Demonstrations

As in London there have demonstrations around the Olympic flame in Paris and given that the first parade of the flame was organised by hitler to legitimise the 1936 Games it seems quite appropriate that the chinese would do the same! BUT they have over-shadowed others here in France; the new government, set up by a new President committed to social and finacial reforms, are beginning to announce their spending plans. Or rather cutting plans! Committed to reducing Public Spending they have announced their education plan, which reduces the number of country schools and generally reduces the number of classes and therefore the teachers as well as increasing class size. The whole world is on the march and blockading schools, teachers, parents and students all involved, this closely following protests against the closure of local post offices.

Down on the coast there's trouble too, the government is reducing the number of life-guards by 9000 staff, this wont cause redundancies as they are generally part of the Gendarmery, which in itself is a brigade of the army; they will be redeployed. Seaside towns are seething about beach safety and threatening to close beaches off peak.

There are also cuts in the health service, one of which is that the state national health service no longer fund services related to circulatory problems like say varicose veins. On this one I think the government is on a winner; by the very nature of their complaint it seems unlikely that they will be making protest marches !