There is a far from aptly named brand of wines available in my local French supermarket – claiming to be a chosen by a club of wine experts. The truth is that their overpriced beverages struggle with kerosene and effluent to be about the worst drinks of choice to quench your thirst on a hot Spring day.
So much about France is all about appearance contrasting with reality. Just like my local garage proprietor who will drop everything to help me if I ever need a hand. Yet, the other day I watched as he served fuel to a man of black African descent. The distaste of the chore was clearly evident in his face and in the end so much for him to bear that he broke off before completing the requested “top up” and demanded cash. The customer responded in a kind of shocked reverie – not feeling as though he could find the dignity even to walk to the office to pick up his change. Here is a country that might one day vote to power a National Front party that will talk “immigration controls,” but think a lethal brand of horrific prejudice that my neighbourly garage man will no doubt secretly applaud.
Then there is the most insane doublethink of all. The political commitment to the 35-hour week. It has been the delight of successive French governments and is constantly enforced through the labour inspectorate and highly employee-orientated Les conseils de prud‘hommes. Yet it is a pure fallacy – and not effective at all. Roll in the EU’s latest Labour Force Survey statistics. The truth is that the average full-time French employee actually works hours very close to the EU average and the French part-time worker well in excess of the EU average. On reflection this is no surprise. After all the government lets overtime hours be worked free of tax and social security contributions in companies with less than 20 employees and one thing the French can be proud of is their adherence to the “protestant work ethic” – in spite of the country’s predominant Catholicism (more doublethink).
Finally there is the French peoples’ constant impulse to man the barricades. It may be over two centuries since the French Revolution, but less than fifty since 1968 when the streets of Paris looked like the original day the desperate revolutionaries stormed the Bastille. As a factory manager do not try closing a plant unless you first make sure you have your car engine running and a clear line of sight to its door. Once the news spreads you could otherwise be held hostage for days – and do not imagine the police will ever intervene. Yet look beneath the syndicalist veneer and you will find that union membership in France is lower than anywhere in Europe. Many designer socialists rely on the few active CGT extremists to win concessions for them, whilst they down another glass of Bordeaux blanc – the choice of “experts”.
* George Orwell