Plenty of polémique in France at the moment over Edvige - a pleasant girl's name, which in a nastier guise is an acronym for a database of personal details proposed by the Interior Ministry to be held on all teachers, politicians, union members, religious leaders and any other person 'liable to cause a breach of the peace'... In other words, Big Brother is watching if you have any sort of role in public life.
Not surprisingly the left and the centre don't like it one bit. More surprisingly, neither do business leaders and a significant proportion of the ruling right wing majority. Watch this space. Or rather don't, or else you might end up on police files...
Elsewhere, the country is back at work and back at l'école. Fairly significant change for school children this year with no more Saturday morning lessons, which 2/3 of French children took up until now. However, most children still also get Wednesdays off, which means only 4 days school work a week. Alright for some. Though to be fair, a lot still go to school on Wednesdays, they just do extracurricular activities rather than lessons. And the total number of hours of lessons per week has supposedly remained unchanged.
Sarko watchers this week have seen him revelling in his role as President of the European Union, notably acting as peacemaker in Georgia. Back in La Corse however, his love of the limelight is less feted. The head of security in Corsica last week was summarily relieved of duties following the occupation of the villa of Christian Clavier by Corsican nationalists. They didn't cause any damage but Clavier is a well known actor and close friend of Monsieur Le President. If nothing else, Sarko looks after his own...
