French Presidential elections

[Minimalist]

We need a few mayors like this over here.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/i-do-not...or-le-pen/

‘I do not want to dedicate my life to assholes’: French mayor threatens to resign after town votes for Le Pen

The socialist mayor of Annezin is threatening to quit after far-right candidate Marine Le Pen won the plurality of votes in his town located in the north of France.

His reason? He doesn’t want to represent “assholes.”

[vorlon13]

I don't see the French EU issue being a binary choice; stay or go.

How about the EU cut WAY back on the bloat, administrative redundancy, waste, administrative bloat, overhead, redundancy, administrative idiocy, redundancy, waste, and  administrative bloat  ???

A smooth running, efficient and taut EU might even get Britain back in the fold.  If the EU was managed well enough leaving becomes unthinkable for the members, then the members won't think about leaving.


Sheeesh!!  Is this so fucking hard to noodle out ??

Do you know how many people the EU employs? 24,500 directly and a further 9,000 on secondment. That is roughly comparable to the Irish civil service (which doesn't include employees of the HSE, An Garda Siochana, the Permanent Defence Forces, any of the semi-state companies or local authorities). Given the amount of work being done by EU institurions and bodies there is remarkably little bloat most of which is found in the CAP (and a large chunk of that is set to disappear in the next two years when the UK with its massive payments to large landowners exits).

The EU is, when you look at it, one of the most efficient govermental bodies around (and a far, far better thing than any private company [outside of small enetrprises] that I've ever looked at in terms of effectiveness).

---

I care.

538 Gave Trump the highest chance of winning (@33% at the time of the election). The chances of a Brexit were similar, Ithink closer to 40%.
They say she has nowhere near the odds Trump or Brexit did, and her chances of winning are very, very, very low.  And shrinking.  The longer Trump is in office, the worse Le Pen has done.

I've heard some say a large terror attack might change that, but the recent shooting didn't even give her a bump.  I think she's got all the support she's going to get. They came close in this first round, but that was 4 candidates going against each other. In head to head polls, Macron is 26 points ahead of Le Pen.  That's nothing like the close polling that existed with Brexit or Trump/Clinton.  The recent "upsets" have all been within the statistical margins of error that they know exist, so are not actually statistical upsets.  If the trend holds, at the worst, Macron would win by 21%-ish.

Le Pen has never done well from terrorist attacks, because people begin to realise, a) the innefectiveness of her policies vis a vis terrorism, b) the sheer inability to implement even 10% of what she proposes, and c) the fact that the woman is herself a terrorist.

[vorlon13]

I don't see the French EU issue being a binary choice; stay or go.

How about the EU cut WAY back on the bloat, administrative redundancy, waste, administrative bloat, overhead, redundancy, administrative idiocy, redundancy, waste, and  administrative bloat  ???

A smooth running, efficient and taut EU might even get Britain back in the fold.  If the EU was managed well enough leaving becomes unthinkable for the members, then the members won't think about leaving.


Sheeesh!!  Is this so fucking hard to noodle out ??

Do you know how many people the EU employs? 24,500 directly and a further 9,000 on secondment. That is roughly comparable to the Irish civil service (which doesn't include employees of the HSE, An Garda Siochana, the Permanent Defence Forces, any of the semi-state companies or local authorities). Given the amount of work being done by EU institurions and bodies there is remarkably little bloat most of which is found in the CAP (and a large chunk of that is set to disappear in the next two years when the UK with its massive payments to large landowners exits).

The EU is, when you look at it, one of the most efficient govermental bodies around (and a far, far better thing than any private company [outside of small enetrprises] that I've ever looked at in terms of effectiveness).

---

I care.

538 Gave Trump the highest chance of winning (@33% at the time of the election). The chances of a Brexit were similar, Ithink closer to 40%.
They say she has nowhere near the odds Trump or Brexit did, and her chances of winning are very, very, very low.  And shrinking.  The longer Trump is in office, the worse Le Pen has done.

I've heard some say a large terror attack might change that, but the recent shooting didn't even give her a bump.  I think she's got all the support she's going to get. They came close in this first round, but that was 4 candidates going against each other. In head to head polls, Macron is 26 points ahead of Le Pen.  That's nothing like the close polling that existed with Brexit or Trump/Clinton.  The recent "upsets" have all been within the statistical margins of error that they know exist, so are not actually statistical upsets.  If the trend holds, at the worst, Macron would win by 21%-ish.

Le Pen has never done well from terrorist attacks, because people begin to realise, a) the innefectiveness of her policies vis a vis terrorism, b) the sheer inability to implement even 10% of what she proposes, and c) the fact that the woman is herself a terrorist.

EDIT:

dammit, where'd my post go ?

[vorlon13]

Without too much effort, found this:



How many people work for the EU?

An old EU joke: "How many people work in Brussels?" "About half of them."

For years groups like Britain in Europe have been saying that 'only' around 20,000 people work for the EU. We decided to check that up, and there is a piece in the Sunday Telegraph about it.

The European Commission's website says that it employs 25,000 people. The French Government says all the EU institutions put together employ about 35,000. In a recent parliamentary answer in the UK, the Government plumped for 37,000 for the EU as a whole.

However, if you can find them, the official figures from the EU's "establishment plans" for 2007 (on page 6 of the DG Admin 'statistical bulletin') show that there are 42,548 temporary and permanent EU officials. In addition, it lists 8,123 "external" Commission staff, which are staff paid on appropriations - contract agents, seconded national experts, technical and administrative assistance etc, giving a total of over 50,000.

However the Commission's table does not list any external staff employed by the other institutions and the agencies. Since the summer we've been trying to find out these numbers, which has proved a bit of a nightmare. Some agencies, such as the European Police College have refused to supply the numbers, and others have sent pretty prickly emails. One said that we had to send them a "motivated letter" (Our motive: we want to know and it's our money). However, despite all that, the information we've managed to uncover shows a significant number of 'hidden' employees.


(I didn't copy the entire article)

I also note when a bureaucracy doesn't want to divulge information, the number #1 reason is usually because the information, if released, is going to be a headache for the bureaucracy.

Also, this info is from 2007. Anyone think the EU admin hasn't grown at least exponentially in the years since?

[GUBU]

Do you know how many people the EU employs? 24,500 directly and a further 9,000 on secondment. That is roughly comparable to the Irish civil service (which doesn't include employees of the HSE, An Garda Siochana, the Permanent Defence Forces, any of the semi-state companies or local authorities). Given the amount of work being done by EU institurions and bodies there is remarkably little bloat most of which is found in the CAP (and a large chunk of that is set to disappear in the next two years when the UK with its massive payments to large landowners exits).

The EU is, when you look at it, one of the most efficient govermental bodies around (and a far, far better thing than any private company [outside of small enetrprises] that I've ever looked at in terms of effectiveness).

---

Le Pen has never done well from terrorist attacks, because people begin to realise, a) the innefectiveness of her policies vis a vis terrorism, b) the sheer inability to implement even 10% of what she proposes, and c) the fact that the woman is herself a terrorist.

EDIT:

dammit, where'd my post go ?

The post monster et it.

PS where'd you get the article from? I'm betting somewhere like the Daily Heil or the Torygraph who've been publishing lies about the EU for years.

The thing is at the very highest estimations the EU civil service is comparable to the Irish one (and does a lot more) and about 1/10 that of the UK civil service.

Edit:it's from a blog written by a hard right young Thatcherite who criticises the EU constantly for not being "open" yet refuses to tell anybody who's paying him. I wouldn't trust that blogger as far as I could throw him.

[Isis]

The EU is going to fall apart in time but recent issues being the refugees it's just speeding up the process of it collapsing. 
All in all the EU as a experiment is a failure simply put Brussels couldn't get the UK to stay and in reality there is no benefits for the UK to stay.
that and the UK still is better off if anything after opting out.

What makes you think that? I have my issues with the EU, but it isn't a "failed experiment" by any stretch of the imagination, it just needs some reforms is all. I'm not going to bother making predictions on who will be the next to leave or if or when the EU will collapse. Let's just wait and see what happens.

[dyresand]

The EU is going to fall apart in time but recent issues being the refugees it's just speeding up the process of it collapsing. 
All in all the EU as a experiment is a failure simply put Brussels couldn't get the UK to stay and in reality there is no benefits for the UK to stay.
that and the UK still is better off if anything after opting out.

What makes you think that? I have my issues with the EU, but it isn't a "failed experiment" by any stretch of the imagination, it just needs some reforms is all. I'm not going to bother making predictions on who will be the next to leave or if or when the EU will collapse. Let's just wait and see what happens.

Looking at it objectively i don't  think Brussels should have that much power to begin with each nation should opt out if Brussels wants to do something that 
may or may not fuck them over. Id say that the parliament has to much power to begin with each nation since its a member of the EU should have equal footing really. 
If anything the EU needs a huge reform from the top down really.

[pocaracas]

Some good news!


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39839349?SThisFB

""
Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron has decisively won the French presidential election, projected results say.

Mr Macron defeated far-right candidate Marine Le Pen by about 65.5% to 34.5% to become, at 39, the country's youngest president, the results show.

Mr Macron will also become the first president from outside the two traditional main parties since the modern republic's foundation in 1958.

He said that a new page was being turned in French history.
""

Now if only the idiots across the channel managed something similar...

[vorlon13]

The 'far right' label doesn't translate to America.  She is practically a 'Bernie-ac' on economics.  And that is probably the 'real' reason for Trump's tepidity.  She's definitely closer to Obama on economics than Macron despite Obama endorsing contrary to a candidate literally offering 80+% concordance to his views as opposed to <60%.

And what's the delta for French election with and without an Obama weigh in?  And magnitudinally compared to what Putin was able to do in France?

Damn, for better polling, and fewer pukes like me lying to pollsters all the time . . . .

[GUBU]

What makes you think that? I have my issues with the EU, but it isn't a "failed experiment" by any stretch of the imagination, it just needs some reforms is all. I'm not going to bother making predictions on who will be the next to leave or if or when the EU will collapse. Let's just wait and see what happens.

Looking at it objectively i don't  think Brussels should have that much power to begin with each nation should opt out if Brussels wants to do something that 
may or may not fuck them over. Id say that the parliament has to much power to begin with each nation since its a member of the EU should have equal footing really. 
If anything the EU needs a huge reform from the top down really.

Looking at it objectively, you're talking shit about a situation you don't understand.