"you Ain't Seen Nothing Yet," Marine Le Pen Launches Her Presidential Campaign.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/marine-le-pen-front-national-speech-campaign-launch-islamic-fundamentalism-french-elections-a7564051.html

Interesting to note however that she is winning France's 'Gay' vote.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/01/how-marine-le-pen-is-winning-frances-gay-vote/

[Togo]

Cant help but reflect that some are very eager to don a "cap" if they find it fits... Then complain that it doesn't suit them.

[anotheoldgit]

/// "Those who come to France are to accept France, not to transform it to the image of their country of origin. If they want to live at home, they should have stayed at home." — Marine Le Pen. ///

Absolutely bang on, oh! if any of our politicians would come out with something like that, regarding our country?
Vive la UK.

[andy-hughes]

YMB - //Marie is right, voting is coming to 'Populist' vs 'Globalist' in this new era of politics. Those who cant get it with wither away, as Labour are currenlty doing. //

I believe that President Trump fought - and won - his election campaign on this seriously over-simplified view of the world, and played to those who think the same way.

I would be quite willing to predict that Mlle. Le Pen's supporters will elect her on the same basis.

But - as President Trump is finding out, national and international politics is not an 'either or' scenario, and pretending that it is in order to get elected does not make it so when he election is over and the business of government starts.

[andy-hughes]

AOG - ///// "Those who come to France are to accept France, not to transform it to the image of their country of origin. If they want to live at home, they should have stayed at home." — Marine Le Pen. ///

Mlle. Le Pen is exactly like any other politician of any hue, she will say the moon is made of green cheese if people who think that will vote for her.

But saying it, and getting voted in, does not make it so, because the world is just not that simple a place that these nonsensical simplistic pronouncements actually work anywhere except on the campaign trail.

Yes it gets you elected, but then you have the impossible task of standing by what you said - and that is the part of President Trump's campaign that she should be studying.

Whipping up right-wing fury (and votes) with gung ho nonsense is the easy bit - it's what comes after that is going to cause the problems.

[anotheoldgit]

What one Spectator reader had to say, food for thought perhaps?

/// The Left of France and the US has embraced and defended Islam and all its homophobia and misogyny for reasons that could only boil down to 1) If we appease them maybe they will attack us last; and 2) If Conservatives are against them then I should be for them. ///

/// If you are gay you need to be worried about the growth of Islam because the more Islamic an area gets the less tolerant, less free, and more violent it gets. How many Islamic countries with the death penalty for homosexuality (10 or 11 now) or that tolerate gay men being thrown off buildings surrounding by cheering crowds of Muslims do you have to see to know that any party that opposes the immigration of more Muslims and their non-Western cultural beliefs is a party that gays should support -- for their own safety and freedoms if nothing else. ///

/// There are open "no go" zones in Muslim enclaves of Sweden that post signs threatening the lives of any gay person that enters. That is coming to a UK, France (though it may already be there), and US near you if you keep voting for feckless Liberals. ///

[andy-hughes]

Food for thought?

If your diet includes right-wing scaremongering garbage, then yes, dine well.

[tttom_tomagain]

If Marine (who she?) is the answer. . . . . how apparently stupid is the question ?
[ Just saying. Why are we all sucking up the distraction ? Work makes you free ? ]

[tttom_tomagain]

.
So. . . . is the answer gullible ? Or, more gullible ?

[Togo]

"Globalism is based, as we see, on the negation of the values ​​on which France was built and on the principles in which the immense majority of French people still recognize themselves: the pre-eminence of the person and therefore its sacred character, individual freedom and therefore individual consent, national feeling and therefore national solidarity, equality of persons and therefore the refusal of situations of submission." — Marine Le Pen.

That is "right wing scaremongering" don't you know?
We ahemm took our finger out of the dyke wall so to speak.

[jourdain2]

All I'd like to do is to add some factual content from personal experience. We lived in a small town (L'Isle Jourdain) and often had to travel to Poitiers. A couple of years ago the trees along the route were festooned with posters, which roughly translated as: This is France. If you live here be French. Do as we do. If you don't like it - go away. They remained on the trees for some months.

A nearby commune voted 100% FN.

There was a tricky bit of road nearby which required traffic lights. People needed to drive right up to the lights to activate the sensor to make them change. Eventually a notice in French went up to that effect. It is a holiday area, lots of Dutch and English in Summer and someone didn't understand the notice so a helpful person transcribed the instructions into English and hung a notice on the lights to that effect. A day later it was ripped down and 'If you are in France, speak French, not English!! This is our country!' substituted (in French).

This is what Le Pen is tapping into. Early days, but my money is beginning to veer towards her.

[Jackdaw33]

I think that was a bit OTT. We're talking tourists here, not immigrants.

[Peter Pedant]

// If only! Men in their 60s here prattle on about xenophobia and bigotry and racism and about how terrible it is.......// nigh

sorry shouldnt that be:
If only! Men in their 60s and women of all ages here prattle on about xenophobia and bigotry and racism and about how terrible it is.... ?

(just trying to tone down the ageism and sexism of the comment)

[Jackdaw33]

Unfortunately I don't give much for Le Pen's chances. When her father eliminated the socialist candidate to stand against Chirac in the run-off the socialists held their noses and voted en bloc for Chirac, who won with over 80% of the vote. I remember the slogan was,'Vote for the crook, not the racist'.

[jourdain2]

I thought so as well, JD, but that is the thought process. A year or so before this I was in a supermarket with a young English visitor and she was asking me questions in English, a passing woman glared at both of us and snapped 'You're in France, speak French.' I called after her that 'Elle prends ses vacances' to no avail. It can be like that, very deep-rooted - then there are the lovely people we met who became friends.................. But I think that the roots run deep and the French are being left with precious little choice; rather like the US voters.

[Khandro]

*

















I've just watched Katie Hopkins ask the simple question; "If Islam is so good, why do so many Muslims want to live in Christian countries?"
She said she has been asking this question (me too) for a long time and no one has ever answered.

[jourdain2]

Khandro - for some reason your posts come up with a small asterisk to begin with, then a large blank space and then a comment. Only happened this evening. If you are posting videos then I am not receiving them and need to ask the Ed.

[Mamyalynne]

That's how Khandro has to post, Ed is aware.

[andy-hughes]

Khandro - //I've just watched Katie Hopkins ask the simple question; "If Islam is so good, why do so many Muslims want to live in Christian countries?"
She said she has been asking this question (me too) for a long time and no one has ever answered. //

That's simple.

A lot of Muslim countries look up to the UK as a shining example of how things should be.

As I write, my wife is finishing off a month in Abu Dhabi inspecting schools because the Sheikh thinks that the English education system is the best in the world, and he wants his schools to measure up to English standards, so he hires in English inspection teams to make sure they are moving the right way.

Before becoming an Inspector, my wife was Deputy Head at an inner city Catholic primary school where the intake was seventy per cent Muslim, because the Muslims appreciate the Catholic ethos of caring and inclusion that is taught in Catholic schools.

So you will find that, even allowing for people like Katie Hopkins, a lot of Muslims think this is a wonderful country, and they are very happy to live and work here.

They don't believe that living here should mean that they have to abandon their faith and culture, because they see England as a tolerant and liberal country that accepts people as they are, if they are willing to fit in and work hard.

Feel free to pass this on to Ms. Hopkins.

[Jackdaw33]

" The Sheikh thinks that the English education system is the best in the world". PMSL. It used to be!

[naomi24]

Peter Pedant at 22:16. I meant what I said.

andy-hughes at 22:41, //A lot of Muslim countries look up to the UK as a shining example of how things should be. //

Haaaa! Good to have a laugh at the end of the day. :o)