When will Nadine Morano stop?

French actor and screenwriter François Morel has said what probably many people in this country are thinking - or maybe even wishing - at the moment.

Morel who, in that time-honoured French tradition seems to be able to turn his hand to more than one profession at a time, has a weekly slot, "Le billet de François Morel" on Friday mornings on the French national public radio station France Inter.

It's five minutes during which Morel gives listeners his take on some of the stories that have made the news over the past week in France.

And last Friday it was "no holds barred" as the 52-year-old began his spot by fair laying in to two government ministers; Nora Berra, the junior minister for health, and Nadine Morano, the junior minister responsible for learning and training.

"Shut up Nora Berra," he began his commentary.

"Shut up Nora Berra, who recommended that the homeless stay indoors (during the cold spell)," he continued, just warming up.

"Shut up Nadine Morano, who thinks Eva Joly (the presidential candidate for the snappily-named Europe Écologie Les Verts, EELV or French Green party) has a problem with her accent and her body," he said.

"Nadine Morano has a problem with her brain."

Nadine Morano (screenshot BFM TV/RMC radio interview)

Yep, Morel wasn't mincing his words and in the case of Morano in particular, he probably had good cause.

While the remainder of his spot wandered off into more philosophical matters - not necessarily easy listening while getting ready for work - his opening salvoes surely, had highlighted an essential problem with some government ministers: their inability to think before they speak or publish something.

In the case of Berra it was that isolated, in her words, "error of interpretation" over her recommendation to the homeless to stay inside during the cold weather.

As far as Morano was concerned though, there have been a series of blunders - deliberate or unintentional - which make her governmental credentials almost Benny Hill-esque.

The list runs from telling "young Muslims in France that they should dress properly, find a job and stop speaking slang" to confusing "Renault" the car manufacturer with "Renaud" the singer during an early morning interview on Canal +.

And everything in between.

It would be fair to say that not a week seems to go by without Morano boldy putting her tootsie well and truly where no foot has dared to tread - in her mouth.

Last week she added to them by not only criticising Joly's accent (she was born in Norway just in case you didn't know, and first moved to France in her late teens) but also her look.

While busy "explaining" her most recent "misunderstood" gaffe, the 48-year-old then went on to score another own goal.

It happened after the inveterate Tweeter and texter sent an SMS to former government minister and current mayor of Nice in which she reportedly warned him about the prime minister, François Fillon, writing (you do the translation), "Attention Christian, Fillon te chie dans les bottes."

Only she apparently hit the wrong button when sending it, and the recipient was...er Fillon rather than Estrosi.

So perhaps Morel really was speaking for many French when he colourfully told Morano to...well, you know.

Nora Berra, junior health minister, advises homeless to "stay indoors" during cold snap!

As you're doubtless aware by now, much of Europe is going through Brass Monkeys weather, and France has been no exception over the past week.

Indeed there's unlikely to be a let-up in the cold spell until next weekend according to the national meteorological (try saying that after a few bevvies) office Météo France.

Prime time TV news and radio programmes are typically dedicating plenty of air time to - among other aspects - the freezing temperatures, burst pipes, electricity consumption, the danger of blackouts, and the plight of the homeless.

Cue the junior minister for health, Nora Berra, whose job, you would imagine, is one that would require her being particularly sensitive to the needs of the more vulnerable - especially during weather extremes.

And such was the case at the weekend when the 49-year-old helpfully wrote on her blog her recommendations as to how those most at risk - the homeless, infants, the elderly, or people with chronic cardiovascular or respiratory problems - could cope with the cold spell.

A few lines later came her words of wisdom beginning with, "In the case of an extreme drop in temperature, I recommend to those most vulnerable to stay indoors."

(enlarged screenshot of blog from Nouvel Observateur)

Yep. She was apparently telling the homeless that they shouldn't venture outside.

Duh.

As the website of the weekly news magazine Nouvel Observateur pointed out, the Net was soon abuzz with reactions to Berra's blunder, with Twitter users poking fun at the minister by recommending that, "the homeless also eat five fruit and vegetables each day for a healthy diet" or suggesting they "wear fur coats rather than jogging suits because they would keep them warmer."

Berra responded by amending her blog and, as the national daily Le Monde wrote, dropping the homeless from her original list of the "most vulnerable" and giving them a whole sentence at the end of her entry with a reminder that, "if you see a homeless person on the street who seems to need help because of the cold, call 115 (an emergency service for the homeless) to report it without delay."

Seemingly unwilling to admit that she had made any sort of mistake, she also answered her critics by saying that it had been an "error of interpretation" and writing a shorter blog entry (Tweeted) pointing out that, "there are some subject which do not lend themselves to irony."

Well, there's nothing like an apology...and that's...

French government - the comings and goings

The dust has settled somewhat on the government reshuffle announced here in France a couple of weeks ago. The new members have started to get on with their jobs as have those somewhat familiar faces that simply changed ministerial portfolios. And some of those "dismissed" have had the chance to react.

Perhaps now though is the time to reflect on whether it was, as some political commentators have suggested, simply a game of musical chairs among the favoured, the entry into government of a selected few, and if the French president's insistence in an interview with the left-of-centre weekly, Nouvel Observateur, that it was proof of his continued policy of "diversity within government", really holds up.

Of course much of the domestic and international media focussed on the new culture minister, Frédéric Mitterrand, the nephew of the former Socialist president, François.

Although not exactly an example of a further opening up of the government to reflect all political persuasions, the name in itself resonated and was enough to capture the imagination of several headline writers.

Perhaps though the most newsworthy aspect of his appointment - apart maybe for some the fact that he is openly gay - is that Mitterrand rather forced his new boss to announce the reshuffle a day earlier than scheduled by inadvertently confirming to the French media ahead of time that he had been offered the new job.

He later apologised for his faux pas.

So Mitterrand aside, what of some of the others that left or entered the government and the rejigging of ministries.

Well first up there was the rather unceremonious departure of the former housing minister, Christine Boutin.

Whatever you might think about her very strongly pro-life (anti-abortion) views and somewhat "socially conservative" stance on homosexuality, there was understandable indignation from the now former minister in the way she learned of her dismissal; at the same time as the rest of the country when the official announcement of the "comings and goings" was made live on national television.

Appearing on the early morning show of a national radio station a few days later Boutin was in suitably combative form, saying that she somewhat miffed (to put it mildly at the way in which she had been treated.

"I learned about my dismissal along with everyone else," she said.

"I had expected to remain in government and had a meeting in the afternoon with François Fillon (the prime minister) who told me the job of housing minister 'wasn't certain' but when I said that I would be interested in the prisons portfolio, he said he would talk to the president about it and get back to me," she continued.

"I'm still waiting for that call from the prime minister."

So one more-than-aggrieved woman - and her ministry, for so long one of the declared priorities of the French president, has in a sense also been "demoted", because it's now in the hands of Benoist Apparu, who entered the government as a junior minister.

Another victim of the reshuffle was, as expected, the former culture minister Christine Albanel.

There again the close ally of the former president, Jacques Chirac, (with whom Sarkozy had always had a strained relationship) probably saw the proverbial writing on the wall, as she had been charged with trying to see through Hadopi, a bill to crack down on Internet piracy, which although passed by politicians was eventually thrown out by this country's constitutional court.

It's now back, in a revised form, once again making its way through parliament.

Albanel has remained quiet since leaving her job, although as the weekly magazine, Le Point points out, it probably came as a relief to her as her job had not been an easy one, especially after Sarkozy rather unexpectedly announced in January 2008 that he wanted to see an end to all advertising on public television - a policy which also falls within the remit of the culture minister.

It's clear that women didn't fare that well in the reshuffle. There were seven in frontline jobs before, and just four afterwards.

Alongside Boutin and Albanel, the third woman to leave the government was the former justice minister, Rachida Dati.

Her two years in office are of course well documented, she was seldom out of the headlines. And it was known in advance that she would be leaving the government to take up a seat in the European parliament after the June elections.

But this is where it gets interesting and shows a certain inconsistency in the way Sarkozy treated his ministers before and after the reshuffle.

Dati and the former agriculture minister Michel Barnier were both obliged to step down after those June elections.

Sarkozy had made it a rule, if you like - a minister couldn't be in two places at the same time.

Plus he argued that it was a signal that the "best" were being sent to Brussels and Strasbourg, and was proof that France took its role within the EU seriously.

But somehow that seemed to be "forgotten" in the reshuffle as the case of Brice Hortefeux, a long-time friend and close ally of the French president, illustrates. He rather unexpectedly found himself elected to serve for the next five years in Brussels and Strasbourg, but will not take up his seat.

Instead, he has become the new interior minister - a job he has long wanted - replacing Michèle Alliot-Marie, who takes over Dati's old job at the justice ministry (stop the music and find your seats).

And if that were not enough, a new member of the government, Nora Berra, will also have problems fulfilling her obligations to Europe. She too won election to the European parliament.

Because she has entered the government in the newly-created post of junior minister for the elderly.

But this is where it gets really interesting perhaps, because as Sarkozy himself says, Berra is proof of the very ethnic diversity in government in which he seems so proud.

The 46-year-old is the daughter of an Algerian soldier and (cynics might say) in a sense a less controversial and more suitable "replacement" for the now-departed Dati.

And of course if you're really looking for confirmation that diversity remains high on Sarkozy's list of "must haves" for a French government, you need look no further than the fate of Rama Yade.

Granted, she might no longer be the junior minister for human rights - the post no longer exists even though when Sarkozy came to power he said that respect for human rights had to be a vital part of France’s foreign policy, and created a ministry.

Instead she has been become junior minister for sport, a post from which even Yade might have difficulty making her usual controversial statements.

Of course Fadela Amara is still around as a potent symbol of Sarkozy's desire to break with the politics of the past and demonstrate diversity within government. The Socialist politician of Algerian Kabyle descent has kept her job as junior minister for urban policy and has a reputation for speaking her mind.

So there you have it. One interpretation of some of the changes in the French government, but let's leave the last word to the president.

"France needs a team that's diverse", said Sarkozy in that interview with Nouvel Observateur, and as far as he's concerned that's exactly what the reshuffle demonstrates.