French lessons - Government can learn from Sarkozy

TIME WAS one of the great questions of the day was “Why is America not socialist?” The European left just could not understand, and in hindsight they might have been unnerved by, why the pre-eminent industrial society was capitalism’s greatest champion.

A more contemporary version of that high-stool staple on America’s antipathy to socialism is “why was anyone socialist?” That seems to be the question, or at least the consequences of it, that France is struggling to address today. Teachers, train drivers and civil servants are on strike, to be joined by magistrates, lawyers and legal clerks tomorrow.

Some of these people are striking to protest at services being cut, others are protesting at efforts led by President Nicolas Sarkozy to reform, or, depending on your view, undermine, working conditions and pension rights in France’s public service.