I wonder where the OP got this gem, as it sounds like a quote taken from some piece of political rhetoric or other rather than an original piece. It doesn't help that it is factually incorrect in some regards while obfuscating on the real situation in others.
Britain has effectively removed the statutory retirement age meaning that people can work for as long or as short as they feel they want to or are required to by their financial situation. All that has changed is the age at which people can start to draw the State Pension. If you can afford to retire early then you will still be able to do so, but then equally an employer will not be able to compel their workers to retire at a certain age under age discrimination legislation. This strikes me as a wonderfully enlightened way of dealing with the situation.
French public transport is a joke. While the high-speed rail network is exemplary, the conventional rail network is woeful. The only thing they have right is the notion that a rail network can be successful and drive the economy in spite of the losses it makes, and therefore it is subsidised to the hilt from the public purse. The French may not be paying for rail at the ticket office, but that's because they are paying for it out of their taxes to a much greater extent than the British. It is the same story with fuel. A Brit travelling around France may wonder at the apparent bargains to be had, but this hides the true cost. The only way to make a proper comparison on price is to look at it from the perspective of each country's citizens resident in that territory, their earnings and their tax burdens.
While the French Parliament may have voted to impose a ban on the Burka this is still open to legal challenge for being unconstitutional, and in any case the French Police are unlikely to enforce the ban. But the reasons for the French imposing these laws are clouded and certainly nothing to do with it "not being the French way". In public the French Government say it's being done to give French Muslim women greater freedom (even though it will criminalise those women who choose to wear the Burka rather than being compelled to wear it) while those looking for a sub-text suggest that it is a way of pandering to the far right. Either way, in a country that has Europe's largest Muslim population and in which estimates of women wearing the Burka range from a few hundred to two thousand, this has nothing to do with ensuring French values.
Damn those facts.
O L Leigh
