Bienvenue à la grève de cette semaine - Welcome to this week's strike

The current strikes in France remind me of the old days of industrial unrest in the UK, but with Gallic enthusiasm. The recent London Tube strike seems a pretty genial affair compared with what's going on today - kindly reported by France-24.

Demonstrators staged almost 300 marches across France yesterday. Air and rail services were halved from normal levels and disrupted commuters in major French cities, from Toulouse to Lille through Lyon. 

Union officials claimed that nearly 3 million people had joined nationwide marches over the last 10 days. Meanwhile the Prime Minister,François Fillon said that falling numbers of protesters proved that the movement was fading. In reality it may be due to the colder weather.

Last week we returned from a trip to Lille, via the Eurostar. Had we stayed on another day, we may have been there still.

The amazing thing to a mere Englishman is the passion and enthusiasm shown by the youth of France. The strike is all about a tiny increase in the retirement age, from 60 to 62. This is far better than in the UK, unless you're a psychiatrist (they can go at 55, but by that stage in their career few notice).

Compare this French enthusiasm for civil action and future planning for retirement with the British youth of today. Few would know or care about retirement. Far fewer would brave the cold and man the barricades.

That was until today - announced by our Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The state pension age will rise to 66 in 2020 for both men and women. This will affect all Britons who were under the age of 57 on April 6 of this year. We will have to wait until we're 66 before we get our state pension. So I'm there with the French on this one, as I miss out by 6 months.

It will get worse. Ministers are thinking about extending the pension age to 70 and even higher in the following decades. The state pension could be 'indexed' to increasing life expectancy, as it is in Denmark.


But the real reason the French students are striking. Social justice for the late middle aged? Equality across the generations? Not a bit of it. If the retirement age goes up, the old buggers will keep their jobs longer. In an era of high youth unemployment this is bad news. There's only a certain number of degrees you can do before having to get a real job. 


They'll be asking for euthanasia at 62 next. 


Vive La France. Vive La République.

Queens Gate, London - France 1 : England 0

A delightful day wandering around some of my old haunts in London, especially around South Kensington, Imperial and the Royal Albert Hall, backdrop to part of one of my favourite films, The Ipcress File.

Lunch at the Polish Club in Queens Gate. A fine venue and charming staff.

There are railings and diversion signs outside, as part of some misguided scheme to pedestrianize the road with vile bricks as a surface. They will never learn. Bricks are for walls not for walking on.





In Lille during the week for some culture and cuisine. Somehow the way the locals have managed the traffic access in the old town is exemplary. More so I realise, after seeing the travesty that is Queens Gate.




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Boris and the angry underground

The London Underground system is probably one of the finest in the world. It is certainly the oldest, commenced in 1854. It is the second longest in terms of track length, behind Shanghai and it is the third busiest in the world, behind Paris and Moscow. It has 260 stations and over 4,000 carriages, served by a staff of about 19,000. Over one billion individual journeys per year - an impressive workload.








But there in unrest amongst the workers. The impression given by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is that there is a need for change and that old practices need to be kicked into at least the last century. 800 job losses are expected, with about 450 involving ticket office staff. There was a mention of staff behind glass reading novels and the need for change.









Some 10,000 staff in all categories from trains and stations took strike action this Monday evening with inevitable consequences for London's travellers.

Boris Johnson wants the government to introduce legislation to outlaw industrial action unless at least 50 per cent of union members in a workplace take part in a ballot. The CBI has suggested a minimum of 40 per cent should take part. The rightwing thinktank Policy Exchange called for similar laws last month.

Boris Johnson was elected mayor of London in 2008. The turnout was 45.3 per cent and he got the support of only 23.9 per cent of the participant electors . I know an election is different from a call for strike action, but under his recommendation he would have been an invalid contender for the post of mayor.

When faced with threats to their job, pay and pension rights, striking is usually the last resort, after discussions with management have failed.

Any capable management team would be wise to invest in useful discussions with representatives of their workforce, ideally to avert or at least to minimize strike action.

To demand legal constraints through parliamentary law-making rather misses the point, as the Mayor, to my understanding has never had direct involvement in discussions with the London Underground union representatives.







Boris Johnson has a problem. It's good to talk. Perhaps he may do so after the Conservative Party Conference this week in the capital of the speech impediment that is Birmingham.


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Commonwealth Games - Monkey business

Just when the poor folks attending the Commonwealth Games thought that things couldn't get much worse, Prince Charles turns up. No doubt he'll be asking ridiculous questions and even worse he'll be pointing at things. I've noticed that a lot of photographs of him and his even more useless brothers show them pointing, usually at some obvious structure that most people would just accept, like a shelf or a table.






So hurray for the unsung heroes of the games. The Haruman Langur monkeys, brought in to police the various stadia. I note that hockey is particularly targeted.

Delhi, one of the most crowded cities in the world has a problem with smaller monkeys. They go where they want, unhindered. They steal, they defecate and they urinate where they please. Think of them like smaller versions of chavs at a foreign holiday destination.

They are considered holy by some and they can give a very nasty bite.



Police Monkey







Chav Monkey





Windsor Monkey

Attention Deficit - The face of dodgy research

On the day that we learn about a new planet, though not within commuting distance and the launch of Marmite flavoured chocolate, there is a major story about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Scientists in Wales have shown some association between ADHD and the presence of deletions or duplications of DNA on Chromosome No 16. This was present in 16% of ADHD patients compared with less that 0.1% of a larger control group. I assume that the researchers must have use a publicity company to maximize the story.

So the apologists were out on the radio this morning, banging on about ADHD not being about bad parenting, bad diet and bad environment of upbringing.

Actually what the research shows is that the majority of kids with ADHD do not have any detectable genetic abnormality. So on the balance of probability the condition is multifactorial.

I spend a lot of hours on train travelling between Wales and London. I seem to see quite a few ADHD kids, gorging themselves on junk food, climbing all over the seats and running along the corridors. There seems to be an association with the following parental features:-

• Tattoos
• Tracksuits and trainers
• Mothers and elder female siblings having their hair tied in a tight top-knot, the so called council-house face lift
• Smelling of cigarette smoke
• A general lack of personal hygiene

So perhaps there is a link with nurture after all.

It could be that those with DNA abnormalities are a subgroup worthy of further study. The researchers may have accidentally stumbled on the Chav gene.

If that's the case then we may look forward to antenatal screening, with a triple test for Downs and Chavvism. Whether a woman acts upon the result would be up to her.

Edward Samuel Miliband

Well, he's got the job, but who is he?

It looks like the underlings have been pretty busy if Wikipedia is anything to go by. Updated as late as this morning with a full biog. When I say full biog, there is one hell of a gap in the proper jobs area.

I liked the bit about his "current partner." If I were her I should have preferred just "partner." Perhaps he knows something and she doesn't!

So far we've been told an enormous amount about what Ed's not. I assume that after the celebrations are over he'll have to get round to inventing himself over the next few days.

In any case it looks like he'll have quite a few years to practice in opposition. Unless he can re-write history as well.

John Henry Newman

Last weekend, during the recent Popeathon event in London, 

I was walking past the Brompton Oratory, where I saw a huge 

banner of the Blessed John Henry Newman. 

There was something familiar about his features. 

Then I realized. 

Yes, it was our own Blessed Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller.

Perhaps they are related.