Le Totty Watch : Socialist Affairs

The French press is even more craven in the reporting of political misdoings than our own tame/feral* Lobby. So it is no surprise that it was the French blogosphere, not the Paris press, that made it impossible to keep Socialist party leader François Hollande's affair secret.

François had four children with Ségolène Royal (pictured left), the losing French Socialist Presidential candidate. He is having an affair with TV8's political reporter, Valerie Trierweiler (pictured right). When announcing their split the elegant Ségolène said that now "he was free to enjoy his romantic life alone".

France has strict privacy laws of the kind that some of our politicians would love to have over here. Blogs now make those laws almost impossible to enforce. Technological progress.

Hat-tip : EuroSoc

*You choose.

No Independent Deterrent MeansNo Independent Foreign Policy

As the Tories traipse loyally into the "Aye" lobby with Blair it is worth reflecting on what they are really voting for - a foreign and defence policy subordinate to the U.S. national interest. Now it may be the case that U.S. and U.K. interests generally coincide, but this is a strategic decision which binds Britain to the U.S. for the next thirty years.

If it has been possible for the French to have an independent Force de Frappe and Force Océanique Stratégique since the sixties surely the British can manage after half-a-century to have control of their own weapons system. Since no U.S. president would ever sacrifice a U.S. city to save London, it is verging on treachery to vote to allow the U.S. the ultimate veto on the Defence of the Realm.

For the £30 to £60 billion the replacement system will allegedly cost, surely the Royal Navy could be equipped with a British made and truly independent deterrent. Or is British technology as inferior to French technologie as the British political establishment's deference to U.S. interests is inferior to the French sense of exceptional national interest?