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iGreens have no great objection to the French failure to support the US and Britain in dealing with the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.   We might be tempted to make jokes about their success as fighters (click here), and to be cynical about their willingness to sell arms to anyone with money.  

However, there are few direct environmental consequences to either of these policies, although the people of Iraq might be less pleased at the way French prevarication is helping Saddam.

We're less pleased at their persistence in testing their nuclear weapons in the Pacific, although even that policy seems to be stopping.

Our main beef is with their support for farm protectionism.  The European Union's (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is not only the most expensive EU programme, but the most environmentally damaging.    

This final effect is perfectly understandable.  Poor people care relatively more about the necessities of life than about luxuries like the environment.  It is a matter of common observation that people care more for the environment as their per-capita wealth increases.  

The result is:

All directly or indirectly attributable to the French veto against reforming the CAP. 

The international effects are even more damaging.  Both EU and US farm trade tarrifs harm poor farmers in the third world directly.  They are also harmed by the lower US tarrifs.   However the EU tarrifs are much higher, even after George Bush's recent modest increase.  The US would probably lower its farm tarrifs if the EU did the same.  

The French, by their insistence on maintaining the CAP, are doing more than anyone else to maintain world farm trade barriers and harm the poor.  It harms developing countries in two ways.  Firstly intermittent donations of subsidised food impedes the development of their domestic agriculture. Secondly, such food tends to get in the hands of, and get doled out by, the political elite so helping corrupt governments stay in power.  

This is not an isolated action.   Jaques Chirac has just invited Robert Mugabe to Paris in defiance of an EU travel ban.   Has he not heard how Mugabe stole his last election, and how his land seizures are fast returning one of the most successful economies in Africa to penury?   Even Britain's cricketers have got that message.  

Here's another bright French idea.   Last week their prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin was musing on how to sort out the French pension system.  It's a "pay as you go" system and pretty much bust.  It's so generous that only 16% of people age 60-65 still bother to work.  Britain, by sensibly keeping out of the European single currency, is managing to avoid subsidising their folly. 

However, that hardly justifies Raffarin's plan; "a policy for the family" to persuade the average French woman to increase the number of children she bears from 1.9 to 2.1.  The idea is that more young French workers will pay the pensions of the current load of slackers.   

But does the world really need more Frenchmen?   The poor don't think so, and environmentalists certainly don't.

Come on Bob Geldof, Bono, and your anti-globalisation friends.   If you you really cared about the poor, you would be marching against France, rather than the Americans.

Jim Thornton, Nottingham.  15 Feb 2003

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Last modified: October 19, 2005