Month: August 2006

Laurent-Fabius-Watch: La Rentrée S’Annonce Chaude

Nothing on Tim Collins recently, but the Stoa’s indefatigable Laurent Fabius correspondent writes:

Yes, there are only three months left before we find out whether Chris’ one-time dining companion Laurent Fabius will do battle with Nicolas Sarkozy for Western Europe’s most powerful elected post! A feverish autumn of political in-fighting is expected to follow as Fabius attempts to face down rival contenders Ségolène Royal, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Jack Lang and (possibly) Lionel Jospin and François Hollande for the Socialist Party’s candidature for President of the Republic. (Well, it’s already seen Jospin in tears at the party’s recent summer school in La Rochelle.) Nominations close on 3 October; the first round of voting is on 16 November and the second on 23 November; the winner will be officially ratified on 2 December. May the best éléphant win…

In the meantime, Laurent-Fabius-Watch wishes its man a happy 60th birthday. Will passing this milestone give him the necessary gravitas to be a présidentiable? (Let’s not forget that in 2002 the first, second and third placed candidates were aged 69, 73 and 64 respectively). Or will he fall victim to rampant ageism? Find out more in the L’Express interview which marked the occasion. What’s more, you can also hear – and see – Fabius talk about the impact May ’68 had on his generation, in a special birthday interview for BBC World available online.

I like ‘présidentiable‘. It’s almost as good as papabille.

Sponsorship Opportunities, #2

Fellow blogger Nick Barlow is walking from John O’Groats to Land’s End to raise money for the Brain Research Trust by way of a memorial tribute to his brother Simon, who died far too young. He’s made it through Scotland relatively unscathed and is heading South. Masochist that he is, he’s planning to add hundreds of miles to his route by following the Devon and Cornwall coastal path all the way around, when he could just nip down the A30. So good luck to him, and you can sponsor him over here. Won’t take a moment.

Sponsorship Opportunities, #1

My brother-in-law Paddy has gone off to live in India for a year to teach Trigonometry Through Dance (or something like that) to poor kids in Bangalore. You can read all about his trip over at paddyinindia.com and you can also help him raise money for the Inter-Cultural Youth Exchange through his fundraising page here. What a good idea, I hear you cry in unison as you reach for your credit cards.