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The Herald Scotland
08-08-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Brexit: High time Labour and Keir Starmer showed courage
The findings of a poll conducted by More in Common for The Sunday Times, published over the weekend, were striking. Poll after poll is indicating extensive disillusionment over the UK's Brexit folly. And the latest More in Common poll was no exception. More in Common declared: 'Britons would overwhelmingly vote to Remain in the EU if given the chance to vote again: 58% say Brexit has been a failure compared to 24% who say it has been a success.' Its poll shows that a rounded 53% of Britons would, if the Brexit referendum were held now, vote to stay in the European Union. And the pollster observed this majority included 17% of 2016 Leave voters. Only 29% would still vote to leave the EU. Of those polled, 8% said they did not know how they would vote. And 11% declared they would not vote. Meanwhile, nearly half of Britons now support holding a referendum on rejoining the EU in the next five years, including 74% of the Leave voters who have since switched to supporting Remain. Only 37% oppose holding another vote. More in Common did observe: 'Still, Britons are more likely to say that other anglophone countries such as Canada and Australia are allies than to say the same about EU countries such as France and Germany.' That said, it is the findings on how people would vote if there were another referendum that tell the big story. A YouGov poll published in June showed only 31% of people thought the UK had been right to leave the EU. This poll also revealed most people in the UK wanted to see the country return to the EU - 56%. This is way ahead of the 34% opposing such a move, with 10% of those polled saying they did not know. Read more YouGov noted in June: 'The majority of those who elected this Government last year say that rejoining the EU is the right priority (56%), as do similar numbers of Green (59%) and Lib Dem (55%) voters. Only between 25% [and] 30% of these voters think attempting to rejoin is the wrong priority at the current time.' The Labour Government, while it has certainly been more friendly towards the EU than the Conservatives and has made some small positive moves around the edges of the Brexit damage, appears to remain terrified of upsetting the applecart. In particular, it seems extremely wary of annoying those red-wall voters who switched to Boris Johnson's cause in the December 2019 election. Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, was swift to seize upon the results of the More in Common poll, and made some very good points about these. Writing in The Guardian on Tuesday, Mr Davey declared: 'Brexit isn't working, and the British people know it. Poll after poll, including that unveiled this weekend by More in Common for The Sunday Times, shows that people are feeling the terrible damage caused by the deal forced upon us by Boris Johnson, Kemi Badenoch and the rest of the Conservative Party, and want something different. The latest shows less than a third of Britons would vote to leave the EU if a referendum were repeated.' He added: 'There's no doubt that fundamental change is needed. There's no doubt the public will is there to make it happen. The question is: will Keir Starmer seize the moment and deliver it?' It was difficult to escape the notion, based on the Prime Minister's red lines of not taking the UK back into the EU, the European single market, or even the customs union, that Mr Davey's question was entirely rhetorical. That is not, of course, to say the question is not a crucial one, given that rejoining the EU or simply the single market are the only things which could deliver a step-change to growth for the beleaguered UK economy, and deliver a huge boost to living standards. It is important to remember the size of the prize on offer here, if Labour were to grab it, which of course it shows absolutely no intention of doing. Office for Budget Responsibility chairman Richard Hughes said in spring 2023 of Brexit's effect: 'We think that in the long run it reduces our overall output by around 4% compared with had we remained in the EU.' This is a colossal amount. Read more Meanwhile, Labour has been scrambling about for tiny gains. It estimates a boost of about 0.1% to UK gross domestic product by 2040 from the India trade deal that it has surely made a much bigger deal of than is warranted. Mr Davey did give Sir Keir credit for 'some tentative steps in the right direction'. He said of the Prime Minister: 'He has at least shown a willingness to take a more positive and pragmatic approach to Europe than his Conservative predecessors. He has talked about a youth mobility scheme and bringing down trade barriers in key sectors such as farming and energy.' However, Mr Davey observed that, so far, 'all these amount to little more than promises to 'work towards' new deals'. It is crucial to realise that, even if Sir Keir delivers what he is working towards, the mitigation of the overall Brexit damage will be very small. Rejoining the European single market would, in contrast, deliver a huge boost. Mr Davey declared: 'Of course, we know why Starmer has been reluctant to go further. He's spooked by the combined threat of the Conservatives and Reform, both of whom are itching for the chance to plunge Britain back into the nasty Brexit wars of the past decade. Well, I say let them try. With so many serious problems in need of urgent solutions, the British people have absolutely no appetite for all that division and distraction, and they will have no truck with politicians who do. 'The way to see off the populist right isn't to cower in its shadow; it's to step up and offer a compelling, positive alternative.' It might be a bit optimistic to think the British people lack appetite for 'division and distraction' and 'nasty Brexit wars', though it would be great if Mr Davey turned out to be right on this point. Whatever the score on that, Mr Davey's comments about the need for a 'compelling, positive alternative' are on the money. Such an alternative has seemed for the most part to be lacking from the Labour Government since it came to power last July. It would be good to see something more courageous from Labour. Something that would give living standards in the UK a desperately needed lift. Rejoining the European single market is the answer, of course, but it seems Sir Keir does not even want to consider the question.
Local France
05-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Local France
13 French words that creep into your English
The English and French languages share a lot of words and have deeply entwined roots. In fact one French linguist has made the case that La langue anglaise n'existe pas - c'est du français mal prononcé (the English language does not exist - it's just badly pronounced French. He was joking. Mostly ). Borrowing words between the two languages goes back to 1066 and beyond and continues to this day as all sorts of anglicisms crop up in everyday French from le wifi to un job , via un ' appy 'our to un co-working . But while young French people like to toss in the odd English word to sound cool, English speakers who move to France and immerse themselves in the language often find French words creeping into their English. Sometimes this is because a perfect English equivalent doesn't exist, other times it is because the French is snappier or just sounds better. Here are some common examples, feel free to share yours in the comments section below. Apéro - pre-dinner drinks. This one probably crops up because apéro plays a strong cultural part in French life, and there isn't an exact equivalent in anglophone cultures. The French apéritif , commonly shortened to apéro , is drinks before dinner but it's also a social occasion and it's common to be either invited to someone's home for apéro , or to join people in a bar for apéro . On the other hand, the French themselves sometimes use a borrowed English phrase - happy hour - to talk about post-work drinks or an early-evening offer of reduced-price drinks in a bar. READ ALSO : Apéro: All you need to know about the French evening ritual Expo - exhibition or art show. The French 'o' ending is a common casual shortening of words, so you might find yourself using 'resto' (restaurant) or 'expo' (exhibition) if you're chatting about your weekend plans. Advertisement Profit well - enjoy/take advantage of - if you're wishing someone a good time or a happy experience, you might find yourself using the word 'profit'. While profit in English is most commonly used in connection with finances, in French it's widely used for any experience that you might gain some benefit from eg profiter du soleil (to enjoy the sunshine) or profiter des vacances (to make the most of the holidays) or simply as a response if someone tells you they're off to do something fun 'profitez-bien !' (enjoy!) Fonctionnaire - civil servant/public sector employee. While a perfectly adequate translation of this job status exists, somehow it doesn't convey the awesome power of the French fonctionnaire . In a heavily centralised state bureaucracy, the decision of a fonctionnaire can make the difference between an easy life and a nagging administrative nightmare. Wise people are therefore very polite to fonctionnaires . Advertisement If you're talking about them, not to them, you might be discussing the other side of this job status - while not especially well paid, public sector employees in France generally enjoy generous work conditions, benefit from perks like RTT days and are quite likely to strike. It's sometimes seen as a bit of a cushy job, but avoid saying this if you need one of them to help you. Précision - clarification. Another one from the world of French administration, which will likely take up a significant amount of your time. A précision is simply a clarification or a statement offering further details on a previous announcement or decision. But the devil is in the details, and a simple précision can give a case a whole new meaning. Dossier - file/application. The simple translation of a dossier is a file or folder, but it's also used more widely to mean the bundle of documents you have to put together to make an application to rent an apartment, for example, or for French residency or citizenship. It's sometimes also used as a shorthand to mean the application itself. If your dossier is approved, everything is going well. On the other hand, a message telling you "Votre dossier est incomplet" is enough to make French residents break out in a cold sweat - the wimpy English translation (your file is incomplete) just doesn't convey the true horror of the situation. Advertisement Perturbed - disrupted. This one always sounds funny to English ears, where 'perturbed' is a very archaic way of talking about emotional distress or disquiet (think Jane Austen heroines). In France, on the other hand, trains, ferries and Metros are regularly 'perturbed', with perturbation describing any kind of disruption. It's less specific than retardé (delayed) or annulé (cancelled) - perturbé tells that a service is disrupted, probably in a significant way. Two thousands nineteen - 2019. This is a symptom of speaking French regularly, when year dates are spelled out in their entirety. Instead of the English way of saying 'twenty-nineteen' or 'nineteen eighty four', a French speaker would day deux milles dix neuf (two thousands nineteen) or mille neuf cent quatre-vingt quatre (one thousand, nine hundred eighty-four). You might find yourself doing it with the time as well, specifying to friends that you want to meet at '20h' - meaning 8pm - and having them wonder why you're suddenly using military time to discuss a restaurant reservation. Advertisement Manif - demo. This is another one where a perfectly fine English translation exists, but it somehow doesn't convey the cultural importance of the French event. Manifestation means demonstration and the shortened version is manif , like demo. But while protests of course exist in the UK, US, Australia and other English-speaking countries, they're not quite a part of the social fabric in the same way as in France. Tell your French friends that you're 'going to the manif' on May 1st and they will understand precisely what you mean with no need for further questions or clarifications. Telly travail/ telly medicine - remote work, online medical consultation. Many of the anglicisms that are widely adopted in France become popular because they're shorter and snappier than the French version. Think le wifi versus access à internet sans fils . Or to give a franglais example salle de shoot versus salle de consommation à moindre risque . But sometimes it happens the other way around and the prefix télé meaning something done at a distance online is a perfect example. It can then be added to any word to mean an online, distance version - eg télétravail - remote working, télémedecine - a remote doctor's appointment, téléconsultation - an online appointment. More of these will likely emerge as the world moves online, and French has a perfect, elegant formula to add 'télé' to the beginning of the thing that is now online. The Covid pandemic gave us another nice example of elegant prefixes, when le confinement (lockdown) became déconfinement (lifting lockdown) and then reconfinement (going back into lockdown). RIB - bank details necessary to set up a direct debit or make a payment. Need someone to send you their banking details, including account name and number? French has an easy word for that RIB (pronounced reeb). It's an acronym for Relevé d'Identité Bancaire and is so handy you'll find yourself telling people to 'send me your RIB' with abandon. READ ALSO : SIDA to IRM to RIB: Everyday French initials and acronyms to know Chômage - unemployment/unemployment benefits. Chômage simply means unemployment, so it's used to talk about unemployment levels within a country, but it's also widely used as a shorthand for unemployment payments/benefits. So you can casually say 'he's on chômage' to mean that someone isn't working but is registered with the French unemployment office to seek work, and for the moment is living off unemployment benefits. Although it can be used negatively, it somehow feels less stigmatising than saying someone is 'on the dole' on 'on benefits'. France's generous unemployment system in which people are paid a percentage of their former salary for up to 18 months, means that chômage is sometimes more of a career goal than a catastrophe. READ ALSO : How generous is France's unemployment system? Controlled - stopped by police/inspectors for a check. Another piece of elegant French simplicity, if you were stopped by police for an ID check, if you were pulled over while driving for a vehicle check or if the conductor came round to inspect your ticket, you were 'controlled'. In French that kind of official stop and check is un contrôle and the past tense verb form is contrôlé . Do you find French words creeping into your English? If so, share which ones in the comments section below
Local France
13-07-2025
- Climate
- Local France
July 14, wildfires, and the big bike race: 6 essential articles for life in France
July 14th is the Fête nationale in France, sometimes known as Bastille Day in the anglophone world. It marks the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille in 1789 – the event that symbolises the beginning of the French revolution. There are many ways to celebrate, including fireworks displays, traditional parades and the highly popular bals de pompiers , where French firefighters host parties in their station houses. Here's what to expect this year. July 14th: What's happening during France's Fête nationale this year It's still early in the usual summer season for wildfires, but France has already dealt with two major blazes that caused widespread travel disruption – one of which saw hundreds of people evacuated from their homes in the country's second-largest city . These are unlikely to be the last major fires of the summer due to tinder-dry conditions and further forecast heatwaves. Scientists say that climate change is making the European wildfire season longer while increasing the geographical spread of fire risk zones and making the heatwaves that are a major cause of fires more likely. So.. Is France ready for a summer of increasingly severe wildfires? In total only around 25 percent of private homes in France have air conditioning installed, so if you're moving here then it's likely that your new place won't have it. There are, however, alternatives that will also keep you cool when la canicule (the heatwave) hits. 7 alternatives to air conditioning in France Advertisement It's fair to say France is a country that thrives on bureaucracy and admin – and many new arrivals are issued with strict instructions to never throw away any piece of paper, in case it proves vital at a later date. But, with more and more admin moving online things are perhaps less paper-based than they used to be, but still the terror of throwing away the wrong item remains. So, now, the French government's Service Public has issued a list of the papers that must be kept forever and ever, and those that can safely be thrown away after a certain amount of time. French government clarifies how long you must keep paperwork for They're expensive, but for some people full immersion French language exchanges are the best way to learn the language. Here, Gabrielle Nadler examines the advantages and disadvantages of these programmes. Are French language exchange holidays worth it? Some 184 riders from 26 countries set off on a big cycling tour around France with the dream of winning the world's most famous bicycle race – here's why you should watch the Tour de France, even if you have no interest in bikes. 7 reasons to watch the Tour de France (even if you have no interest in cycling)
Local France
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Local France
French Word of the Day: Superproduction
Why do I need to know superproduction? Because your French cinephile friends might invite you to see one this summer – if only to spend some time in an air-conditioned room out of the scorching sun. What does it mean? Superproduction – yes, its two words glued together, and pronounced soo-pair-prodd-ucc-syon – is the French term for a big-budget movie, usually involving plenty of action and big-bang special effects, and refers to the significant financial and material resources needed to bring it to the silver screen. The anglophone term blockbuster – which has crossed the English-French linguistic barrier – surfaced in the 1940s and takes its inspiration from the Second World War bombs capable of destroying entire blocks of buildings. Advertisement Although the term has been around since the 40s, it only really gained traction in 1975 – when Jaws smashed box office expectations – taking in an astonishing $470 million globally on a budget of $7 million. Ever since, 'blockbuster' has also included recognition of a movie's commercial success. But the linguistically correct French term for a Hollywood blockbuster would be superproduction hollywoodienne. Use it like this Les Trois Mousquetaires a été un superproduction français qui a rapporté 100 millions de dollars – The Three Musketeers was a $100 million French blockbuster « Les Dix Commandements », de Cecil B DeMille, « Ben-Hur », de William Wyler, sont des superproductions – Cecil B DeMille's 'The Ten Commandments' and William Wyler's 'Ben-Hur' are blockbuster films.
Local France
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Local France
July 14th: What's happening during France's Fête nationale this year
July 14th is the Fête nationale in France, sometimes known as Bastille Day in the anglophone world. It marks the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille in 1789 – the event that symbolises the beginning of the French revolution. There are many ways to celebrate, including fireworks displays, traditional parades and the highly popular bals de pompiers , where French firefighters host parties in their station houses. The day is a public holiday and this year falls on a Monday, giving a nice three-day weekend to workers. Parades Towns and cities across France hold events on July 14th. In Paris, the President attends the country's largest military parade, which will be televised. This year, it returns to its usual route along the Champs-Élysées, after moving in 2024 because of preparations for the Olympic Games in Paris. Advertisement The 2025 event will mark two centenaries – that of the Comité de la Flamme, which has been responsible for ensuring the daily rekindling of the Flame of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe since 1925, as well as that of the symbol of national solidarity the Bleuet de France, which was first introduced that same year. READ ALSO : French word of the Day: Bleuet✎ To open the ceremony, the President will present a new sword to the Flame Committee during an unprecedented ceremony at Place Charles-de-Gaulle, before a moment of reflection at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. At the end of the ceremony, young people from military training camps, cadets, civic service volunteers and the SNU will form a human Bleuet in front of the presidential stand to the strains of an original piece of music called Le Souffle du Bleuet . The event will take place in the morning of Monday, July 14th, from 9.55am, and will run around 12 noon. Some 7,000 people will take part, along with 200 horses and 102 aircraft, according to official figures. Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto is this year's guest of honour at the event, which also marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of Franco-Indonesian diplomatic relations. Concert A free concert on the Champ de Mars, featuring the Orchestre National de France, the Maîtrise, and the Chœur de Radio France will kick off the evening's celebrations in the capital. This concert will be broadcast live on France 2 and France Inter, and simultaneously by the EBU-Eurovision in more than 20 countries, making it one of the largest classical music events in the world, with several million viewers. Fireworks It's traditional for towns and cities across France to put on fireworks displays on the night itself, or on July 13th. These happen even in quite small towns so check your local mairie's website or Facebook page for details. It's also worth checking if the event will go ahead if your area is under alert for wildfires. Advertisement As well as the fireworks, a display involving 1,000 drones will light up the night sky above Paris, following the success of last year's Olympic Games-related show. The display will start around 11pm, from the Bassins du Trocadéro as usual but also, and for the most part, from the Eiffel Tower itself. Bals de pompiers French firefighters traditionally open up their stations to visitors around the date of the Fête Nationale, and host the famous bals des pompiers (firemen's balls). Check your local press for details. Many of these events are family-friendly and laid back, but others may get a little more raunchy later on as les pompiers show off their famously well-honed physiques to an appreciative audience. READ ALSO : French firefighters: Why are they so smoking hot?✎ Closures and operating hours July 14th is a public holiday in France and, as it falls on a Monday this year, that means a long weekend is in store for many workers. Advertisement Larger chains such as supermarkets, especially in the cities, may be open for part of the day, but may have different or limited opening hours. Bars, cafés, restaurants and tourist attractions should be open as normal. Banks and government offices, however, will be closed, as will many independent shops plus sites such as leisure centres. Trains and buses run as normal while city public transport will still run but may have slightly altered opening hours. If you're in Paris note that some Metro stations will be closed along the route of the parade and the concert. Emergency services operate as normal, most doctors or dentists will close their offices but pharmacies have a rota system called the pharmacie de garde , meaning that at least one is open in each area. Tour de France Organisers of the iconic cycle race have slightly altered the schedule of rest days this year so that Monday will see racing. On July 14th the cyclists will be tackling the mountainous Puy-de-Dôme area, setting off from Ennezat and finishing at Le Mont Dore. READ ALSO : 7 reasons to watch the Tour de France (even if you have no interest in cycling)✎
