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Wednesday, 13 June 2007 |
Dear Editor,
As a retired detective I read with interest the article (May
edition) on the drugs seizure at Bourges. Are the quantities
quoted for the heroin recovery correct? If true, the headline
“massive” is an understatement and the drug squad all deserve a
medal. In my day, only eight years ago, 2.5kg would have been
worthy of opening a bottle of scotch. In any event, just to wind
him up, I’ve sent the article to a chum currently serving with the
Serious and Organised Crime Agency in England, with a note
saying “This is how we do it in France!”
Best wishes to all at FNews,
Keith Hill, Deux-Sèvres.
Nick Rowswell apologises for missing the decimal point. It was
2.5kg, not 2,500kg – Ed
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Wednesday, 13 June 2007 |
Bonjour,
In ‘Le Figaro’ magazine, (May 26), the excellent article by
Dominique Gaulme is illustrated by a photo and caption
indicaing a cricket match. In fact, it is a game of boulingrin
(bowls or bowling) played on an ‘English’ lawn with
asymetrical balls.
This might be a good occasion to remind English readers
that the current Cricket Olympic Champions are… France!
(Cricket was scrapped from the Olympic programme in 1900 or
1904.) But bowls seem more appropriate for a young 70-year-old
pensioner. Do you or your readers know if there are any bowling
greens in France, especially Basse-Normandie?
Cordialement,
Alain Douet, Argentan (61)
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Wednesday, 13 June 2007 |
Under European Briefs (May issue) you state that a body mass
index (BMI) of over 25 indicates that you are internationally
considered obese. This is quite incorrect, the BMI ,otherwise
known as Quetelet’s index considers up to and including 25 as
optimal weight, between 25 and 30 as overweight and above 30
as obese, though the latter figure is 27 according to the British
Medical Association. One wouldn’t want to start panic dieting!
Tim Fitton, by email
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Wednesday, 13 June 2007 |
Clin Bond’s fond souvenirs of its
conception, delivery
and early infancy
One day early in 1987, deep down in
the Dordogne, a certain Rod Craig
and I were having a chat over his
neighbouring winemaker’s red stuff. A
common theme cropped up: the steady
growth in the number of English (by
which, of course, we meant British)
settling in the region, a phenomenon I’d
been observing since my arrival as one of
the early birds in 1975.
Rod, an ex-newspaperman from
England, reckoned that these people
definitely needed some form of bulletin,
a communication tool, so why not
start one?
Not long afterwards, joined by Peter
Hankey who would look after the
accounts, Rod started editing, helped by
me as dogsbody with the accent on sales
and distribution. Of course, we argued
long over what to call the journal, but
finally settled on ‘The News’ as being a
simple and straightforward title, also
understandable by the French.
I have haunting memories of
crouching over Rod’s kitchen table in
the dead of winter, in anorak and
scarf to keep out the cold while
cutting and pasting (literally,
physically) texts churned out on Rod’s
then high-tech, top of the range computer
– an Atari or a Commodore, I can’t
remember which.
Five thousand copies, all of eight
pages, ‘The News’ number one came out
in June ’87 and was rushed, hot off the
press, to tourist boards, campsites, Anglo-
French clubs and Brit-favoured watering
holes. In those early days, distribution
was one our worst headaches, we were
not yet recognised as press barons
benefiting from the national, and of
course, highly bureaucratic, distribution
system, so we were obliged to spread the
good news, as it were, ourselves.
I remember driving to Bergerac
railway station and bribing the train guard
to drop a load off at Sarlat, destined for
the local British enclave; then backtracking
to leave piles in cafés for the
Duras and Eymet ‘chapters’.
We soon found that we had a tiger by
the tail: the growth in demand was
tremendous and it was a hard task keeping
up with it, especially as we three founders
also had day jobs to hang on to. However,
finally recognised by officialdom,
nationwide distribution to newsagents
became possible. By this time we were
actually able to employ people and hours
were spent churning through French
phone directories searching for British
names to whom we could send out
invitations to subscribe.
And so, by stages, over long years, we
managed to grasp the tiger by the scruff
of the neck rather than the tail, the rest of
which, the tale that is, by now you
probably know.
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Wednesday, 13 June 2007 |
The furious spat between Russia and
Estonia over the moving of a Soviet
war memorial conceals more downto-
earth motives than respect for war dead
and the rights of small countries to stand
up to bullies.
Largely unreported, the Nord Stream
gas pipeline direct from Russia to
Germany under the Baltic would seem to
be at the back of it all. Egged on by the
United States and emboldened by
membership of Nato and the European
Union, Estonian Prime Minister Andrus
Ansip is obstructing the progress of this
energy link so vital to the Russians, as it
will weaken the stranglehold by ex-Soviet
states on the transport of gas to Europe. It
will go through or at least affect the larger
Estonian Exclusive Economic Zone in the
Gulf of Finland.
The joint German and Russian
company has the right to build a pipeline in
this zone but must satisfy Estonian
environmental concerns. This involves a
procedure of enquiry and consultation. The
Estonians have recently rejected the
dossier on the grounds that it was
incorrectly filled out, causing a delay of
four months. Then came the statue affair.
Independent observers wonder why after
16 years of independence the Estonians
suddenly decided to exercise their right
to move the war memorial just a few
days before the annual remembrance day
in Russia on May 9… just when
Russian-Western relations were at a low
ebb over US plans for missiles in Poland
and the Czech Republic.
If it was a provocation it worked a
treat. One man died and 150 were injured
in the ensuing riot by ethnic Russians, who
make up almost a third of the population of
Estonia and half that of Tallin, the capital.
Mobs demonstrated against Estonian
diplomats. The Estonian Prime Minister
then refused to receive ex-German
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder who fronts
for the Nord Stream pipeline. One in the
eye for the pipeline lobby?
Certainly, but in a unique new
development Estonian internet links were
then swamped and blocked by Russian
internet users who may or may not have
links with the Kremlin. Estonia is one of
the most internet-orientated societies in the
world. Banks and other institution have
been severely damaged financially.
Under the terms of the Nato treaty, this
act is not a recognised military threat. In
his famous wolf speech last year, when he
criticised the United States for its
aggressive foreign policy, Vladimir Putin
promised to face up to encirclement by
Nato but he also said that Russia would act
asymmetrically; it would not make the
mistake of the Soviet Union and be drawn
into ruinously expensive countermeasures.
This looks like an interesting first
instalment of a cheap but effective
reminder to tiny Estonia, population 1.7
million, that non-cooperation has a price
whoever one’s allies are. It may also be a
warning to Finland not to abandon its
traditionally neutral position and join
Nato, as some of its leaders currently urge.
At the recent Russia-EU summit,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and
Commission President José Manuel
Barroso, after swapping insults with
President Putin about human rights,
solemnly warned that Estonia’s is a
European Union problem. Putin then asked
a very relevant question to which he got no
reply: “Is there no limit to this solidarity?”,
which could be translated as: “Does this
mean that every time some small EU state
decides to pick a quarrel with its
neighbours, the whole EU has to take its
side regardless of the consequences or the
justice of the case?”
There is no doubt that the present push
for some sort of majority voting in the EU
is related to it.
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