Gavin Mortimer

Gavin Mortimer

Gavin Mortimer is a British author who lives in Burgundy after many years in Paris. He writes about French politics, terrorism and sport.

Friday

Gavin Mortimer

Labour is following in the doomed footsteps of the French left

The left no longer exists as a coherent political force in France. Embarrassed in the 2017 presidential election, the Socialist party has continued to disintegrate, polling just 6.2 per cent of the vote in May's European elections. That was marginally fewer votes than Jean-Luc Mélenchon's La France Insoumise, which mustered a distinctly modest 6.3 per cent. The far-left leader polled well in the first round of the presidential election but as one French commentator wrote this week, his mistake was then to 'to revert to his original culture, that of the radical left'. As for the Socialist party, since 2007 their membership has plummeted from 260,000 to 102,000. But that is what happens when middle-class politicians alienate their traditional working-class voters.

Thursday

Gavin Mortimer

The French city zones where police rarely escape unscathed

In December 2015, Donald Trump claimed parts of the French capital were no-go zones for the police. 'Paris is no longer the same city it was,' said the then-Republican presidential hopeful. 'They have sections in Paris that are radicalised... The police refuse to go in there.' His remarks echoed a similar claim made by Fox News earlier in the year. In response the mayor of the city, Anne Hidalgo, was outraged, and even muttered about pursuing legal action for the 'honour of Paris'. Trump was wrong. There aren't any no-go zones in France for the police. There are, however, a growing number of zones that the police enter knowing their chances of emerging unscathed are slight.

Monday

Gavin Mortimer

Does Macron grasp what Corbyn would mean for France?

I had supper on Saturday with an old friend. She's a committed French socialist, a schoolteacher in the Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, the most impoverished department in France. She's relatively new to the profession, having decided in her late thirties that teaching was her calling. So she went back to university and upon qualifying she asked to be sent to the most challenging suburb in France. Earlier this year I accepted her invitation to address her pupils on the subject of writing and journalism. It was a good day out. I went not knowing what to expect but left having met two classes of teenagers who were attentive and appreciative.

Thursday

Gavin Mortimer

Could the Yellow Vests spoil Macron’s Biarritz G7 summit?

Who was the bright spark who thought it would be a good idea to hold this weekend's G7 summit in Biarritz? At the height of summer? Normally in August the population of this Atlantic coastal resort in France's Basque country balloons from 25,000 to more than 110,000. But not this year. Admittedly the arrival in Biarritz in the last fortnight of 13,200 law enforcement personnel has swelled the numbers, but they're unlikely to be buying beach towels and taking surfing lessons. Biarritz is in lockdown and the airport is closed until Sunday, along with the main train station and those of four neighbouring resorts. Tourists and commuters will have to make other arrangements, although roads are also shut or re-routed to avoid the centre of Biarritz.

Tuesday

Gavin Mortimer

Why are fewer Frenchwomen sunbathing topless?

I was taken by surprise last month while holidaying in Biarritz. As I splashed through the surf towards the beach I passed a woman paddling. She was topless and it struck me that this was a sight you don’t often see any more in France. I first came to France on summer holiday as a young boy and recall asking my mother, who is of Scottish presbyterian stock, why French women didn’t wear bikini tops. She replied from behind her sturdy one-piece swimming suit that it ‘was just the French way’ Not any more. In 1984, a survey found that 43 per cent of Frenchwomen bathed topless on the beach. But a similar poll last month revealed that figure had fallen to 19 per cent.

Wednesday

Gavin Mortimer

France’s horror at the prospect of prime minister Boris

Should Boris Johnson become Prime Minister it would be a calamity for his country and for Europe. That's the view of Le Monde, a newspaper that declares it's time for France and the rest of the continent to stop 'regarding him as a buffoon'. In an editorial headlined ‘Boris Johnson at the head of the UK? No thanks!’, the left-wing paper said that Britain's answer to Donald Trump is a danger to European stability, although clearly not as much as the Brexit Party. Since the party's formation earlier this year, Le Monde routinely describes them as ‘extreme-right’, which must come as something of a shock to Claire Fox and millions of other British lefties and their old-fashioned belief in democracy.

Thursday

Gavin Mortimer

Could Marion Maréchal-Le Pen stop Macron winning a second term?

There were two significant interviews on French television on Sunday evening. One featured Laurent Wauquiez, the erstwhile leader of the centre-right Républicains, who fell on his sword after the disastrous performance of his party in the European elections. Minutes before Wauquiez announced his resignation, Marion Maréchal gave her first major television interview since stepping down as a National Front MP in June 2017.

Friday

Gavin Mortimer

Modern Britain isn’t fit to honour the memory of D-Day

Throughout 2002 and 2003 I travelled the country, and further afield, interviewing wartime veterans of the Special Air Service for my book about the history of the regiment's early years. This adventure coincided with Britain's march to war against Iraq and, more often than not during my discussions with these old warriors, the question of the conflict arose. Only one veteran among the scores I spoke to was in favour of Britain's participation. The rest gave their wholehearted support to the soldiers sent to fight Saddam Hussein's forces, but distrusted the political reasons for their deployment. Of these men only a handful remain. I had lunch with one at the end of 2017 and although in his late 90s he was still razor sharp.

Tuesday

Gavin Mortimer

Marine Le Pen’s return is good news for Emmanuel Macron

If there's one politician in Europe as triumphant as Nigel Farage right now it's Emmanuel Macron. The European election results were not, as many outside France have declared, a humiliation for the French president. On the contrary, they were a success. Publicly the Elysée described the result as "honourable", but in private the president was reportedly cock-a-hoop. "Basically, we've won, it's a triumph and Macron is jubilant," said one of his staff. While his LREM party may have trailed Marine Le Pen's NR by a narrow margin (23.3 per cent to 22.4), Macron's eyes were on another opponent. Seven years ago the centre-right Les Republicains [LR] were the ruling party in France; today they are a fringe outfit, which won just 8.

Friday

Gavin Mortimer

France’s far-left are looking to Le Pen as their saviour

Two years ago, Marine Le Pen was a laughing stock, not just in France but around the world. She was never likely to beat Emmanuel Macron in the presidential election but her barrack room performance in the live televised debate with her rival shredded her reputation. While Macron embarked on his campaign to conquer the world that summer, Le Pen disappeared from public life, reportedly plunged into a fit of depression by her humiliating defeat. Although she emerged again in the autumn of 2017 it was without her two most trusted lieutenants, Florian Philippot and Marion Maréchal.

Tuesday

Gavin Mortimer

The Viz generation is in charge now

Unless you were a commuter struggling to reach work last week in London, the antics of Extinction Rebellion were comedy gold. If the world really is in imminent danger, as the activists tell us, then at least we'll go down laughing. I'm not sure what gave me most entertainment. The giant yoga session, maybe, or the activists dancing across Waterloo bridge, although it looked less like dancing and more like a troupe of crusties trying to ward off a swarm of wasps. Then there was the side-splitting interview on Sky News with Robin Boardman-Pattison, the 21-year-old Extinction spokesman (and jet-setting skier), who threw a hissy fit when Adam Boulton suggested he and his pals were "incompetent, middle-class, self-indulgent people".

Tuesday

Gavin Mortimer

The symbolism of Notre Dame’s destruction won’t be lost on Macron

The timing of the burning of Notre Dame could not have been worse for Emmanuel Macron. The spire of the 850-year-old cathedral collapsed into the flames at 8pm, the time scheduled for his televised address to the nation. The president had planned to tell his people in the broadcast what measures would be taken after the three months of Grand Debate, the consultation launched at the start of the year in response to the Yellow Vest protest movement. Instead, Macron rushed to Notre Dame and looked on as the inferno consumed the country's most historic monument. "Notre-Dame is aflame," tweeted the president. "Great emotion for the whole nation. Our thoughts go out to all Catholics and to the French people.

Tuesday

Gavin Mortimer

Winston Churchill and the plot to smear Britain’s great men

The concerted attempt by left-wing figures to smear Winston Churchill last week is no surprise. In fact, it is another instance of a phenomenon I identified on these pages last November when I wrote about the cultural appropriation of the first world war. That process began in the early 1960s, with the myth of 'Lions led by Donkeys', but the liberal intelligentsia soon began to broaden their cultural appropriation of British history by impugning the reputation of its great men. In September 1967 the Sunday Times published an article by Len Deighton in which he accused David Stirling, the founder of the SAS, of imperilling the lives of his men during operations in the second world war through careless talk at cocktail parties.

Wednesday

Gavin Mortimer

What Macron’s spat with Italy is really about

Who needs the Comédie-Française when there is Emmanuel Macron in the Élysée? France's recall last week of its ambassador from Italy for consultation was pure theatre on the part of the president. And it was a decision more for the benefit of his domestic audience than for the coalition government in Rome. In a statement explaining why Christian Masset had been ordered home, the foreign office said that for several months France has been subjected to outrageous statements that have created a 'serious situation which is raising questions about the Italian government’s intentions towards France.' France blamed the recall on Luigi Di Maio, the Italian deputy prime minster, who flew to Paris last week to meet members of the Yellow Vest protest movement.

Thursday

Gavin Mortimer

France’s dilemma: what to do with jihadists who say sorry

Patrick Jardin lost his daughter when Islamist terrorists attacked the Bataclan in November 2015. Nathalie was one of 130 people killed that evening in Paris and her father still pays her mobile phone charges so that he can hear her voice on her answer message. For Jardin, time has healed nothing. He spearheaded a successful campaign to prevent the controversial rapper Medine from appearing at the Bataclan last year. And in the interviews he gives, such as this one to Liberation, he directs his anger in many directions. Some of it against himself, for failing to "protect" his daughter, some against the killers, but most is channelled into a visceral loathing for the political class, which he accuses of being the real assassins.

Wednesday

Gavin Mortimer

France’s dilemma: what to do with jihadists who say sorry | 6 February 2019

Patrick Jardin lost his daughter when Islamist terrorists attacked the Bataclan in November 2015. Nathalie was one of 130 people killed that evening in Paris and her father still pays her mobile phone charges so that he can hear her voice on her answer message. For Jardin, time has healed nothing. He spearheaded a successful campaign to prevent the controversial rapper Medine from appearing at the Bataclan last year. And in the interviews he gives, such as this one to Liberation, he directs his anger in many directions. Some of it against himself, for failing to "protect" his daughter, some against the killers, but most is channelled into a visceral loathing for the political class, which he accuses of being the real assassins.

Friday

Gavin Mortimer

Why the Yellow Vests haven’t received any celebrity endorsements

When the actor Jared Leto won the Oscar for best supporting actor in 2014 he used his acceptance speech to send a message to those people protesting against poverty. 'To all the dreamers out there around the world watching this tonight, in places like the Ukraine and Venezuela, I want to say we are here,' declared the American. 'And as you struggle to make your dreams happen, to live the impossible, we're thinking of you.' Leto wasn't alone in thinking of the thousands of brave Venezuelans who for weeks had been demonstrating on the streets against social inequality. Madonna, Kevin Spacey (in the days when he was still a beacon of righteousness) and Rihanna were among those who also spoke up for the students and middle-class demonstrators.

Thursday

Gavin Mortimer

Is France on the verge of class war between Yellow Vests and Red Scarves?

The first thing that struck me when I emerged from the metro station onto the Place de la Nation was the amount of corduroy. It was without doubt the trouser material of choice for the middle-aged men participating in Sunday's inaugural Red Scarf (Foulard Rouge) rally in support of the Republic and its institutions. As I meandered through the crowd, which numbered only half of the 20,000 hoped for by the organisers, I was also surprised by the number of blue and gold flags. Some demonstrators were waving the EU banner and others were wrapped in it, like football fans on their way to a World Cup match. I spied a woman sheltering from the driving rain under an EU umbrella and thought she would be a good person to start talking to.

Monday

Gavin Mortimer

Is France on the verge of class war between Yellow Vests and Red Scarves? | 28 January 2019

The first thing that struck me when I emerged from the metro station onto the Place de la Nation was the amount of corduroy. It was without doubt the trouser material of choice for the middle-aged men participating in Sunday's inaugural Red Scarf (Foulard Rouge) rally in support of the Republic and its institutions. As I meandered through the crowd, which numbered only half of the 20,000 hoped for by the organisers, I was also surprised by the number of blue and gold flags. Some demonstrators were waving the EU banner and others were wrapped in it, like football fans on their way to a World Cup match. I spied a woman sheltering from the driving rain under an EU umbrella and thought she would be a good person to start talking to.

Wednesday

Gavin Mortimer

Are the Yellow Vests just a bunch of middle class whiners?

On two Sundays this month there have been Yellow Vest demonstrations in France organised by women. As one of the leaders explained to the media, they're not 'feminist' demonstrations but 'feminine', a chance for women to have their voices heard in a movement that, since its formation, has been predominantly patriarchal. These women don't want their movement to be hijacked by bourgeois Parisian feminists, those who care more about making French a gender-neutral language than reducing childcare costs for single mums struggling to make ends meet. Changing grammatical rules so that the masculine form of a noun no longer takes precedence over the female is probably not the issue that preoccupies the million working women living below the poverty line.