Le Pen and Macron battle for different futures of the EU

I do not interfere in elections in foreign countries. I do not express preferences between candidates. I am interested in the debates they hold and in the possible outcomes.
On current polling  Macron will  narrowly defeat Le Pen on Sunday week. The contest is much closer than many thought a few weeks ago and looks certain to be much closer than in 2017  when they last fought each other for the Presidency. Macron entered the contest late using the advantages of incumbency to dominate the political news by acting as President and concentrating on Ukraine, the main news of the moment. Le Pen campaigned around the country on cost of living issues and narrowed the gap with Macron. Now Macron the candidate is shifting position on a number of domestic issues and campaigning intensely. The one big debate between them could be important and swing votes.

Macron wants a more integrated EU with a strong foreign policy and a beefed up military force to back its approach to world affairs. He sees an opportunity to increase French leadership at a time of German weakness following a shift to a new and difficult three party coalition and problems from depending too much on Russian gas. He will claim Le Pen’s proposals to ease financial pressures on people are unaffordable.

Le Pen wishes to stay in the EU and Euro but wants at best a semi detached relationship with the supranational body. She sees Hungary and Poland as potential allies for a renegotiation to take back more powers for national determination. She also wishes to cut French financial contributions. She would not welcome the more integrated and more powerful EU Macron seeks.

Le Pen offers a major cut in VAT on fuel and other measures to ease the squeeze.

Whichever  wins  they will prove France is fairly evenly split between two wildly different views of the EU. It will be interesting to see how much ground Macron changes on domestic economic  issues at a time of  severe income squeeze.

 

162 Comments

  1. Mark B
    April 15, 2022

    Good morning.

    Let us hope that this missive does not get deleted like yesterdays ? And many thanks to those that posted (unknowingly) much of what I wrote. It is good to a) get the message out there and, b) know that my views are shared.

    Whoever the French choose, little will change. They are ruled from Brussels and, for President Macron further integration may come at a price, not only in the loss of sovereignty but purhaps changes to the CAP. Germany, Denmark and Sweden, not to forget the Visigard group will resist further integration and may use the CAP, for which France benefits greatly, as a barganing chip.

    Le Pen is just dreaming if she thinks the EU are going to give up powers. Because once a power is lost, it can never be regained, otherwise other members will start to ask for the same and that will not do.

    I have said before, the EU cannot move forward and it certainly cannot move back. The EU itself has decribled its process as like someone riding a bicycle – they must keep pedaling to stay upright. Our leaving has left them in stasis, and from that will come its eventual demise as it cannot reform or adapt to changing world conditions. It is a rules based system that all have to follow. Until that is the rules no longer serve, then it looks like the sham it is.

    Times are a changing.

    Reply A lot of your comments are posted, even some very long ones.

    1. Everhopeful
      April 15, 2022

      +many
      Yes Mark B and you always get pole position!! And plenty of ticks and stars!
      But then your comments are brilliant.
      Yesterday our poor JR over 300 comments to moderate.🙀

      Reply Keep them short and avoid personal attacks to be posted quickly. I have lots of other things to do in busy days. YesterdayI was out talking to constituents on doorsteps.

      1. Everhopeful
        April 15, 2022

        **
        JR had

      2. Mickey Taking
        April 15, 2022

        Carefully chosen places, or did you get an earful about the hopeless PM and Government?

      3. Everhopeful
        April 15, 2022

        Reply to reply.
        Oh dear I bet that was fun!
        I wish my MP would do door to door.
        No chance!

      4. Fedupsoutherner
        April 15, 2022

        Reply to reply. Good stuff John. You are wasted on the back benches. It’s about time Boris used you or is he afraid you’d cause too much work

        1. X-Tory
          April 15, 2022

          Of course Sir John should be in the Cabinet – that’s obvious. It’s also quite obvious why he isn’t: because Boris is a traitor who doesn’t actually agree with him about anything! Not about Brexit, or fishing, or taxes, or ‘net zero’, or farming, or energy, or … well, as I said, anything. What is not at all obvious is why Sir John puts up with being treated like this and why he doesn’t rebel and write a letter to Mr Brady …

      5. Donna
        April 15, 2022

        You, Sir John, are a really good Constituency MP.

        Unfortunately, you are a very rare beast.

        1. Lifelogic
          April 15, 2022

          +1 very rare indeed.

          Alas so rarely do governments actually take his sensible advice.

    2. Denis Cooper
      April 15, 2022

      I think you have it more or less covered.

  2. Everhopeful
    April 15, 2022

    MLP has changed her politics over the years in order to gain political power.
    I suppose she has taken a leaf out of the Left’s playbook? ( Or do they now say she will win the young, left vote?)
    Anyway.
    She has had several “false dawns”.
    But now she has “detoxified”.
    If only she could have kept those voters she lost when she shifted her political stance and added them to the new ones!
    Her changed position on the EU is a bit disappointing but the EU might be upset should she win?

    I hope she wins. She’s great.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      April 15, 2022

      She’s far left, but whatever.

      I suspect that if the likes of Orban, Salvini, Le Pen etc. formed the majority of the European Council of the European Union then there’d be a clamour from the previously feverishly europhobic on this site to rejoin.

      It really is a hoot.

      1. Denis Cooper
        April 15, 2022

        It really is rubbish.

      2. Everhopeful
        April 15, 2022

        I thought that Macron describes her as far right?

      3. Sea_Warrior
        April 15, 2022

        Not from me, Lad.

      4. Narrow Shoulders
        April 15, 2022

        She is certainly on the left Marty. If you do not recognise that you are blinkered by the thought that lefties can not be nationalistic and jingoistic.

        I think China, Soviet Union, SNP, Plaid disabuse you you that point of view.

        Check out her policies, much like the BNP, she is left wing.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          April 15, 2022

          Re read my post, NS.

          You have simply paraphrased it but somehow as an attempted rebuff, it seems.

      5. Bryan Harris
        April 15, 2022

        If Le Pen was far left she would have no problem in beating Marcon – as it is she’s to the right of Farage

      6. MFD
        April 15, 2022

        Never NLH, there is an OLD saying( probably before your time).

        Once bitten, twice shy!
        I say again NEVER and its reinforced when watching their politics from the outside.

      7. Lifelogic
        April 15, 2022

        She is indeed left wing on economic policies.

        Joy in heaven as one sinner repents? Stanley Johnson today “War in Ukraine has shown me that I was wrong about Brexit” in the Telegrpah. Now Stanley you need to see the light on climate alarmism, renewables, energy, the economy, tax levels and all the green crap – as does your deluded, theatre studies graduate daugher in law.

        Also Jeremy Warner “The looming cost of living tsunami spells political doom for Johnson
        The PM can’t expect Ukraine to distract from a tin-eared response to falling disposable incomes” – I too think they rather underestimate the hit and anger that will be caused by this war but mainly by a mad energy policy, absurdly high taxes, bloated and incompetent government, endless government waste, over regulation, the pointless extended lockdowns, the dire NHS, deliberate currency devaluation and deliberate inflation


        1. Lifelogic
          April 15, 2022

          The Times today say solar panels typically increase the selling price of a property by less than ÂŁ3,000 but cost around ÂŁ6,500 to install. So rather a big loss then even without VAT on them.

          Bit why would anyone pay any more at all for a house with these things on them? They generate so little electricity and this mainly when not needed in summer middle of the day. Plus they need cleaning sometimes – not so easy or cheap on the roof with the working at heights rules. Then they will need removing & recycling. Plus get in the way if you ever do an attic conversion.

          1. Mickey Taking
            April 15, 2022

            you didn’t mention that they look ‘bleedin’ ugly, too!

      8. SM
        April 15, 2022

        Your reply, and others, NLH, illustrate just how pointless and out-dated the labels Left and Right are nowadays.

        I was never in favour of a European Union because I am not in favour of Empire building, and I would certainly not wish to ever see such a Union dominated by the likes of Orban, Duda or Macron, whether the UK were a member or not. And before you click into ‘the EU isn’t an Empire’ mode, please remember the name of the award won by President Macron for his services to Brussels … ‘Charlemagne’ I believe?

        1. Chris
          April 15, 2022

          Current political spectrum should be Nationalism (MLP) VS Globalism (Macron and LibLabCon).

      9. hefner
        April 15, 2022

        NLH, MLP far-left? W here did you put her within the galaxy of the Jadot, Hidalgo, Roussel, Melanchon, Poutou, Arthaud? To whose left and whose right?

        I am waiting with bated breath for the result of your sorting out of the left and far-left candidates to the French presidential elections.

        1. beresford
          April 15, 2022

          It’s well-known that if you go far enough ‘left’ you meet the ‘far-right’ coming the other way.

        2. Nottingham Lad Himself
          April 15, 2022

          Read what Holland, Sarkozy, Zemmour etc. say about her.

  3. Sea_Warrior
    April 15, 2022

    If it weren’t for the war in Ukraine, and the high stakes elsewhere in Europe, I would be cheering on Le Pen. But given her desire to withdraw France from NATO’s command arrangements, and her cosiness with Putin, I’ll have to give my best wishes to Macron – even if he hates the UK.
    If Le Pen does win, however, I hope we don’t hear that the British Embassy is having to play catch-up in understanding the likely nature of her presidency, like the Washington embassy did after Trump won.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      April 15, 2022

      France has a pretty clearly-defined constitution and the president cannot easily change that. Also its presidential powers are nothing like as broad as the US’s. Le Pen would be stuck with some kind of “cohabitation” so would not be able to do that much radical anyway.

      These considerations are in part why the French feel perhaps more able to experiment than do voters here.

      On the Ukraine war Russia’s bizarre strategy seems to prove ever more costly with the sinking of their flagship, which had been patrolling the same route day after day making its movements entirely predictable, it appears.

      So far its land forces have made little progress in the East either, we read.

      1. rose
        April 15, 2022

        Funny you see it like that, NLH. I see the French President as far more powerful than the American. Within their respective countries, I mean.

        1. hefner
          April 15, 2022

          Agreed, rose.

        2. Nottingham Lad Himself
          April 15, 2022

          I accept that his or her written constitutional powers are extensive.

          However, most of them still rely on support from the National Assembly, and that is typically more easily got in the two-party US system than in multi-party France.

          I do take your point, however.

      2. hefner
        April 15, 2022

        MLP has indicated her intention to call a referendum on ‘priorite nationale’ if elected president and this rather quickly. To do that, she would have to choose a PM to expedite the ‘affaires courantes’. Without having to call (yet) for legislative elections, she would call such a referendum using Art.11 of the French constitution, being supported by her government. The potential obstacles would be the present (not yet dissolved) Parliament and the Senate, but as the referendum would not have been called via Art.89, the two chambers could not prevent the referendum from being carried out.
        If MLP were to have such a referendum and win it, she could then call the legislative elections and possibly win a legislative majority from them.
        In such case no need for a ‘cohabitation’.

        I agree that’s a lot of conditions to be fulfilled. But the case seems to be worrying enough for a number of French constitutionalists (‘Conseil Constitutionnel’ headed by L.Fabius) to study the details of MLP’s proposals.

        And frankly I am not sure what the benefits to the UK would be, nor whether MLP would be such a friend to the UK. She might prefer her pal Orban and the Hungarian MKB bank that is helping her with a loan of €10 m.

    2. Mickey Taking
      April 15, 2022

      that cosiness will look like suicide for her when he falls – as he will by revolt or natural causes.

    3. Clough
      April 15, 2022

      Any French leader who puts their country first and protects its energy supplies will get rubbished by the pro-NATO media, here and in France. Macron tried repeatedly in recent years to have good relations with Russia, inviting Putin to the Palace of Versailles and to his private residence a few years back. He has continued to seek dialogue with the Russian president, though making sure the meeting photos earlier this year showed Putin and Macron at opposite ends of a huge long table. Macron will be judged on what he does for France, not what he does for regime in Eastern Europe.

      1. Margaretbj.
        April 15, 2022

        Macron isn’t going to get anywhere with Putin. Putin’s perspective is archaic.”They must have their foie gras” For gods sake it’s only offal . There is no realty…… ,just deep bias against a ridiculous superficiality.

    4. No Longer Anonymous
      April 15, 2022

      Sea Warrior

      The very existence of NATO since the fall of the Berlin wall (after the Russian Federation gave up almost everything asked of it – except the claim for Ukraine to remain neutral) has brought us to a new cold war far more likely to turn hot than the old one.

    5. rose
      April 15, 2022

      Sea Warrior, won’t Macron do more harm to NATO by displacing it with an EU army under his command?

    6. X-Tory
      April 15, 2022

      Why are you so enamoured with NATO? It certainly does not benefit Britain (or Ukraine, which is receiving help from individual countries rather than the organisation). Because of NATO, and because Boris is such a weak-minded traitor, we are sending militay assistance to the Baltic states WITHOUT GETTING ANYTHING IN RETURN. Why is Boris so weak and stupid? We should make our help CONDITIONAL. We should say that because the EU has behaved so abominably towards the UK we reagrd ALL EU member states as our ENEMIES. We should therefore not offer them ANY military or security assistance unless they break with the EU’s trade restrictions on British exports and allow our exports to enter their countries without ANY inspection or paperwork. Unrequited love – and unreciprocated help – is only for complete cretins.

      1. Bill B.
        April 15, 2022

        Why is Boris ‘so weak and stupid’, X-Tory? I blame the parents. A child needs a moral compass.

  4. Everhopeful
    April 15, 2022

    The EU knew what it was doing when it imposed the Euro on those countries daft enough to accept it.
    ( So much for the much vaunted “diversity”..all those lovely currencies).
    The ramifications for France in changing back to francs etc would put the squawks re Brexit into the shade.
    Certain it could be done if there was the will to do it.

    1. Mark B
      April 15, 2022

      Only Germany, and barely the UK and France met the requirements for joining a single currency. Our experience over the ERM told us, and forwarned others, what to expect so it came as no surprise to see what has happened across the EU. The EURO is a cornerstone of the European Project so I doubt France will be allowed to leave it.

      reply Try to be accurate. Germany did not qualify as debt was well over 60% of GDP at the time

      1. Mark B
        April 15, 2022

        Reply to reply

        And that debt can be put down to re-unification. Nothing like the spend and waste like other governments.

    2. Ian Wragg
      April 15, 2022

      MLP may have changed the rhetoric but if she gets in she will revert to her previous self.
      I’m amazed how the BBC and assorted broadcasters call her far right when she’s an out and out socialist.
      Let’s hope she wins.

      1. Mark B
        April 15, 2022

        Far-right serves two purposes. The Left waste no time in demonising ANYTHING that is Right Wing no matter how moderate and peaceful (Four legs good, two legs bad). And psycology of that is to make people shy away from whoever they are demonising and so marginlising their views.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          April 15, 2022

          There’s a certain type of person, over-represented among the staff of the UK media, who sees politics mainly in its social dimension, and is rather disinterested in whether, say, refuse collectors will get any sort of half-decent occupational pension or if schoolchildren are turning up not having had breakfast.

          In my book people who properly address the latter issues are left wing.

          On the other hand, those who prioritise pandering to the vanities of self-preoccupied tiny minorities can be found across the political spectrum on that basis, and that doesn’t make them any particular stripe of politics, just a bit silly.

          1. Peter2
            April 16, 2022

            You think socialism will improve the problems you mention?
            History shows that socialism makes it worse.

          2. Nottingham Lad Himself
            April 17, 2022

            My point is that real, material politics are little to do with unusual, self-preoccupied people and their tendency to seek attention where they can.

            So within free societies they will still be there whoever might be in office.

            You can fret about them if you like.

          3. Peter2
            April 17, 2022

            There is only one of us “fretting over it” NHL
            And it isn’t me.
            You fret on here up to 50 times day.

    3. Nigl
      April 15, 2022

      You obviously have never worked in an exporting company. All those lovely currencies. Costly tosh. And as for daft, ask the Germans. Changing their currency from a constantly appreciating DMark to a softer Euro. Exporting nirvana.

      1. Everhopeful
        April 15, 2022

        Nice National Banks that can respond to national needs?
        Free to devalue when necessary?
        Just free!
        Plus

        Cheap “Deutschmark” ( German euro = devalued Deutschmark ) = very expensive currency for poorer EU members. The price demanded by France for German reunification post Berlin Wall fall.

    4. Nottingham Lad Himself
      April 15, 2022

      All that you can do from here now is to twitch those curtains though.

      No one on the Mainland is listening, nor could give a flying one what people here think.

      1. Peter2
        April 15, 2022

        You know that do you NHL?
        You have data?
        You have facts?
        The UK:-
        The sixth biggest economy in the world
        70 million people.
        Seat on the UN security council
        A world major defence power
        Major member of NATO
        One the biggest markets in the world for “mainland” nations in terms of trade.
        PS
        Perhaps try a policy of less daily posts NHL
        And stop shooting from the hip.

        1. Mickey Taking
          April 16, 2022

          someone has to take over the daily moans from Amersham, so Martin stepped up to the plate.
          A little but VERY often has become diatribe.

  5. Nigl
    April 15, 2022

    In reality as we experienced regularly, should Le Pen win she will immediately sell out to the EU blob.

    And in that vein you have two years to uncouple totally or else when Starmer wins as he surely will unless you eject the cloth eared law breaker from No 10, he will slide us back in using NI as the Trojan horse.

    Obviously the economic situation makes triggering article 16 a risk but his huffing and puffing is just a metaphor for his whole administration to the extent that few believe he has the cojones to make Rwanda happen, reducing civil service numbers, more performance from the NHS, drilling, fracking and mining etc.

    Although more and more people support moves to ‘green’ your dumping of vast cost on us when the technology is not ready, is another political disaster adding unnecessarily to our cost of living crisis.

    As we know ‘it is the economy, stupid’ and you are showing no sign of softening the hardships you are imposing. A moratorium on green subsidies to feedback into a reduction of our energy costs would be a positive start.

    Despite your personal efforts your leadership has been allowed to be more and more presidential losing contact with its voters. You remind me of the dying days of the frankly useless John Major.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      April 15, 2022

      Name a replacement for Johnson from the Tory ranks, but of whom their new voters have heard, Nigl.

      There’s the rub, eh?

      1. Peter2
        April 15, 2022

        Have you seen Labour’s front bench?

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          April 16, 2022

          Nah, none of them would be interested.

        2. hefner
          April 16, 2022

          I doubt that somebody from the Labour front bench could become a replacement for Johnson from the Tory ranks. Are you not a bit confused here? Or is that a ‘look a squirrel’?

          1. Peter2
            April 16, 2022

            No not confused, unlike you and Martin who think Labour would sort every current problem you want to raise.
            You poor deluded socialists.

          2. hefner
            April 17, 2022

            Thank you P2.
            Now that Covid is mostly over and the weather beautiful, what about going back to the counter. As a sign of good will I’ll offer you a pint 
 that’s what pub bores usually like.

          3. Peter2
            April 17, 2022

            Casual rudeness as usual.
            Use your IQ heffy and try to be better.

    2. Mickey Taking
      April 15, 2022

      ‘ losing contact with its voters. ‘
      Exactly, but also with those who would never dream of voting for him and his sheep.

    3. Mark B
      April 15, 2022

      I have no time for Alexander Johnson MP, and ordinarly would not care if he did go but, look at those lining themsleves up for his job ? Terrible !

      That is why the man is laughing at both us and those like Sir John. He knows that we cannot remove him and those like Sir John dare not.

      1. Shirley M
        April 15, 2022

        Agreed. Nice as it is to have Sir Johns opinions, and the opportunity to let off steam, it’s all a waste of time. Sir John is way outnumbered by the parties yes-men, and Boris is …. well … Boris. He doesn’t have the interests of the UK (or its people) as his priority, and it shows.

        Personally, I think Boris should go. If the country tolerates an idiotic PM who does NOT put the country first, then we must accept that we will encourage more idiotic PM’s that do exactly the same. I wouldn’t care if we went through a dozen PM’s, so long as we get rid of the idiots and make it clear that future idiots will not be tolerated.

    4. Dave Andrews
      April 15, 2022

      Little chance of a Starmer win I would say.
      Johnson might divide opinion, but Starmer just doesn’t generate any.

      1. R.Grange
        April 15, 2022

        Good way of putting it, Dave. Starmer has once again been wrong-footed. His only option is to repeat his Covid shtick and say we should have gone in ‘sooner and harder’. But then he would lose Labout voters who don’t really think we should be risking WWIII. So he meekly lines up behind Johnson, who by contrast is starting to look like a national leader, absurd though that may seem.

    5. Sir Joe Soap
      April 15, 2022

      To be fair, Major didn’t even try. All I can remember post 92 is the Cones Hotline with a number which didn’t go through and a poor person’s tax called the lotto.
      Also Blair was waiting to pounce, and was a beacon of competence compared to before and after.

      There is a less direct choice now.
      Starmer is all over the place, kneeling to this and with no answers to that.

      We need a completely new force. Our host should be part of it, but will cling to the wreckage on past form.

      1. Mickey Taking
        April 15, 2022

        ‘ Blair was waiting to pounce, and was a beacon of competence compared to before and after. ‘
        Do you know I never imagined I would EVER read that – even in a Labour Party electioneering leaflet !
        Just goes to show how memory fades with the passing of time.

    6. BOF
      April 15, 2022

      Nigl
      All too true, sadly. (The useless, and dangerous John Major who gave us ERM, Maastricht and ambulance chasing lawyers. And finally Blair!)

    7. MFD
      April 15, 2022

      Nigl,
      There are somethings I cannot fathom out about all the shouting for fines for our politicians by the msm and the left!
      When covid was rampant Sinn Fein/ IRA blatantly flouted the rules at the Storey funeral. It was so clear an investigation was not needed yet the PSNI and the PPS decided No fines and no prosecutions . We did not hear a word from the msm.
      Yet when members of the Conservatiive Party and our PM wrongly broke the rules we had a shouting match by Starmer and the msm.
      The MPS carry out an investigation, resulting in fines!
      Are the ruling class and the Police still so scared of the Provos that they can do what they want. Is this the reason our government is not fighting to free the Northern Ireland people from the claws of the EU

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        April 15, 2022

        You really have still got it bad, haven’t you?

  6. DOM
    April 15, 2022

    Are adults in the now semi-despotic cesspit that is GB lawfully allowed to discuss this issue considering one the main candidates, is according to the progressive left, a far right extremist and Nazi and those who even reference her are guilty by association?

    Or maybe we’re all according to the new language of the US and UK progressive left that now control the western political infrastructure ‘domestic terrorists’ for even daring to want to talk about pivotal issues such as demography, religion and innate, now destroyed, freedoms that many died to preserve?

    It seems Le Pen exposes the evil of the left as they work hard to portray all potential threats to their political control as criminal and terrorist threats including it seems my 85 year old parents who had the misfortune to be born of Anglo-Saxon heritage and Caucasian. My dad was down the pit at 15 and my mother cleaning up crap in hospitals when she was 16. Some privilege….

    I personally couldn’t care less as they descent into the Neo-Marxist abyss has only just started. Just wait when they CB’s introduce centralised digitalised currencies, you can wave goodbye to all forms of civil freedoms and welcome home that will Orwell’s 1984 look like monkey’s tea-party

    The Tory party must decide what they truly believe in and who they should stand with, the people or the Marxists

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      April 15, 2022

      What a load of shrill hysterical nonsense you spout.

      The analysis of Le Pen in serious circles goes rather like this:

      Her social program and her support of SYRIZA in the 2015 Greek general elections have led Nicolas Sarkozy to declare her a far-left politician sharing some of Jean-Luc MĂ©lenchon’s propositions.

      President François Hollande said she was talking “like a leaflet of the Communist Party”.

      Éric Zemmour, journalist for the conservative newspaper Le Figaro, wrote during the 2012 presidential election that the FN had become a left-wing party under the influence of adviser Florian Philippot.

      She has also relaxed some political positions of the party, advocating for civil unions for same-sex couples instead of her party’s previous opposition to legal recognition of same-sex partnerships, accepting current abortion laws, and withdrawing the restitution of the death penalty from her platform.

      The French have their own ideas as to Right and Left and the characterisation of her as “far right” would appear to rest only on a few of her social policies. Her vigorous defence of France’s secularity is generally only represented as islamophobia outside of France too.

      1. Hat man
        April 15, 2022

        Thank you, lad. I fancy you make quite a good case for voting for her, if I was French.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          April 16, 2022

          Well, her policies don’t seem to stack up very well on economic analysis, and her social approach would probably further divide rather than unite the country, as indeed does the very existence of her movement.

          I think that probably a majority of French will see it this way too.

    2. Mark B
      April 15, 2022

      As they say, a fish rots from the head down.

      We have, for the first time, a PM that has been found guilty of a criminal offence and, not just any criminal offence, but one his own government created and he went on television telling people to observe.

      As I say – Show me a Socialist and I will show you a hypocrite.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        April 15, 2022

        Johnson is a Conservative, and he could sue you for claiming otherwise, I proffer.

    3. No Longer Anonymous
      April 15, 2022

      Indeed. If you don’t conform to a prescribed orthodoxy you won’t be allowed to eat.

      It gets me that until the invasion of Ukraine the BBC was repeatedly warning us about the ‘faaaar right’ in Western Ukraine (see Newsnight recordings on YouTube) but have now memory holed them.

      Those that were telling us to “Stay at home. Wear masks. You are too dangerous to see granny – keep away.” are now agitating for war with a nuclear armed psychopath.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        April 16, 2022

        Those who were scared stiff of wearing a bit of cloth on their faces now and then seem paralysed by fear over doing anything about much else too.

        Where’s the surprise?

        What do you think would happen in short order if a nuclear-armed psychopath – and a paranoid megalomaniac to boot – were allowed unopposed to take over a country more than twice the size of France bordering other ex-soviet controlled countries?

    4. MFD
      April 15, 2022

      Well said DOM!
      Fight for freedom – our fathers did!

  7. Everhopeful
    April 15, 2022

    I wonder what Brussels makes of our mostly free-from-EU-constraints Johnson bumbling off to Ukraine?
    Not withstanding all the mini-lateral and bilateral entrapments we have ( voter unwittingly) been signed up to.
    Politics is a very strange thing.
    No firmly held personal beliefs yet strict, maniacal adherence to a tribal code.
    And the lives of so many held in the palms of a few ( sweaty) hands.

    Any news on the WHO Pandemic Treaty?

    1. Mark B
      April 15, 2022

      I think the EU are more concerned who the next occupant of the Elysee Palace will be. And as for Ukraine, my only concern is how much money our government is going to waste on such a corrupt country.

    2. Donna
      April 15, 2022

      The Government and Sir John appear not to want to discuss the proposed WHO Pandemic Treaty ….. and yet another unaccountable, corrupted bunch of globalists proposing to control our “democracy.”

      It’s funny how the Conspiracy Theorists are so consistently being proved right.

      1. MFD
        April 15, 2022

        + 1 Donna i agree with your remarks

    3. Nottingham Lad Himself
      April 15, 2022

      The UK was clear that it would remain a reliable military ally for Europe.

      That co-operation to date has generally been on an at-will basis between states outside of the European Union’s institutions anyway, so there really is no reason for it to change.

      1. Mickey Taking
        April 15, 2022

        ok lets test this theory. One day the Russians send ships from the Black Sea to the coast of Bulgaria – shelling towns and use missiles. They land hundreds of tanks and establish air superiority inside a day.
        The EU get REALLY pisssed off and they decide to send 5000 troops each to assist defence.
        Now, does UK join in and agree to send 5000 troops too?

        Not a bloody chance.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          April 16, 2022

          It wouldn’t happen like that.

          It would be on the basis that I said and also very importantly NATO of which Bulgaria is a member.

          Having seen the shambles that Russia has made of its Ukraine adventure the proposition seems far fetched to say the least too.

          1. Mickey Taking
            April 16, 2022

            Respected opinion said Russia would not invade Ukraine.

          2. Nottingham Lad Himself
            April 16, 2022

            No, Nigel Farage said that.

  8. DOM
    April 15, 2022

    OT

    The NHS is calling for another lockdown. Is there any chance that Tory MPs can put this Socialist organisation back into its box before it destroys the few freedoms we have left?

    The NHS and the wider Marxist unionised public sector needs purging of its Labour political activists. Reform this political extension of Labour’s political power base before it destroys not just patients but our very freedoms

    1. Shirley M
      April 15, 2022

      I have spent a lot of time at 3 hospitals over the past few months. Admittedly, I have been nowhere near the covid wards or A&E, but I haven’t seen any signs of those hospitals being overwhelmed. The only problem I encountered was a 1.5 hr wait, due to a radiography machine breaking down, and people having to queue for the remaining functioning machine. I guess an operation would have required a long wait, but I was ‘dissuaded’ from considering potential operations anyway, which is a good way to stop the queues getting longer even if it means people go untreated. I suspect there will be lots of non-covid deaths in the future, ‘thanks’ to the NHS.

    2. Everhopeful
      April 15, 2022

      + many
      Oh Dear God. No!!
      Going the way of China.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        April 16, 2022

        No, it’s far, far too late for that.

        China had only a tiny fraction of the deaths-per-million that did the UK, US, European Union etc.

        You might not like the way that they run things – I wouldn’t want to live there either – but you have to accept that they were effective in stamping on the epidemic until vaccines arrived.

    3. Sir Joe Soap
      April 15, 2022

      No chance they will put it back in its box. Instead of laughing at this preposterous suggestion, they will take it quite seriously. Where is Starmer on this?

    4. No Longer Anonymous
      April 15, 2022

      And I bet most of them want us to put a no-fly zone over Ukraine and our troops in direct conflict with Putin’s.

      I have Covid right now. It’s a bit like the cold I was told it would be, for a triple jabbed man approaching 60 and well in the danger zone.

      Not only must we live free we must do so in the time we have left, the way this lot are going.

    5. Hat man
      April 15, 2022

      I’m not hopeful, Dom. The NHS is a institution with national reach and therefore a good way to control people. Just suppose you were an incompetent politician, and the public were starting to see through you. You’d want to keep that instrument of control over people for when you might need it, wouldn’t you? That is why Johnson, having said ending lockdowns was ‘irreversible’, has now come out and said he can’t rule out imposing a lockdown again. That is why the Tories are keeping the scale and power structure of the NHS intact, even as they introduce more and more opportunities within it for the private sector.

  9. Donna
    April 15, 2022

    Macron destroyed the French constitutional values of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity with his deliberately divisive Covid and “vaccine” policies….. announcing that he intended to “piss off” people who refused to subject themselves to a poorly-tested gene therapy, with a dubious safety record, which they judged they did not need.

    For that alone he deserves to lose. And if the French people don’t take this opportunity to rid themselves of the little WEF-sponsored Wannabe Napoleon, they will deserve everything they get.

    1. Mark B
      April 15, 2022

      Bang on the money, Donna.

    2. wanderer
      April 15, 2022

      +1 Donna. Agreed, but if Macron wins then it’s a setback: all the rest of the WEF-sponsored leaders around the world will grin smugly and feel more assured that they can carry on with the great reset.

    3. beebtax
      April 15, 2022

      +1. But if Macron wins it will unfortunately give succour to all the other WEF politicians around the world.

    4. Nigl
      April 15, 2022

      Napoleon is a massive hero. Strange you use being compared to him as a criticism.

      1. SM
        April 15, 2022

        To whom is Napoleon Buonaparte a hero?

        Yes, he won some major battles with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but he lost the Peninsular Wars, he lost catastrophically in his attempt to conquer Russia and in his adventures into the Middle East, and then of course in the grand finale at Waterloo. And what was his legacy to France? A couple of failed Imperial regimes and some further Republics.

        Reply His thuggish armies killed and looted their way across the continent to put many countries under Napoleons autocratic rule. That is why our country once again had to spend blood and treasure rescuing countries from tyranny.

    5. Nottingham Lad Himself
      April 15, 2022

      All only in your rather unusual opinions Donna.

      1. Donna
        April 15, 2022

        How nice to know you’re paying attention. I may have “unusual” opinions Notts Lad, but that’s because I look at the evidence and think for myself. I recommend it to you. X

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          April 15, 2022

          I am constrained by this site’s apparent moderation policy to use the word “unusual” in place of my preferred one.

          1. Mickey Taking
            April 16, 2022

            if only you were ‘constrained’ on so many more levels..

          2. Peter2
            April 16, 2022

            Well you manage 50 posts a day NHL
            Perhaps try quality instead of quantity.

      2. Mickey Taking
        April 15, 2022

        unusual? what on earth gives you that idea? Donna would wins hands down in a contest -your unusual opinions vs hers.

    6. Lifelogic
      April 15, 2022

      Indeed I am no fan of either candidate but will get out the English Fizz should Macron lose which is quite possible.

      Is it worth a wager I wonder – much check the odds?

    7. Iago
      April 15, 2022

      Trouble is 20% plus of the electorate are not French, do not regard themselves as such and vote as one man for Macron.

      1. rose
        April 15, 2022

        The other trouble is just how many people one thought were normal seem to like h and s dictatorship.

      2. hefner
        April 15, 2022

        Iago, France: 7 m of immigrants (that’s 10.7% of the 65 m population, not 20%). Then 2.5 m of those 7 m have acquired French citizenship and have become French. So the remaining non-French 4.5 m as such cannot vote
 QED.
        So Iago, what were you saying?
        And if anything most of the recent naturalised immigrants in France are unlikely to be in top jobs and therefore unlikely to vote for Macron.

        How can one put so many untruths in 23 words?
        If there was a daily competition for this type of comments, I guess you would have won it today.

  10. Denis Cooper
    April 15, 2022

    Sir John, this should be of interest to some of your visitors:

    https://policyexchange.org.uk/pxevents/the-northern-ireland-protocol-how-we-got-here-and-what-should-happen-now-keynote-speech-by-rt-hon-lord-frost-of-allenton-cmg/

    The Northern Ireland Protocol: how we got here, and what should happen now?

    Keynote speech by Rt Hon Lord Frost of Allenton CMG

    Wednesday, 27 April, 2022 12:30 – 13:30

  11. alan jutson
    April 15, 2022

    Interesting to view what is going on across the water, only because what happens over there, may affect in some small way what happens here, with trade and people movement.
    Like so many Countries around the World, the choice between the candidates is difficult, because they are both poor for differing reasons.
    Certainly many people are not happy at present with Macron and his policies, but he will probably scrape through with a smaller percentage win than last time

  12. Bryan Harris
    April 15, 2022

    From a logical viewpoint it is impossible to understand why anyone would vote for Macron, except that he is the establishment candidate, and will enjoy support from those that have been indoctrinated by the media.

    He’s been a disaster for the average French person, never mind his inept and oppressive actions with protestors and harsh Covid related measures.
    France deserves so much better!

    If Le Pen loses, it will be because of the irrational right wing description she’s been provided with, something the MSM do to any person or party to the right of Gordon Brown.

    This poisonous labelling has meant that socialism reigns supreme, and yet nobody labels the hard left as the enemy of the state, which they truly are.

    Le Pen is an unknown quantity in many respects, but if we don’t see a major change in French politics nothing will improve for the people of France – far from it. If the French people are happier then there will indeed be less chaos and less tyrannical theatre that Macron has certainly provided.

  13. wanderer
    April 15, 2022

    Is there a technical problem with the site today? My name and email were lost when I tried commenting today, and when I manually type them into the relevant boxes, the comment is still not captured for moderation.

    1. Mark B
      April 15, 2022

      Try another browser. I used Firefox in the end and it seems to have cleared up some of the issues for me.

  14. Nigl
    April 15, 2022

    And in other news the Times reports Boris is going to set the record straight next week with his MPs. Why didn’t he do it at the outset. Because he thought he could get away with it.

    Has Boris ever been straight. Sounds like an oxymoron to me.

  15. beresford
    April 15, 2022

    Once again, afraid to call a spade a spade. The principal attraction of Madame le Pen is that she will tackle the problem of mass immigration and the creation of parallel societies, whereas Macron is another WEF stooge who will continue the Great Replacement. I would be amazed if the globalists let her win, but it would be a terrific fillip to this country by shaking up the cosy conspiracy against our people.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      April 16, 2022

      You imply a valid point.

      We do not look back upon the heroes of The Enlightenment who fought against the Spanish Inquisition as “catholicophobic”.

      We should honour those who continue to defend Enlightenment values today, rather than attach parallel and quite unjustified labels to them.

      However, that absolutely does not mean that we should forgive attempts to erode other of its values, as we see with the denial of evidence, reason and the Scientific Method by deluded regressives in dealing with man-made climate problems and pandemics for instance.

  16. Bryan Harris
    April 15, 2022

    Is anybody in Parliament paying any attention to what is going on with the WHO, and their intention to become the single global authority for medical issues? The intended treaty would override all democratic principles.

    “Many of us are extremely concerned that the WHO now intends to take full control over every member nation via this pandemic treaty. The World Council for Health wrote a response to this a while back and has been watching developments closely.

    Well, this week the WHO pulled a fast one on the world.”

    Link available on request

    1. Donna
      April 15, 2022

      Sir John seems curiously reticent to comment about the WHO’s proposed takeover of our “democracy” whenever they can claim there’s a pandemic.

      reply I have no wish to be under the WHO or for the U.K. to enter new Treaty restrictions

      1. Mickey Taking
        April 15, 2022

        reply to reply…..but you Sir John are probably well aware of the Chinese influence over WHO, the major paymaster? WHO pays the piper calls the tune.

  17. turboterrier
    April 15, 2022

    The only real constant in life apart from death is change
    The French have been led by a man who’s personal agenda was far more important than his country’s. The spectre of the EU and the yellow vest protest all highlight the underlying problems within.
    The French people are more likely to embrace change as long as they feel they are being heard. For the sake of change MLP could well take the prize in a photo finish. As we know only too well what you hear in the hustings is not always what you get but that said MLP has embraced change so it would seem, and I don’t think she will be too focused on anything but France and its people.
    If she does win it might well send a few shock warves through our present parliament.

  18. acorn
    April 15, 2022

    Like elsewhere, there has been a drop-off in voting for the traditional “ruling class” parties basically Conservative and Socialist. Plus “A new low for global democracy” https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/02/09/a-new-low-for-global-democracy

    Prof’ Bill Mitchell has a table of the first round results. As he says, the far left came third with 21.6%; within touching distance of Le Pen. So which way are Jean-Luc Melenchon’s voters going to go? The far left and the far right are both, by their nature, wanting to be dominant-party authoritarian dictatorships. (Like Rwanda.) https://i2.wp.com/bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/France_First_Round_Presidential_Results_2022.png?zoom=1.5&resize=625%2C550

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      April 15, 2022

      MĂ©lenchon has said to his supporters that they must not give a single vote to Le Pen.

      They might just take his advice, being his supporters, like.

  19. Roy Grainger
    April 15, 2022

    Apart from immigration Le Pen’s policies seem little different to Jeremy Corbyn – socialist economics, pro-Russia, anti-NATO. I conclude that for UK a Macron win would be better but of course it is for the French to decide.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      April 16, 2022

      That’s pretty fair, I think, Roy.

    2. Paul Cuthbertson
      April 16, 2022

      RG – Yes, the Globalist UK Establishment would indeed delight in a Macron win.

  20. Narrow Shoulders
    April 15, 2022

    The policies don’t matter, Macron will win as the “anyone but Le Pen” candidate. Just like Biden won as “anyone but Trump” and Johnson won as the “anyone but Corbyn” candidate.

    Next time out John will be the “anyone but”, pay heed.

  21. formula57
    April 15, 2022

    Hollande’s term was time wasted and Macron’s appears much the same, if not quite so ridiculous for him personally. Le Pen would likely make little difference either, constrained by a hostile parliament and by her self-compromising. Poor old France.

    1. Mark B
      April 15, 2022

      They, like us, have discovered that, if you give all the powers away to the EU, when you slowly become irrelevant.

  22. Geoffrey Berg
    April 15, 2022

    What a miserable choice in France between two evils (I wanted Pecresse, the conventional right candidate). Very marginally I think Macron is the lesser evil mainly because Le Pen looks as if she will say anything to get elected and her economic promises are almost as far fetched and unworkable as Corbyn’s were in 2019.

  23. Iago
    April 15, 2022

    What a dreadful future for Linton on Ouse! And for Rwanda. How did they pick Rwanda, throw darts at a map of the world? If the government needed a foreign country, what’s wrong with London? Some parts are quite nice, as I discovered a couple of years ago when I got lost walking and found myself in Mayfair.

    1. Everhopeful
      April 15, 2022

      +1000
      Mayfair! What a good idea.
      And as for Linton on Ouse

      Think of all the soldiers who could be living in those ( MOD?) houses!
      But no..we had to cut our armed forces and now though exposing ourselves to possible attack we have to give away all our weapons.
      Rwanda will no doubt also benefit from U.K. benevolence!

      1. Mickey Taking
        April 15, 2022

        it isn’t giving away our weapons – it is live trials testing – and appears to be very successful.

  24. BOF
    April 15, 2022

    The BBC and msm call her far right but some on here call her left wing. Her policies have changed over the years to include some left wing policies. What is the real Marine le Pen?

    I am not sure but I hope she beats Macron, that tyrant and disciple of Klaus Schwabb and the WEF. Also, no friend of the UK.

  25. DOMINIC
    April 15, 2022

    Will Johnson and Tory MPs congratulate Le Pen if she does manage to overcome the organised coalition now no doubt being put into place to prevent her elevation into office? I bet they don’t

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      April 16, 2022

      Why would they congratulate someone who is ideologically opposed to most UK Conservative doctrine?

      1. Peter2
        April 17, 2022

        They congratulated Biden when he became President

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          April 18, 2022

          Yes, comical that, eh?

  26. Original Richard
    April 15, 2022

    I’m not convinced that there would be any difference for the UK whether MLP or Macron wins as both would be fighting for France in any dispute with the UK, whatever the rights and wrongs of the issue, or the views of the wider world, or even if it results in a “diplomatic incident”, unlike our political establishment and bureaucracy who are working on re-joining the EU and are thus prepared to accept and give in to any insult, injury, threat, decree, decision or request from France or any EU country.

    The BBC, in clear support of Macron, have decided to describe MLP as “far right”, whatever her policies may be, but then everyone to the right of communism is “far right” for the BBC.

    1. Paul Cuthbertson
      April 16, 2022

      OR – There would not be any difference in the UK either regardless of which party is voted in. However it would be good to see the globalist puppet Macron well and truly defeated.

  27. X-Tory
    April 15, 2022

    Macron clearly hates the UK. Quite why, I don’t know, so can only put it down to anti-British racism. I cannot support this Britain-hater so therefore I hope Le Pen wins, though the odds are against her. If she does succeed she will be limited in what she can do by the French parliament which will oppose her, so her radicalism will be circumscribed, but she will probably change the parliamentary electoral system to make it more proportional and fair, so that in future her RN party will have more MPs.

    She will, however, have significant power to stop the EU becoming even more domineering, and will probably ally with Hungary, Poland and the next Italian government (their elections are due next year and will almost certainly be won by the right-wing alliance of Salvini and Meloni). So you will have a large bloc of populist/nationalist governments which will be able to hold the European Commission in check. Good!!!

    On a final point, I think it is disgraceful and very revealing of how left-wing Boris really is that he has not congratulated Orban on his election success, as is the diplomatic custom. Orban was Britain’s best ally when we were in the EU, and was the ONLY leader to suppport Cameron when he opposed Juncker’s bid to be Commission President. And now Boris has turned his back on Orban; what a vile and despicable leader the Conservative Party tolerates. It reflects badly on them.

  28. beresford
    April 15, 2022

    Assuming the Government are serious about their Rwanda scheme, have they given any thought to circumventing the usual immigrationist tactics? The last-minute ‘appeal’ timed for the day of the flight, the ‘illness’ signed off by a sympathetic doctor, even outright physical refusal to board the plane? The thought occurred that we should lease an airbase to Rwanda in the same way we do to the Americans, so that once the migrants arrive at the holding facility there they are ‘on Rwandan soil’ and beyond the reach of British or European courts.

  29. agricola
    April 15, 2022

    If these two french politicians can rise above their own desires for Europe and create a Europe fit for the people of Europe, I would be very happy. All they have to do is consider how peoples lives can be improved and act to achieve said improvements. More democracy at grass roots level and employment opportunities are starting points.

    1. Paul Cuthbertson
      April 16, 2022

      Agricola – When the whole of the EU has collapsed which it will, then there will be a Europe fit for the people of those countries.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        April 18, 2022

        “Russia will not invade Ukraine”

  30. EPCs
    April 15, 2022

    I posted before that the R4 Life scientific prog featured a woman who designed /invented coloured energy rating thing they stick on fridges . This then the prog said transferred to the pretty coloured epc rating system for houses.
    I was obviously too subtle.
    Cons are either thick ( re EPCs ) or
    The You will own nothing thing is true.
    Good set of comments on this in the Telegraph today.
    Somebody print them off quick. Jeeze
    3pm Good Friday ( Sorry God)

  31. acorn
    April 15, 2022

    For those like me, that did not do a PPE degree at Oxford (Philosophy, Politics and Economics); and don’t know their left from their right; or, their authoritarian from their libertarian, have a look at https://www.politicalcompass.org/france2022

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      April 16, 2022

      Interesting chart, Acorn, thanks.

  32. forthurst
    April 15, 2022

    Is Marine le Pen extreme right wing? She is a patriot and opposes policies popular with globalists such as flooding Europe with unassimilable aliens and removing national autonomy and giving it to international bodies such as the EU, NATO, the UN, the WHO etc. Surely it is the globalists exemplified by a weirdly malevolent international organisation that should be construed as extreme right wing; after all their policies are not designed to improve the lives of the many, far from it, as some talk of reducing the world population by 80% presumably by the use of starvation brought about by their economic policies as well as the use of ‘vaccines’ which are as bad at protecting from disease as they are good at causing high mortality and possibly sterility.

    Marine le Pen is left wing because she intends to benefit the many. Marxism isn’t left wing, it’s simply a tool of kleptocrats to steal others wealth as exemplified by the Bolshevik mass murderers who came to power after a coup having gained a foothold through their cynical lying to the landless class.

  33. rose
    April 15, 2022

    Do you think it will be Madame Le President, as in Madame Le Ministre, and Madam Chairman, or will it be a revolutionary Madame La Presidente?

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      April 16, 2022

      You perhaps misunderstand the language.

      In Italian the polite form, to an English person, apparently addresses all persons as female.

      In fact what it is doing is addressing an implied abstract noun, such as “his grace”, and most abstract nouns are feminine.

      In French, some offices may well be male. That entity could also say nothing about the gender of the holder.

      It just depends on expected usage.

      1. Mickey Taking
        April 16, 2022

        what a waste of diary space…

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          April 16, 2022

          Thanks for reading!

      2. rose
        April 16, 2022

        I think you perhaps sometimes misunderstand me, NHL! I understand the grammar alright, which is why I used the word revolutionary. The French guard their language much more carefully than we do.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          April 16, 2022

          Well, when it comes to grammar, particularly re gender, English has very little to guard in relative terms, which some perhaps take to mean that they are free to mess about with it.

          Such punctilious indulgence is impractical with most other tongues. It would mean fundamentally rebuilding them, which for the tiny number who would want that means that it just won’t happen.

  34. DavidJ
    April 16, 2022

    My only hope for the EU is that it destroys itself from within.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      April 16, 2022

      “My only hope is that my neighbour’s house gets dry rot”, says DavidJ, as forest fire approaches.

      1. Peter2
        April 16, 2022

        Have you nothing else left to do with your life NHL?

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