaders to formulate policy by headline and twitter rather than by having a political appraisal of events.

Couldn't agree more. Also anyone on twitter can see how the cult of celebrity is starting to form opinion, such that the game is now to formulate a tweet a celeb will retweet into received opinion.

I'm poles apart from RP on politic views, but absolutely aligned on this analysis.

kabayiri

So we are heading for a bunch of supine dithering nation states; minority groups which present easy targets (like immigrants); and a public looking for easy solutions delivered by messianic prophets ?

Have we gone back in time to the 1930s ?

CarineG

Can I just stay that the demonstrations caused by rising of the retirement age from 60 to 62 in France were a disgrace.
We all have to work longer, that's called mathematics.
The French are just so used to getting everything provided for them (a lot of it by the government) it's a joke.
I love my country but that is not something I agree with and French people need to live in the real world!

Pete111

Rochdale_Pioneers wrote: »

Short term. Voters are flexible on what is and isn't politically acceptable. For decades we had a Tory party enacting policies which today's Labour party would think of as too pinko to consider. The political terms of debate were firmly in the centre left until the corporatist model was demolished by a combination of revolutionary communist union leaders and the neo-liberal coup inside the Tory party. Since the mid 80s the goalposts have been centre right with the Labour party enacting policies which one nation Tories would have considered heartless and inhumane.

What has changed is media driven, which who got the best soundbite the only thing that matters. Last week in parliament was a case in point, with Ed Milliband trouncing Cameron in the EU debate followed by Cameron trouncing Ed (for a change) in PMQs. the week before that it was the imminent coup d'etat faced by Cameron over his weakness in Europe. This forces political leaders to formulate policy by headline and twitter rather than by having a political appraisal of events.

You jest surely?

Ed regularly gets 'flashman'd' at PMQ's!