French Press Review, 27 September 2010

Leftist Libération attempts to analyse what the arrival of Ed Miliband at the head of the Labour Party means for the British Left and British politics in general. It appears "Red Ed" was elected not by party members nor by party MPs, but by card-carrying trade unionists.

And they may have chosen the right man for the job: to get elected, Ed had to "do" his older brother David, former Blair Minister, and book-makers' favourite for the job of party chief.

Ed harshly criticised the last Labour general election campaign, which saw the party hammered, but sneakly forgot to mention that he was the chief architect of that failed campaign.

Ed was elected as Labour leader on promises to fight social inequality and reduce the gap between rich and poor. The Conservatives are delighted that Ed beat Dave, because they think that Dave is a more serious political figure, closer to the centre and less likely to scare investors.

Now Ed has to earn the respect of the workers who voted for him, who are already threatening a winter of strikes and discontent in protest of government plans to reduce spending.

It’s also been suggested Ed has already shown a dangerous hint of ingratitude to the working men who made him, announcing in his victory speech that he was nobody's puppet. His nick-name, by the way, is the Panda, because he has glorious black rings around his eyes. Also, perhaps, because he's an endangered species.

Le Monde’s front-page honours go to the French Socialist Party, which seems close to exploding at the seams, such is the pressure to present a united front for the 2012 presidential election.

Libération’s own political front page looks at the growing distance between President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister François Fillon, suggesting that the Socialists are not the only ones facing a spot of gentlemanly fisticuffs in the run-in to 2012.

Then there's Communist l'Humanité, fulminating against the fact that sixty per cent of recent job contracts have been awarded on a short-term basis.

Apart from low pay, there's no stability for workers, and no serious commitment on either side.

Worse, according to a sociologist interviewed by the paper, the young are regarded as dangerous by the Sarkozy government, which thus encourages their marginalisation.

The communist daily's editorial says, you bet, people who live on the clippings of tin and who can be sacked from one day to the next are ideal employees. They're afraid to complain, they don't go on strike, and they're so poor they can't afford to be sick. From an employer's point of view, things haven't been this good since the start of the industrial revolution.

At the other end of the spectrum, right-wing Le Figaro celebrates the fact that the world market for motor cars is picking up speed. And it's all thanks to the Chinese, shortly to overtake the Americans as the world's leading gas-guzzlers.

Paris will next weekend host the world motor show, with all concerned predicting a return to pre-crisis profit levels.

Le Fig also looks at polyphenols. Poly who, you ask? Polyphenols are chemicals that you find in fruit juice and wine, for example, and they, the chemicals, appear to have a positive effect on the rate at which the human body and brain age.

Now, a university in Switzerland has invented a little machine which will measure the anti-aging potential of your bottle of plonk.

Useful, since the number of polyphenols can vary between bottles by a factor of twenty.

Choose the wrong bottle and, not only do you go on getting old, you get pissed as a newt as well.