Posts Tagged "Employment"

Speaking up for Languages at Labour Conference 2011

Conference,

Today, Europe celebrates the 10th Annual European Day of Languages, a European Union initiative to appreciate linguistic diversity in Europe and promote language learning.

You might think it a bit of an anorak subject, and perhaps it is, but as a trainee interpreter of French and Spanish, it’s my anorak subject.

Britain cannot afford to lose languages, and it cannot afford to rely on the popular myth that everybody speaks English.

Ironically, it is only because English is widely spoken that we have a responsibility to promote, learn and use foreign languages.

As the party of openness and diversity, this should be a core Labour principle in foreign policy and in British diplomacy.

In the European Union, if a meeting cannot find any available English interpreters, that meeting is cancelled. Delaying the exchange of ideas, slowing down government, and hindering reform.

That’s bad for Europe, and bad for Britain.

In Brussels, Britain is often underrepresented because of a lack of language professionals.

In Business, Britain loses out to foreign enterprise because of a lack of language professionals. That means Labour loses the job creation and economic growth that goes with it.

English may be the lingua franca in many countries, but companies have to speak to customers in their own language.

So the business that do well are the business that go global.

As globalisation continues, languages are an obviously vital tool. Forging friendships, breaking barriers and sealing deals.

The Labour Party must be open to Europe.

Britain in the world needs languages, which is why, on the 10th European Day of Languages, Labour must not let Britain get tongue-tied or lost in translation, but be ready to promote, encourage and develop languages professionals.

Thank you.

The Last Lap: Seven hurdles for Sarkozy

This week marks La Rentrée, the official end of the summer and start of the political year.

This political year in particular will be important. With the Presidential elections in mid 2012, Nicolas Sarkozy is coming to the end of his first mandate, and at present his second one is by no means a fait accompli.

So to set the agenda for the coming political year, here are the 10 main hurdles Sarkozy needs to overcome as we enter the last lap of his Presidency.

1. The Reshuffle

Nicolas Sarkozy’s intentions to replace his Prime Minister have been announced several times, though Francois Fillon still remains in Matignon.

Fillon has proven more difficult to get rid of than Sarkozy and his friends would like. The Prime Minister’s personal approval ratings have shown that he’s one of the most popular right-wing figures in France and notably more so than the President. As a figure of responsibility, stability and sensibility within the UMP party, he has often had to play the fireman after Sarkozy’s incendiary comments.

Nevertheless, the reshuffle will be the last chance Sarkozy has to appoint another Prime Minister and organise the team that will take him into the elections.

2. L’affaire Woerth that won’t go away

Like the MPs’ expenses scandal, L’affaire Woerth was a scandal that could not have come at a worse time. Just in time for the summer, it was the perfect gift to any journalist who needed to fill a front page or an editorial. Also like MPs’ Expenses, it was more of a political scandal than a judicial one as the rules were not technically broken but certainly had their structural integrity tested.

As a relatively complex financial scandal, details and speculation kept the story going. What is particularly damaging for Sarkozy is that because of its complexity, few will understand but all will disapprove. Segolene Royal called the government corrupt on prime-time news, which was then backed up by a particularly worrying poll for the President.

3. A poor economic recovery

Unemployment has always been a problem in France (several theories why) and now it’s higher than ever at around 9.5%. This contributes to a massive deficit of 8%, which means that the government won’t be able to offer any pre-election giveaways.

A piecemeal return to growth, which is unlikely to exceed 1.4% in 2010 (compare it to the 3% expected from Germany), won’t help either of these two problems.

4. A Socialist Revival

After an extraordinary showing in March 2009 in the Regional Elections and a surprising show of unity during their party conference in La Rochelle, the media narrative of the Socialist Party has turned from a Party in terminal decline to a Party revived and ready to win the presidency for the second time in history… as long as they can find a suitable candidate.

5. Pension Reform

Sarkozy’s plans to raise the legal retirement age from 65 to 67 have put him on the wrong side of the populist argument. On September the 7th, he was faced with a nationwide strike.

I can’t explain in words how serious the situation in France is at the moment, but let me try and illustrate how important the issue is. Nice, a very rich and right-wing city in the most pro-Sarkozy department in the country, saw between 20,000 and 30,000 people take to the streets. Multiply that from Lille to Toulouse, and you might get the picture.

6. Disquiet in the ranks

If Fillon caused Sarkozy some trouble by trying to put out the fire, the rest of the UMP grandees have been lighting some more matches. Three of Chirac’s Prime Ministers, Juppé, de Villepin and Raffarin have all been ready to criticise various aspects of governmental policy. It looks like the centrists in the party will not be writing Sarkozy a blank cheque any longer.

7. The Roma and the Republic

This deserves a longer post, but Sarkozy has assaulted Marianne (the female personification of the French Republic) in his forcible deportation of the Roma. Even the Pope, the most reactionary man on the planet, has condemned the policy. Even the European Parliament, with its right-wing majority, condemned the policy in a single afternoon.

Let’s hope Sarkozy had a nice holiday, because he’s got his work cut out for him this year.

Debt and indebtedness: The Spanish Economy

While the new Lib Tory (others prefer to call it Con Dem) government settles in and blames the outgoing government with ambiguous comparisons to Greece, I think I should draw attention to Spain.

Over the last few months living in Madrid, I’ve been in the thick of Spanish economic news and though I’m not an economist, I think I’ve managed to pick up a few things from my ex-girlfriend, who was.

Starting with the differences between Greece and Spain, it’s important to note that Greece was forging its figures for years and years acting totally recklessly. Spain, to the contrary, has had a fiscally responsible government since 2004. Some would contest this with the power of hindsight, but for a long time Europe’s 4th economy (I was also shocked to learn that)  was doing very well. It had comparatively low debt and was even running budget surpluses a few years ago, as you can see here.

The banking sector survived unscathed, in contrast to Britain’s bail-out, but problem in Spain has essentially been an over-reliance on the housing bubble, which burst violently, combined with spiralling unemployment reaching nearly 20%.

I’ve seen this unemployment for myself. There are 200,000 inhabitants of my city (Alcalá de Henares) and every morning as I leave the house I used to see a queue of a hundred or so people. Initially surprised that the Spanish could queue, I presumed bemusedly that it was to the bank at the end of the street. In fact, I discovered the queue turns around the corner at the bank, last another hundred years before veering into the jobcentre.

Spain has thus seen a sharp increase of pressure on the state, and has seen borrowing surge beyond 10% of GDP, seeing the sharpest deterioration of government debt compared to relatively low pre-crisis levels.

The President of the Government of Spain (aka Prime Minister) Zapatero, chairing the EU council, has seen the Commission set particularly ambitious consolidation targets for Spain due to the very high starting points for borrowing there.

Zapatero has shown considerable effort to advance, having already announcing a VAT hike for this year. Today he cancelled a trip to Brazil so he could help to push through some Labour Reform personally. The conservative party (El Partido Popular) has been in the town square all week, and I have collected no fewer than three “no VAT increase” leaflets. I duly explain my three points; I am foreign. I am socialist. I am in favour of the hike. The VAT hike for this year, from 16% to 18%, (and there could be the case for a further increase after that) might do less damage than increasing income taxes. The Populares did not share my point of view.

As Spain will is showing very slow signs of recovery I would not be surprised to see more tax hikes in the near future to offset spending. The low rates of income tax might be a good place to start.

There is also some room to reduce government spending given its high share in GDP. Hopefully if the necessary spending cuts can be achieved such an increase in income tax could either be avoided or at least softened significantly. However, the consumer sector here is so fragile, I am inclined to be sceptical.

In any case, I’m off on a trip to Lisbon tomorrow, then I’m leaving Spain for good on June 3rd. Hope you like the blog relaunch!

Rees-Mogg up to Krafty business again

It’s no secret that I’ve been quite vocal in my opposition to the Tory candidate in North-East Somerset, Jacob Rees-Mogg, so it will come as no surprise that through my suggestion box I’ve received an interesting piece of gossip from someone in and around parliament. (Signed “Placement Student”) I’m evidently quite occupied with French Elections right now, but see what you make of this:

Constituents may be shocked to learn that the Takeover Panel’s investigation of Kraft’s acquisition of Cadbury’s is NOT as a result of Rees-Mogg’s letter to them.

Of course Rees-Mogg wrote a letter to the panel, it is believed (so I am told) that the investigation was launched following a request from the Business, Innovation and Skills Dept as soon as the decision to close Somerdale was announced.

Obviously this was well before Rees-Mogg, late in the day, as ever, tried to do anything about this. What it all means is that having been utterly silent on the issue for several weeks Rees-Mogg has tried to bag the credit for precipitating something that was already in motion.

It is my understanding that The Takeover Panel DO NOT comment to the media or anybody else on what investigations they are carrying out. Therefore, news that they ARE investigating this can only have come from an unofficial source. I have no idea who this might be, but it could well be a case of “friends in the City”. Rees-Mogg cannot even have received a letter from the Panel saying so, because such documents do not exist.

To Rees-Mogg’s actual credit, as opposed to the credit he tends to claim, he’s very consistent in the way he works. Say nothing until you have to, then not just hop on, but pretend you were driving the bandwagon all along!

Time waits for no man, unless he is eating

As time runs out for the by-election, with polling day tomorrow (they do it on Sundays in France rather than Thursdays), I’ll share this little experience with you:

In English, the word “after-noon” is comprised of two words, “after” and “noon”. In French it is exactly the same, “apres-midi”.

Though linguistically it means the same, culturally they are very different.

In France, they (we) commence lunch at noon. If you are still working at 1202 somebody will enter the office and ask you “Tu [ne] mange pas?” (You’re not eating?) in a way that you might accuse someone of being anorexic or bulimic.

This pause for lunch, as you will no doubt have heard, does indeed last two hours, minimum.

I was asked, in the course of my job, to go to and see someone in another building “early in the afternoon”. I meant to arrive at 1230 but my current task wore on and I was unable to get there before 1330.

It was completely shut.

Except for establishments that sell food, everything is shut between 1200 and 1400. You have been warned.

French Bureaucracy

On the first attempt, I spent half an hour in the Transport Bureau with the naive ambition that I might leave with what I went in for.

The aim was fairly simple; I wanted to buy a month-pass for the Tram, so that I could easily get around the city wherever and whenever my job needs me.

Entering, I head to reception and say “I want to by a month-pass.” Immediately, the receptionist told me to head to the ticket booths. No problem there.

The ensuing exchange was very Monty Pythonesque; with me going back and forth with various different bits of paper. Eventually I was given a piece of paper that informed me of all the other pieces of paper I had to find. Rather like a treasure map I suppose.

A week later, I returned with my application form, my passport, a photocopy of said passport, my housing contract, a photocopy of that, a bank identity slip, and my debit card. I got my pass in the end.

That’s my best example of la bureaucratie. In fact, obtaining a bank account was much simpler, as the procedure was simply “sign this, and this and this and this and…”

However, the classic example is the CAF, which is literally Free Money for all those who can navigate the paper labyrinth. If you say “bureaucracy” to a French person, there response will be “Have you heard of CAF?”

I’ve thought about it for a little while, but I can’t really come up with any explanation as to why such a system exists. There are plenty of made-up jobs around, of course, but it doesn’t combat unemployment, a chronic problem in France.

Still, it’s better than my experience with the Bath Students’ Union.