France on the brink.

[Suff]

TIC aside.

I got an interesting view of the CCP and how it works when my Son came over in January. They have devolved local committees who make local decisions and run things locally. The CCP only getting involved as needed.

Last year there was a situation where two women were badly beaten. Unusually the investigation went nowhere and nobody was apprehended for it.

The CCP became involved and an in depth investigation was done. Where they found that local politicians were in bed with criminal gangs. It was the racketeering which caused the beating.

The politicians had a short trial with sentences of 18-22 years of hard regime and the criminals were similarly dealt with.

It is actually a far cry from what we actually believe here in the West. The CCP did not know this was going on and did not have every home bugged, monitored or controlled. But when they acted they acted really fast and very decisively. None of these "uman wights" lawyers in the way.

Certainly it is open to significant abuse, but if you live within the system and the boundaries set, life can be comfortable. For instance my son cycles to the supermarket, places his bike in the bike rack with tens of thousands of others and comes back out to find it exactly where he left it. No lock. He actually doesn't own a bike lock and wouldn't know where to go to buy one.

He was in a restaurant and got up to go to the toilet. it was then that he realised that he'd left his phone on the table. He had to stop and think "will I offend anyone by going back to get it rather than trusting them and leaving it on the table". In fact it was there when he got back and his choice did not offend the locals.

Whilst I am all about freedom of choice and expression, sometimes I wonder what it is we defend? It is supposed to work for us and not against us, yet we seem, sometimes, to be in a tighter straitjacket than the Chinese.

It is a very concerning picture for someone who believes what I do.

[Workingman]

"Badly beaten" = undefined - and you get 18-22 years hard labour for it?

Leave your phone or wallet on a table and someone takes it - hand chopped off!

Not my idea of democracy.

I think that I prefer our version, with all its deficiencies.

At least I can vote out the devolved local committees and get new ones in, and also get rid of the equivalent of the CCP - the government.

Not perfect, but better than an 'elected' one party dictatorship.

[Suff]

No they didn't get 18-24 for badly beaten, they got that for colluding with a crime ring selling drugs and carrying out extortion.

Taking a mobile phone gets some form of administrative discipline but their society has "face" too and shame is a useful tool and they use it well. It makes for a more polite and considerate society in general. But go against the CCP and things get hard really fast.

Looking at the problems we have, I'm unsure how much of that we should emulate.

[Suff]

France gets a newly restructured coalition government to work with the president.

As ever the French don't really know what they want but they will vote for anything BUT what they don't want as soon as they see the unacceptable looking like winning.

I guess this government will be a grand coalition which will say lots of words and do very little of substance that the people want.

The wheel will turn another mm and one day the Le Pen name will be gone from RN and voters will do something very radical.

[Workingman]

Bless! Or it could be that the French are not as thick as Reform Ltd voters.

The British media, by-and-large, is heartbroken that the Fifth Republic still exists. It wanted RN and the French said; "Sod off".

[Suff]

The British media, by-and-large, is heartbroken that the Fifth Republic still exists. It wanted RN and the French said; "Sod off".

Something like that.