Problema for the PS and Mr. Hollande

[woolybanana]

Oh dear, oh dear, it goes from bad to worse. Now one of the President's key advisers has had to resign because of a conflict of interest; it seems that he was being paid as an adviser to the pharma industry at the same time as being the government regulator of the industry.

And, to draw attention from this, Mr H. announced on the same day that he would not run again if the level of unemployment had not come down. A bet that even he can win, I reckon, given the way that figures can be massaged.

And it transpires that the new head of the PS, a Mr C.... ...., , whose name I cant get round, has two convictions for fraud in office. But then the last PM also had one, too. It seems a rite of passage for French politicians.

Mr Hollande is now down to 12% in the polls, whilst his bright, shiny new PM is up to 60% odd. Which might cause all sorts of problems: firstly, he might be sabotaged by those loyal to Hollande who think he is too popular, second he might be seen seen as the only logical replacement for Mr. H. in 2017 and Mr H. might be abandoned whilst Mr. Valls is favoured by the party.

But, Mr Valls has recently ticked off the loopy left of the party (about 100 deputes) as his recent measures to deindex pensions and various other things in the race to shave 50million euros off State spending go right to the heart of their beliefs.

So, after the Europeans, will the party spilt, will Mr. Valls be knifed by the party left, will they unite to beat the right and ultra right, will Mr Hollande rise from the dead, ......?

Watch this space or the French news for updates on this continuing saga.

UPDATE... UPDATE... a newly appointed adviser to the newly appointed head of the PS who has a criminal record for dirty dealings has just been revealed to have strong paid links to one of the big telecoms companies...

AND MORE.... the exwife of the shamed Dominiqie Strauss Kahn is supposed to be going to reveal all about that naughty business in NY and her life with lover boy. Which should be eye watering. But, will she be outdone by Valerie Rottweiler, late guardian of the President's underpants who is also said to have been paid a fortune to ditch the dirt on her late relationship with the late (ooops) President.

Ah, a week in French politics !

[idun]

I shall be watching this space![:-))]

[Pickles]

I suspect that the real problem is that we shall shortly discover that A LOT of Deputés etc from all sides hold consultancy appointments or contracts which would be perceived by the general public as being at least gross conflicts of interest if not outright corrupt. Also have they yet addressed the issue of the accumulation of posts by Deputés? (I mean with actions rather than words).

Look what happened when the UK press started looking at MP's expenses, as an example. The UK MPs' requirement to fill in the register of financial interests has also helped to expose some basic conflicts of interests, but other interests (or ones which the MP "forgot" to register) are also uncovered from time to time. The "secondment" or sponsorship of interns and researchers in the UK by lobby groups is an area overdue for a clampdown.

The particular issue of Dr Morelle seems to be that the intention was that he ought to be able to keep up his medical experience, but he can't really be said to be doing that as a consultant to a pharmaceutical company!