Cocktails Molotov

An unexpected delight this morning was to encounter M. Jacques Mayard, a French MP who had been invited onto Radio National's 'Breakfast' to give information about the current riots. The word 'ebullient' might have been coined to describe M. Mayard, who comes over as a cross between Pepe Le Pew and Foghorn Leghorn. I often wonder how the RN people come up with their various guests: I imagine they had a contact with M. Mayard, and thought "He kind of speaks English, and he's a member of Chirac's party, and Chirac opposes Bush, so he should be pretty sound".

If this was indeed their reasoning, they had cause to regret it, and I doubt we'll be hearing from M. Mayard again soon on 'Breakfast'. As the interview progressed, it became clear that he has some rather old-fashioned ideas. Apart from some charming turns of phrase - the need to declare a state of 'urgency', and the search for 'cocktails molotov' - he was obviously keen on a force de frappe response to the current problems, and was emphatic about the need for immigrants to be 'integrated' with their host society. When Fran asked whether he thought the rioters were Islamist jihadis, or just 'disaffected youth', he suspected the latter, and gave, as the underlying cause, the 'breakdown of authority'. He emphasized this breakdown in the family, and - with an apology to Fran - in schools, as a result of 'too many female teachers', who were incapable of disciplining teenage boys. You could almost see Fran reaching for the cutoff button.