Food For Thought

Food For Thought

I'm becoming more and more conscious of how weather affects diet. In the past that must necessarily have been the case since you could only eat what was available at the time. Now, with ubiquitous supermarkets, fridges and freezers, you can eat most things within your budget at any time of the year. But…….what do you feel like eating?

I find, much more so here than when i was in the UK, that what I want to eat/drink depends a lot on the weather. Most of the year I'm happy with a typical French breakfast: next to nothing plus coffee. But the weather has been cold for the past 2-3 weeks, sunny but cold, and so I have been indulging in plates of porridge and bacon sandwiches for breakfast. They set me up to face the cold outside. Also, when I'm entertaining friends to eat in the evening, I cook stews, casseroles, pies, curries and the like; and the wine to go with the meal has to be red.

In the warm weather, despite the fact that my body probably needs similar sustenance, I'd never dream of cooking a stew. I might cook meat, even a curry possibly, but the meat would probably be chicken and fish and salads would be on my mind. Rosé and white wine also; I almost never drink rosé wine in the winter, despite this region having some of the best rosé wine in the world. That's unremarkable except in that the preference is dictated by the weather. The food in supermarkets here is more seasonal than in the UK but I can still have more or less anything that I want; but I find my choices are very much influenced by the weather, which was rarely the case when I was in the UK.

The Wrinklies' Lunch

Still on food, «crumblies» might be a better translation for the French slang «croulants» to describe those of us of mature years. This year, as every year, the village offers everyone over 60 years of age a free lunch, served by members of the village council and the mayor. The reason given for this generosity is to thank the wrinklies for past services to the village. For the record, the menu this year was as follows.

Apéritif

Feuiilleté forestier sur lit de salade verte

Cassolette de la mer

Sauté de canard aux agrumes

Petite épautre des Baronnies et légumes de saison

Fromages

Tiramisu au café

Café, thé

Vins: Côtes du Rgone rouge et blanc, clairette de Die

The meal was great and so was the company. Having got through that lot I managed (just) to get home without going down on all fours and crawling. I think this is just one more brilliant thing about this village ;

A Thought On Brexit

If you are old enough to remember the early years of TV you may remember a frequent message on a screen showing extreme interference («snow»): Do not switch off your set, there is a temporary fault in transmission. I remember seeing somewhere a variation on that: Do not switch off your mind, there s a temporary fault in reality. Apt or what?

Brexit Summary

Brexit Summary

Given what I have been saying on Brexit I can't let the latest development, the defeat of May's Brexit deal, go uncommented. The defeat of Corbyn's no confidence in May vote was not a development, simply a miscalculation by a dogmatically inclined politician and, unfortunately, leader of the Opposition, who seems not to, or refuses to, accept anything outside his dogma.

According to the latest You Gov survey around 12% more people in the UK want Brexit to be cancelled than for it to go ahead. I'm shocked. Well, at least that disposes of the «will of the people» argument. If the will of the people is to be done now Brexit will be cancelled. What I can't get my head round is the 44% who apparently still want it to go ahead. Why?

I've disposed of the «will of the people» argument so let's address the democratic issue. If anyone claims the referendum result was a democratic vote they are right. However, if they claim that therefore it must be enacted they are wrong. Constitutionally a referendum in Britain can only ever be advisory, whatever any politician says (and who on earth believes that politicians should always be taken at their word?). Both the Act of parliament that allowed a referendum (necessary, as a referendum is no part of the UK's democratic process, please note) and the Act that defined it both clearly stated that the result could only ever be advisory. So why do some people still insist that the result has to enacted? Quite simply, that is not true.

So much for those theoretical arguments. What of the practicalities? I can see only four possibilities going forward. The first is that May's deal second time around is accepted but, given the huge majority against it first time around, that has little credence.

Another is that a «no deal» Brexit happens. I think it could do, but only by accident. A significant majority of MPs have said that they will not let it happen because of the disastrous financial consequences (an economic recession of up to two decades estimated by one of its supporters, Rees-Mogg). Put it this way, if the Leave campaign had proposed an economic recession of up to two decades, higher food prices, fewer jobs and less money for the NHS, who would have voted for it? More pertinently for the Government, who would at a subsequent general election? The will of the people? An undeliverable impossible dream was needed.

A third is a second referendum but, realistically, that would in May's probably more or less accurate estimation (two more Acts of Parliament and considerable discussion and organisation needed) take a year to organise. It looks impractical.

The fourth possibility is to delay or cancel Brexit. The EU is probably thoroughly fed up with the UK by now and its reaction to a proposed extension is unlikely to be positive and, if granted, would probably include onerous conditions. Cancelling Brexit would have no negative implications, apart from the considerable costs already incurred for no reason.

So the obvious conclusion as I see it is that Brexit should be cancelled. But………….44% of the population apparently still does not see it that way. So which of the alternatives above do they want? There is an understandable reaction, I think, which ignores my first two points above and says: we are now fed up with the whole mess, just get on with it. However, that just gets back to my second set of points; which of the possibilities do you want?

There is another counter argument. If we are not going to deliver the result of the referendum, why did we have one? The answer to that is clear and generally accepted. We had one because the Conservative Party was split before the general election before last and David Cameron, not confident of winning the election and afraid of the UKIP influence, chose it as a way of trying to avoid a split in the conservative party. That failed; the Conservative party is still split. There was discontent with the EU in the UK, as in all EU countries, but no public clamour for a Brexit. The referendum came about not through any debate on the UK's future but because of a spat in the Conservative party. It' really should be only as important as that but has got out of hand. Again, impossible undeliverable dreams needed.

For myself I can explain the 44% in only one of three ways. Some part of that percentage must be the neo- fascist racist boneheads who support such organisations as the EDL and BNP. Another part I can only explain as people who have bought the impossible dream sold to them: return to the days of Empire (reconquer India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, etc). Do these people ever reason, think of practicalities? A final part, I suspect, are fed up with the whole process and just want done with the mess. These, in my view, are the most dangerous because, in throwing up their hand in despair they despair of their own important part in the democratic process; indeed of democracy itself.

So, if Brexit is cancelled, which is still just a possibility; what do we have? Certainly not Nirvana. We return to a situation, at significant cost, in which a large and important minority of people are discontented with the EU of which we are still a part. The good point there, I think, is that we share that situation with many other EU countries and that is the best indicator that the EU will be subject to the necessary reforms, for the benefit of all concerned. Somewhat paradoxically, a Conservative Thatcher handbagging will be needed.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Let's face it, this is the time of the year to do that, if ever there is one. Looking back is easy and not painful for me personally. Looking forward is quite another matter and I do not claim to be or seek to be any kind of Nostradamus but I do have some thoughts. So let's start with the easy bit.

Holiday Festivities And The Past Year

I had a good festive period; Carl (in photo) was here with me and I was able to eat, drink and make soberly merry with good friends; The presents I gave to family and friends seem to have been well chosen and well received. I couldn't ask for more. 

The pre-season activities, in particular my participation in the “bonnets rouges” singing of carols in the Bar du Pont also went very well (see photo, I'm on the right)) with a positive write-up in the local Le Dauphiné newspaper. That was very largely due to the patience, talent and perseverance of friend Jo.

The earlier part of the year passed with little of note. A couple of good friends died. It wasn't unexpected but was nonetheless saddening andt is something I am now resigned to; like it or not, as friends get older it is something that is going to happen rather regularly in the future until I am one of those who departs. So be it.

There is one outstanding item on my agenda from last year, an apparently trivial one but one that is important to me, and that is to get the Mairie to prune the lime trees across the road in front of my house to allow more sunlight in and a better floral display in the summer. As is the practice here, I shall enlist the support of friends in the village to put pressure on the Mairie to get that done. That is trivial in the general scheme of things but important to me and my neighbours.

The only other matter of importance to me is that I have had trouble for years in walking very far. Diagnosed in the UK as a problem with my hips it was identified here as a blockage in the Aorta where it splits to go down the legs and removal of that has given me back my legs. It feels great.

So much for the past. What does Dicken's ghost of the future foretell?

Looking Forward

For me personally, the demon on the near horizon is Brexit. I am in the process of trying to obtain French citizenship and have no reason to doubt that that will eventually succeed. It will take a while as French administrative processes move slowly but I foresee no absolute problem there. For the UK, to which I still have a strong personal attachment not only for myself but also for family and friends, the problem is much greater.

I totally fail to comprehend the apparent fatalism with which many UK friends apparently regard Brexit as inevitable. It need not be inevitable and the populace can stop it if it decides to. Rightly or wrongly I see Brexit as part of a more general phenomenon in Europe: the rise of the extreme right and nationalism backed by external funds to a significant extent. In France the “gilets jaunes” started as a protest against tax on fuel and looked initially to be a standard, short-lived French show of popular defiance. However the protest has become prolonged and extended its remit to include many more social grievances, all linked to the wealth gap. Throughout most of Europe the wealth gap, already large, is growing. Continuation of this trend can lead only to revolution of some sort, certainly in countries more amenable to revolution than the UK. If allied with nationalism, as Mitterand once said; that means war. That may sound over dramatic but I can see no other conclusion unless the trend to an increasing wealth gap is reversed. War in Europe nowadays may seem unthinkable but I can't see it in the interest of the extreme right and their wealthy backers to reverse that trend. War, on the other hand, would do them no harm.

I therefore think that the struggle to combat right-wing extremism and the further accumulation of wealth by the already extremely wealthy is paramount for the year ahead and must be won. The unlikely alliance between the very rich and the ill-informed and poor must be broken or Orwell will become a reluctant prophet. If it is, Europe can settle down to its usual messy compromises, but peaceably. If not, very dark days indeed lie ahead.