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Nicolas Sarkozy

65 Comments

the very act of le jogging – or le running as it is now more fashionable to call it – is a cultural humiliation

the Sarkozy jog is in conformity with the principles of the French Revolution, and the equality and brotherhood of man.

Bravo, Sarkozy – from one jogger to another

There are some people I know who are not so keen on Nicolas Sarkozy, the new President of France. Some prudes have been dismayed by the way he turned up at a press conference in a state of apparent alcoholic intoxication. Some think it a bit off that he tried to grab the steering wheel at the recent European summit, and change the fundamental principles of the EU Treaty.

Some people find him altogether too Tiggerish and bumptious. I have, I confess, been so far in a state of glorious detachment on the Sarkozy issue – until yesterday morning, when I read that he was once again under attack from the French intellectuals, and I found my sword leaping from its scabbard in his defence.

In the cafés of the Left Bank, they have fastened on what they regard as the single most objectionable and Right-wing aspect of the Sarkozy agenda – and what do you think it is? Do they object to his views on immigration? Are they worried about his plans to make French universities more competitive?


Quite possibly; but their feelings on these questions are anaemic next to their central charge against the new regime. The most appalling thing about the Sarkozy presidency, says Professor Alain Finkelkraut, a leading French philosopher and veteran of the 1968 manifestations, is an event that takes place every morning. The President of France goes jogging! Choc horreur! He exposes the presidential knees to the entire world, says Finkelkraut, and it is extremely undignified.

Worst of all, say these heirs of Sartre and Saussure, the very act of le jogging – or le running as it is now more fashionable to call it – is a cultural humiliation. It is, in the first place, an offence to national honour, they say, that the President of the Republic should totter back into the Elysée Palace looking like a sweat-drenched miniature version of Sylvester Stallone.

But as you would expect of French philosophers, they make a deeper point. Jogging, they say, waving their Gitanes angrily at the camera, is a Right-wing activity. It is all about the management of the body; it is about performance, and individualism, and the triumph of the will.

It is no wonder, they say, that physical jerks have generally been associated with fascist regimes; and above all they believe that by staggering around in his NYPD T-shirt, the French President is making a tragic act of obeisance to America.

François Mitterrand did not jog, they say. Even when he played golf, he never allowed himself to be pictured on the course. Jacques Chirac is a man of hyperkinetic energy, but he would never have taken his trousers off in public, run up and down, and asked the French people to take him seriously.

As for Charles de Gaulle, he moved with the stately undulation of a giraffe, and never broke into so much as a trot.

The Sarkozy jog, say his critics, is a sad imitation of the habits of American presidents, and a capitulation to the défi Américain as bad as the influx of Hollywood movies, and if you doubt the seriousness of their attack, you should have a look at the Left-wing newspaper Libération, and the French political blogs; and that is why it is now time for all jogging politicians to come to Sarkozy’s aid.

I speak as one who rises every morning and makes the pavement echo to the slap of my tread, and I have no doubt that, on purely aesthetic grounds, I would face the strictures of Prof Finkelkraut. It was not long ago that one of my friends and colleagues told me that he was quite put off his breakfast by the sight of me going round the local park at the speed, he claimed, of an elderly hippopotamus.

But I am not deterred by such jibes, nor by the accusation that jogging is Right-wing. Of course it is Right-wing, in the sense that the facts of life are generally Right-wing. The very act of forcing yourself to go for a run, every morning, is a highly conservative business.

There is the mental effort needed to overcome your laziness. There is the pain in the calves and the ache in the lungs, and the keen sense that everyone is looking at you and sniggering.

And then slowly the endorphins start to flood into your brain, and the effort gives way to reward, and the deferred pleasure arrives, and you come back home feeling you could bite a tiger – and, above all, that nothing else you do that day can be quite as painful and exhausting.

And plenty of Left-liberals have realised this, and go jogging as well. One thinks of Jimmy Carter, who famously collapsed while out on a run, so eager was he to attain those endorphins; and then there was the late Roy Jenkins, who was once spotted sneaking out of his chauffeured limo in the Brussels twilight, and briefly puffing, in a tracksuit, through the Bois de la Cambre.

And is it not sad, in retrospect, that Roy should have been so furtive in his exercise? The whole point about President Sarkozy’s running is that he is actually putting himself publicly through the same hell as the rest of us. Far from being a surrender to American values, the Sarkozy jog is in conformity with the principles of the French Revolution, and the equality and brotherhood of man.

With every weary plod he is parading his mortality, exposing his vulnerability, and sharing with the rest of the human race the via dolorosa of the morning stagger. One day, as we all know, he will be able to run no more; one day he will cark it like Jim Fixx, the jogging pioneer.

But until such time we should salute his willingness to expose those knobbly knees to public derision, and we should challenge our Labour masters to get out of their Zil limousines and do likewise.

65 thoughts on “Nicolas Sarkozy”

  1. Is it just me, or is the idea that jogging be described as a right wing activity sound completely bonkers?

    I have nothing against a strong belief in an ideology, but criticisingly someone for jogging on the grounds that it is right wing is, perhaps, a little of date! Only in France. Time to move on and get over it, mes amis. http://www.pickinglosers.co.uk/

  2. “hear, hear” Boris. When I first read the stories about this I thought it was some kind of joke but no, there is actually some seriousness to it.

    Running/jogging is a fantastic pursuit, one in which many people would benefit from if only they would have the will to give it a try.

    Still when your London Mayor (it had to be mentioned) you could always make it mandatory.

  3. I speak as one of Her Majesty’s subjects living in France. Vive Sarkozy! I may not agree with every one of his policies, but he is certainly what is needed to shake up the establishment. These critics – of presidential jogging, for goodness sake! – are a flagrant example for all the world to see of why France needs to change. For too long it has been held back by closed-minded dinosaurs who are only interested in protecting their own status quo.

    Rob

  5. nothing else you do that day can be quite as painful and exhausting. (Boris)

    No doubt a 14th century flagellant would have said the same, after lashing himself with an iron flail for a few minutes. I bet that gets the endorphins going too.

    I side with Professor Alain Finkelkraut on this one, but not for the the reasons he gives – if only because they are not reasons. I simply see jogging as another manifestation of the health fascism that is sweeping the country. (Why are you writing about Sarkozy, Boris, and not the elephant in the room: the English pubs that have emptied since Sunday’s smoking ban?)

    No, jogging is another manifestation of our modern puritanical obsession with health, which has us stopping smoking, stopping drinking, stopping enjoying ourselves, and instead worrying about our weight, our cholesterol, our blood pressure, along with avian flu, mad cow disease, and of course Global Warming. Taking up jogging or cycling is simply symptomatic of this dismal frame of mind.

    One does not have to think about any of them for very long to realise that they are all baseless fears, and the whole mentality that goes with it is one of terrified conformity. Consider jogging: with every pounding step a shock wave travels up a leg, stressing the knees and ankles. The long term consequence of this is most likely not going to be improved health, but increased incidence of premature arthritis or repetitive strain injury. Some 50% of professional footballers retire with premature arthritis, Newcastle striker Malcolm MacDonald said a few years ago, and it’s perfectly obvious why that should be so. If anything, instead of smoking being banned, jogging should be banned. I mean this perfectly seriously.

    One day we will look back at this jogging era in the same way we look back at 14th century flagellants. We will think they had all gone mad. And we will be right.

  6. Perhaps running IS Right-Wing. Most of the Righties I know have been running from their responsibilities for years.( said Raincoaster)

    I suppose emoting about “Africa” counts as assuming responsibility in the land of the bleeding edge .Lets put on a show ” We can do it right here “. Interesting that the French associate control with the right. Its rather the other way round here when the left are throw out prescriptions on behaviour like a merry confetti.

    Anyway what about this mayor thing Boris ?

  7. One of my kids somewhat evilly bought me a set of weights this morning and then had the temerity to stand over me while I went through various tortuous prostrations euphemistically known, it would seem, as a ‘set’.

    All I can observe is that the worst rigours of the Spanish Inquisition, Satan and all his little demons would have been hard pressed to come up with anything even close to as uncomfortable as an hour of trying to move ridiculously heavy objects in directions they obviously have no desire to follow. Obviously I missed out on the endorphins.

    As for Sarkozy’s jogging, my only comment is that he looks like a badly drawn cartoon character at the best of times. The concept of him exercising publicly leaves me vaguely nauseous. And, regardless of any defense Boris may set up in his favour, Sarkozy is undoubtedly a sycophantic Yank panderer and a disgrace to his country.

    I’ve always had a grudging respect for the French. When, as a nation, one’s been at war with a country for the thick end of a thousand years I suspect this healthy circumspection becomes somehow ingrained on our collective DNA.

    Consequently I feel some small sympathy for the French people having ended up with this clown.

  8. There was a similar fitness cult in the 1930s. Left wing architects designed single person appartments complete with mini-gyms, so obviously the left think that the vice of exercise is best engaged in alone. The right wing Hitler Youth, on the other hand, jogged up and down every Bavarian hummock they could find, yodelling as they went and with bare Aryan knees brightly and proudly displayed. It was preparation for that long awaited jog into Poland.

    Sarkozy? Is he playing at Wimbledon? Or does he make helicopters?

    As far as London goes … no newts is good newts. And Boris, I’m pleased to see that those goodly godly Hamas people have released your (no relation) brother … it seems they want to be friends and they promise to play nice, even if the ball they bring to the game is packed with semtex. Perhaps worth remembering amongst the euphoria that Pinko Ken still took London when all the NuLab machine was against him, though I do think that it would certainly be an interesting fight.

  9. Where does walking and cycling come on the political spectrum?

    Boris would make an interesting mayor. Maybe he could take up jogging in full ceremonial robes.

    I warmed to the French when on holiday in Provence a couple of years ago. It may have had something to do with copious quantities of free wine with a really nice tasting meal. I cannot recall discussing politics.

    Having lowered the tone of the thread I will now retire.
    Sally

  10. Mr Johnson,

    If His Grace promises to pray for you every single day, would you pleeeeeeeeease consider throwing your hat into the ring to become London’s mayor?

    (apologies for being off topic, but there is nowhere else to make this enthused support known).

    Blessings,

    +Cranmer

  11. Surely most French politicians are joggers, are they not? It’s just that most of them prefer the horizontal variety. If the French intellectuals and press are so worried about Sarkozy’s sweaty form (not a pretty image, to be sure), perhaps they should take the same, creditable attitude to this means of exercise as they do to the other. Maybe they are worried that this sign of excess energy indicates that he is not dealing with his testosterone in the correct presidential manner. The reputation of France is at stake. Can’t let those Ros-Bif politicians outpace him. Edith Cresson would never live it down.

    Do we think this is just an excuse to have a go, because they have no other means of attack from the left? Sarkozy’s lack of principles and economic incoherence have, perversely, neutered the typical complaints of the economically-illiterate French left. But that does not make him any less dangerous. I hope Boris isn’t going to be seduced by Sarkozy’s machismo into thinking that he is anything other than a typically authoritarian, protectionist Gaullist, who is only interested in the European project as a means to further a warped interpretation of the interests of France. Jogger or not, if the Tories get pally with this man, who appears to be conservative in all the wrong ways, it will clarify their currently obscure philosophical position to their great disadvantage.

  12. idlex said:

    Why are you writing about Sarkozy, Boris, and not the elephant in the room: the English pubs that have emptied since Sunday’s smoking ban?

    Good point, idlex. Though, to be fair to Boris, he has written about his opposition to these heinous regulations, though, like you, I would love Boris to shout a bit louder to stand up for ordinary, hard working people – like Beryl – who now, despite the considerable amount of extra tax they pay, are being criminalised and pushed to the fringes of society by this discriminatory policy.

    On Monday I bumped into Beryl taking her break behind her cafe. She sat on the kerb of the filthy, rubbish strewn, unloading area behind her cafe’s yard, smoking her cigarette and flicking cigarette ash into a brown paper envelope.

    I asked her if she’d like one of my portable ashtrays. No thanks, she said, they go horrible when it rains and the wind blows the ash all over the place when it’s dry – I can’t afford to be fined.

    She told me that she was so angry that she “could spit”. I was angry enough to join her.

    I’ll probably get run over by one of the delivery lorries sitting on this kerb, Beryl told me, but I’ve got to sit down, I’ve been on me feet all day. Those @@!!@**! @**!@**@! politicians, forcing me to sit here like a bloody criminal!

    A few days later, Beryl had thankfully progressed to taking her breaks sitting on a cane chair placed on the walkway near the loading area.

    I don’t give a monkeys if I’m too near that door, Beryl, said, pointing at the gate to the cafe’s yard, no one’s moving me from here, not even the @!**@@! Prime Minister. In fact if he showed his face round here I’d slap ‘im.

    One of the council’s staff walked past as Beryl and I talked and thought he’d have a joke at Beryl’s expense.

    “Aint it illegal to smoke now England’s now smoke free?”, he smarmed.

    “You are BANNED from my cafe”, Beryl, shouted at him, “no more toast, no more tea, no more dogs, no more nuffin’!”

  13. I just hope that he is complying with European health and safety regulations.

  14. ” But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
    And we’ll not fail. ”

  15. Coming to think of it, what do Ken Livingstones knees look like? I’ve just had a thorough search around ‘Google Images’ and I’m still none the wiser.

    I did however come across a few websites that might serve as good pointers as to Ken’s power base. Like you say Boris, I’m not sure the British left really have a thing about knees, however they sure aren’t that keen on cyclists like your good self. One website quoted Ken as saying this to the LBR radio station:

    <‘I think, I’m now persuaded, we should actually say that bikes and their owners should be registered … There should be a numberplate on the back so that the ones breaking the law, we can get them off the cameras. It’s the only way you can do it.’<

    Perhaps a good peace of campaign material would be some sort of fake numberplate with a catchy slogan for cyclists to sport on the back of their seat. Do be careful of racking up the bills with those marketing men though, the £400k olypmic logo didn’t exactly go down well. Perhaps there’s some bright young folk in London’s universities and colleges could help you out for free, that’d make a good point.

    Then there was the curious spectacle of website ‘killthepigeons.com’, where Ken is praised for his hatred of the pesky ‘rats with wings’ and his mission to eradicate the little critters from Trafalgar Square. Personally pigeons don’t bother me in the slightest but Londoners do nuture a special kind of hatred for scavengers. Some city-folk are silly enough to buy into the idea that their bin-bags are ripped apart by foxes because of fox-hunting. I think you should seize on this kind of stupidity in your campaign Boris. Although socialists in London cheered the hunting ban, I think you would find a suprising number of them to be in favour of some sort of inner-city fox cull. Personally I’m not bothered by urban foxes either, give it another twenty years and they’ll probably come over for a pat on the head. I definately think London needs a coherant policy on pigeons and foxes, it’s not really fair to kill the pigeons whilst fox droppings are piling up outside outer-London maisonettes.

    Then there’s all that money Ken spends on free papers, or propaganda to you and I. I reckon a one-off spoof issue of a mocked up ‘Londoner’ containing news stories about Ken’s past meetings with all those dodgy foreign folk, and all the wonderful things Ken spends money on, handed out to every commuter one evening would be just the ticket. I’d try and give it a subtle North-Korean news agency style slant, make the back page a nice big ‘Boris4Mayor’ spread, and perhaps get your mate Hislop in to help you, he’s one funny bloke.

  16. MPs have been accused of flouting the smoking ban – and even sneaking cigarettes in the Commons toilets.
    Although it is not illegal to smoke in the Palace of Westminster, both Houses decided to ban it from Sunday – the same time as the rest of England.

    But Labour’s Betty Williams told MPs the ban was “already being abused” and offered to show Commons leader Harriet Harman where people were smoking.

    MPs joined in with cries of “division toilets” and “toilets”.

    Mrs Williams…said she had seen “three incidents” of people smoking in areas where they should not since the ban had been introduced.

    “I don’t see why I should have to go out through a door and walk into a cloud of smoke when there are four designated smoking areas,” she told the BBC News website.

    But the Conwy MP…said it was a “weakness” of the Parliamentary smoking ban that it was not backed up by fines or other sanctions.

    The Commons authorities declined to comment on what penalties MPs and peers might face if they were caught smoking.

    It has been suggested they could be reported to their party Whips, who are responsible for maintaining discipline.

    From the current BBC News website

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6273830.stm

    Four smoking areas, no fines and just a ticking off for breaking the rules.

    One law for MPs and another for 13 million Beryls.

    Our MPs are disgusting hypocrites, Boris.

  17. Steven_L said:

    Coming to think of it, what do Ken Livingstones knees look like? I’ve just had a thorough search around ‘Google Images’ and I’m still none the wiser

    Excellent point, Steven_L. I demand that red Ken shows us his knees so that we can decide whether or not he’s fit to run London. We know that Boris has two very mayor-like knees as he’s been open and honest enough to display them many times.

    If, as I suspect, Red Ken has puny, decidely non-mayoral knees, we should be told.

  18. Boris, my old blancmange, (by the way I was in London today, but didn’t see you there, were you having a day off?) it is not the going out running that I object to in the habits of your new found friend, it is the coming back.

  19. Pleased to see his Grace on a rare outing.It must be gratifying for Boris to see how admired he is across the blogasphere .They are all calling his name

    BORIS BORIS they say SAVE LONDON

  20. liberty- I suspect, Red Ken has puny, decidely non-mayoral knees, we should be told.

    Liberty I should imagaine that years of kneeling before visiting terrorists and foreign dictators must have taken its toll on the pink supplness that we admire in a knees.

  21. Vicus, you were in the wrong part of London today.

    At first Boris Whittington met with little success, and was tempted to return home. However, jogging out of the city, whilst climbing Highgate Hill from Archway, he heard the Bow Bells of London ringing and sending him a message:

    Turn again, Boris,
    Once Lord Mayor of London!
    Turn again, Boris,
    Twice Lord Mayor of London!
    Turn again, Boris,
    Thrice Mayor of London!

  22. newmania said:

    years of kneeling before visiting terrorists and foreign dictators must have taken its toll on the pink supplness that we admire in a knee.

    You are so right, newmania. it’s the knees that have it.

    No God up in the sky
    No devil beneath the seas
    Could do the job that Boris will do,
    Of bringing Ken to his knees

    Knees are the keys to London for Boris!

  24. Back to Liberty’s comments about smoking in the lavatory’s. I was told by my MP that the place is like being at school. Does the “House” also have bike sheds?
    If so will they also become a hotbed of illecit smoking?

  26. I was told by my MP that the place is like being at school (Angelina)

    Living in England is now like being at school.

  27. Ferdinand de Saussure was a Swiss, not a French linguist.

    And Boris, bring back the Routemasters, design new ones and rid us of most of the bendy buses.

  29. Angie … I don’t think it’s smoking that goes on behind the H of C bike sheds … but there’s me believing Private Eye cartoons again.

    “Living in England is now like being at school” … and it ain’t Eton!

  30. AP-Yes I do read the Private eye. You have me Sussed. Perhaps it’s best we do not know what goes on behind the bike shed’s the thought of some who may be concerned could make one feel quite ill.

    I don’t know much about Eton. My school was a horrible 1970’s concrete number which has now been knocked down. This would not have taken much as the inside walls where made of cardboard and the inmates had started on the demolition long before the school was officaly closed.

  31. Al Gore should try to affect change on his own country before attempting to become a global spokesperson. After all, that’s where the greed and god-damn right to drive where I want is worst.

  32. Awfully quiet around here…

    Am I the only one that can’t get into the forum? I don’t mind being banned or e-ported back to Canuckistan, but either that or the forum is down.
    [Ed: Forum should be ok now…..Monday 9 July]

  33. (writing from Chicago, USA) In terms of American presidents, it’s hard to say jogging is associated with either side. GW Bush jogs. Clinton jogged. The whole presidential-fitness emphasis began with Eisenhower, the most centrist of modern American presidents. After his heart attack(s), Dr. Paul Dudley White, his physician, got a bully pulpit to emphasize the health value of exercise.

    Well, let me amend that. The public association of presidents with exercise began with Eisenhower, but Truman was famous for his brisk walks. These walks continued long after his presidency ended.

  35. Yep, I can’t even see any source code: no contents at all. I emailed Melissa, we’ll see what happens.

    @ Mike Kruger, I thought it was Teddy Roosevelt who was the famously physically active president? And Gore, of course, is a Marathoner (or was, along with one of his kids).

  36. Someone … can’t remember who … described Teddy Roosevelt as ‘that damned cowboy’. His exercise was leading the Rough Riders and shooting things, but not bear cubs.

    Raincoaster … I do like ‘Canuckistan’, especially given certain Canadian government policies, I may have to steal that one.

    But why do Americans tend to expect their presidents to be athletic hunting/shooting icons with less intelligence than themselves? Why this ‘Forest Gump for the White House’ mentality?

    And what’s all this about Boris becoming Meyer? I didn’t even know he was Jewish. He doesn’t look Jewish.

  39. “I don’t know much about Eton.” (Angelina)
    I know quite a bit about it. People need to weigh up the Eton factor when deciding who they want to lead them in all areas of public life: that way Etonans may likewise consider before they send their own children there, and there is a chance the cycle can be broken.

  40. I think the idea that jogging is any wing is sad. If you take part in a public running event like a 10k or half marathon you may share the road with people you may strongly disagree with politically. However for that time these differences are put aside and you all share something you have in common. As such it is a unifier not a divider. God knows we could do with more things that bring people together.

  41. Accommodating themselves to the notion of the Presidential jogging (on whole I still marginally prefer Le Jogging to Le Running), will be an excellent lesson in national humility for the French people. Entirely in the spirit of the Revolution as you suggest – and I can do nothing but applaud M. Sarkozy’s courage in exposing himself (and them) to it by way of his knees.

    Whether the British ought to be similarly exposed (in terms of what might be called Gordonian Jogging and the Gordonian knees) is a matter upon which I haven’t yet had quite the courage to decide.

    On the whole I think probably not. We know quite enough about national humility as it is, don’t you think? We are taught it at least twice annually by the Australians, for a start. And then there’s Wimbledon…

  42. Still not working for me, Melissa.

    Adam, you make a good point. I’m not very pro-American, but when I was in the Seattle Marathon I saw something that still moves me, years later. As we plodded around a corner, we saw a flatbed military truck with a group of soldiers in the back, all at full attention, saluting. “Wow,” I thought, “These Yanks really make you feel welcome.” But no; as we passed, they all shouted, in perfect American Military Shout (you’ve heard it in a million movies) “Go Sarge, GO!” and the tall, thin man next to me smiled and teared up a bit, so I guess that was Sarge.

  43. [Ed: Forum should be ok now…..Monday 9 July]

    thanks muchly, Melissa. Working well from this end.

    [ Not at all dmnyc ;D]

  44. Dear spammer: you are incompetent. Please apply for a position with the Labour Party immediately. Or steal Polly Toynbee’s column away from her; you can’t be any worse.
    [Ed: zapped them]

  45. le jogging – Right Wing?

    I suppose if it is equated with self-discipline then there is an element of truth.

    Perhaps the Left Wingers will set up government money for someone else to jog on one’s behalf – allowing those for whom the exercise is completed vicariously, to sit their fat behinds in front of the TV, stuff themselves on pizza take-outs, and plan how to milk the country of even more hand-outs.

  49. Actually, I had no difficulty completing a marathon, but biking killed the cartilage in my knees. But what’s ultimately going to get us is some eedjut in a Hummer.

  50. joshua xfb
    emma nhp
    emma opm
    joshua kdf

    Because you are so inept in your occupation that it is impossible to deduce what you’re selling and further, since it’s obvious you’re so thick skinned you won’t go away; I propose a small competition to who you represent.

    I must admit I’m torn. The persistence implies insurance but the IQ suggests something with horrible side-effects and consequently unlikely to be viagra.

    So I reckon you’re an Amway salestron.

  52. Chinese herbal viagra. Betcha anything.

    Also: still can’t get to the forum on IE or Firefox. That’s okay; they thought they could keep my people out of the White House, so we just set fire to the door.

  53. Pure Colombian is my guess, and we ain’t talking coffee, note the references to ‘white’, ‘good stuff’, ‘mind’, ‘need’ etc. Obviously mistaking what the boy Spliffy David said, and not realising that Boris maintained that he sneezed. Or perhaps it’s a person who gets really turned on by French knees.

  55. Don’t understand why people are having problems with the forum. I’ve had none at all.

    But dmnyc and raincoaster live across the pond. Perhaps the undersea information superhighways have been getting flooded with seawater. I’m not sure what happens when information collides with seawater. Something rather nasty, I imagine.

  56. I’ve had no forum problems, other than PaulD and Jack Target being overseas. If this was my site I’d be bureaucratic and refer them to their ISP helpdesk, but then I’ve had too much ‘customer service’ experience.

    Anyway, back on topic,

    <‘…we should challenge our Labour masters to get out of their Zil limousines and do likewise. (Boris)<

    Does this not apply to all of our political classes. Over in the smoking forum (and I’m too drunk to find the links) we’ve heard tales of EU ministers smoking in their offices in defiance of a ban. We’ve heard about the relative of a dead ex-MP lambasting the drinking culture in the Houses of Parliament. We’ve discussed in depth legislation banning pub-owners from allowing their customers to smoke, which exempts only one workplace that everyone enters by choice – the Palace of Westminster – from its’ provisions.

    Whether or not our political masters want to jog is an irrelevance, I don’t recommend it myself, my Father worked with two keen joggers and both died of heart attacks in their 50’s. Surely we should be hounding MP’s to eat ‘5 a day’ ‘Fairtrade’ ‘Sustainable’ fruit and beg, publish details of their food miles and carbon emissions, to submit to blood tests to prove they keep within 21 units of alcohol a week and to prove they don’t invest in corporations that go against their constant moralising.

  57. StevenL said: “I’ve had no forum problems,”

    Haven’t been able to access the forum for about 5 days, but then I generally use ‘Firefox’ but have just found I can access it with IE.

  58. Turkey Twizzler said: Haven’t been able to access the forum for about 5 days, but then I generally use ‘Firefox’ but have just found I can access it with IE.

    I’ve tried in both Firefox and IE but still no luck. I miss you guys.

    But nobody likes a whiner so I shall hop right back on topic: I was walking back from my morning errands when I saw a man jogging by. I thought briefly, “I wonder if he sees this as a right wing activity” when suddenly he saw someone he knew and called out – in FRENCH! So maybe it’s more an act of Le Solidarity.

    Or Le Coincidence.

  62. raincoaster, are you still having forum access problems?

    I seem to have sorted mine out in a round about way – via the google cache. Don’t know if we were having the same problem but I would be happy to send along my solution if you want to try it.

  63. Can’t get to it even via Googlecache. I’m wondering if it’s got something to do with my virus scanner, which updates all the bloody time, you’d swear it was getting paid by the upgrade. Do pass along the hack. raincoaster at gmail dot com, plzthx.

    I’ve even prepared some radically different leaflet materials for Boris’ campaign. Golly, t’would be a shame if he couldn’t get them because I was locked out of the forum. Could make all the difference in certain neighborhoods.

  64. raincoaster – sent you the steps I went through. Hopefully it will help.

    I’m sure I speak for many people here when I say that I would love to see your leaflet materials.

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