Dominique Strauss-Kahn to return to French politics?

 Oh no!

It's just what French politics needs.

The return of another disgraced dinosaur.

Let's hope it's just idle gossip dreamt up by some bored journalist at Le Figaro desperate to deflect attention from the potential implosion of the opposition centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP).

A piece in Tuesday's edition of Le Figaro suggests that Dominique Strauss-Kahn is preparing to make his return to politics in 2014.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn (screenshot from i>Télé interview September 2012)

DSK isn't thinking about taking to the national political stage, says Le Figaro, rather he's interested in securing the Socialist party's nomination to run for the post of mayor in the town of Sarcelles in the northern suburbs of Paris in the 2014 municipal elections.

Far-fetched?

Well it might be a bit of a stretch with the judicial problems still hanging over him, but as the weekly magazine L'Express points out, DSK has been mayor of the town before (from 1995 to 1997) and we all know a criminal record doesn't necessarily mean the end of a political career in France.

But hang about. Isn't there someone already in the job?

Of course there is - another member of the Socialist party and a close friend of DSK, François Pupponi.

He was contacted by the free daily Metro on Tuesday and and didn't mince his words when asked what he thought about a possible DSK return.

"What's this crap?" he's reported as saying in response to the piece in Le Figaro.

"I don't comment on rumours or bull***t that some journalists make up just to say something."

Oh well. That's telling it like it is...hopefully.

The problem of course with politicians in France (as well as many other countries come to that) is that you can really be certain how sincere they're being - can you?

Karl Lagerfeld, newspaper editor, on the Queen, Barack Obama, Greece and Adele - and lots more

You know how some celebs seem almost to be caricatures of themselves?

They're talented, successful and very influential in whichever field they're working.

But somehow, somewhere, they begin saying whatever comes into their minds, and their soundbites are the stuff of great swathes of the media.

One such person surely has to be German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.

Karl Lagerfeld (screenshot from Reuters report)

The 78-year-old scores on all three criteria, talent, success and influence.

There's no questioning his gift for creating posh frocks and the like, he heads a major fashion house, Chanel, and he can make a model's catwalk career take off, just as he did with Baptiste Giabiconi.

Sadly he's also given to pontificating on just about anything that strikes his fancy.

So when the free daily newspaper Metro made him guest editor for Tuesday's edition, Lagerfeld was given a platform not only to determine the design and contents for one day, but also to come up with some real corkers as he was asked questions on a range of issues during an interview.

Barack Obama deserves to be re-elected as far as Lagerfeld is concerned, but mainly because of his wife, Michelle, who has a "magical face" and without whom "he (Obama) would not be there."

Ah yes finger on the political pulse time from a man who admits he has never voted in his life.

There's more...of course.

The Greek economic crisis is - surprise, surprise - "a big problem as (Greeks) have a reputation of being corrupt," says Lagerfeld.

Ah that thought has never been expressed before. But wait for it, he has more.

"Greece needs to work on a cleaner image."

And more.

"Nobody wants Greece to disappear (???- not sure what he meant by that. Maybe Lagerfeld knows something the rest of us don't) but they have really disgusting habits – Italy as well.

Yep - you tell 'em Karl.

On the French presidential election; "It's not inspiring at the moment" (see video).

Well some would probably agree with him.



As far as popular music is concerned, British singer Adele has "a beautiful face and divine voice" but for Lagerfeld she's also "a little too fat."

As if the latter had anything to do with the former.

Finally - just for now (you can read the whole interview and/or watch the video if you feel so inclined) there's Queen Elizabeth II who has just marked the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne.

Lagerfeld seems to think she's improving with age and, as far as her dress sense is concerned (and that's after all an area in which you would expect him to be able to make an informed comment) she's coming "into herself a little bit more - whatever that means."

Quite. What exactly does that mean?

Babu - just an ordinary hero

When it was first reported, the story of a man dying on the Paris métro system didn't make much of an impact on headline writers in France.

Photo of Rajinder Singh - "Babu" (snapshot from TF1 news report)

He had apparently been pushed on to the track and been electrocuted.

It's the kind of story you hear about from time to time - one of those news items that probably tends to wash over you as "oh just another story".

Except behind the headline of course was much more, as the daily Le Parisien revealed in a tribute it paid to Rajinder Singh, the man known by his nearest and dearest (and the rest of us now) as "Babu".

The 33-year-old Indian immigrant was reportedly travelling on the métro when he saw a pickpocket try to steal a mobile 'phone from a fellow passenger.

Babu intervened, coming to the woman's assistance , apparently asking the man to "leave her alone."

But a struggle then followed and continued as the train pulled into the next stop.

The two men got off and the pickpocket began punching Babu, finally pushing him off the platform and running away.

Babu was electrocuted.

And there the story might have ended, except for the reaction to a profile of Babu which Le Parisien ran the day after the incident.

It was a simple tribute to a man born in the Punjab region of India who had come to France seven years ago to "be able to work to send money home to his family and give them a better life," as one of his cousins told the newspaper.

Apparently a gentle man, opposed to violence of any sort, Babu was described by one of his friends as "goodness personified".

Babu's family wanted his body returned to India, but couldn't afford it.

Internet messages of support (snapshot from TF1 news report)

Babu's death - one which Le Parisien said left no one indifferent - provoked what TF1 news called "an astounding show of solidarity," with messages on the Internet and his brother-in-law Jean-Louis Lecomte, receiving 'phone calls of support and letters of donation.

On Wednesday a minute's silence was held at the station where Babu had died with the minister of transport, Thierry Mariani, and the minister of culture, Frédéric Mitterrand among those paying homage.

RATP, the public transport operator for the Paris region, has agreed to meet the costs of repatriating Babu's body.

Police have arrested a man they suspect of being the pickpocket who pushed Babu to his death.

Hommage poignant à "Babu", héros du métro

No more French music on the Brussels metro

There'll be no more Jacques Brel on the metro in Brussels because French music has been banned.

Instead passengers will be fed a diet of English, Italian and Spanish songs.

Brussels metro train at station Rogier (from Wikipedia, author - Platte C)

There's that rather tedious and certainly chauvinistic game among some sectors of the English-speaking world to "name 10 famous Belgians" or even just a couple come to that.

Of course there are plenty - past and present - who have made their mark on the world in one way or another: Hergé, Audrey Hepburn, Eddy Merckx, Kim Clijsters, Rubens to name just a few.

And right now the president of the European Council is a Belgian, Herman Van Rompuy - although ask anyone on the street who the heck he is and the chances are most wouldn't have a clue.

There's even a website dedicated to the country's most famous sons and daughters, Famousbelgians.net - proof that Belgium is more than just chocolate, beer, waffles, French fries and mussels (not all at the same time of course).

On the music side there are plenty of names, foremost among them probably in the French-speaking world (and also known to a fair number of English speakers) is the late Jacques Brel, arguably one of the outstanding songwriters in French of his generation.

Who doesn't know the haunting but beautiful "Ne me quitte pas" - perhaps not his original recording but others' interpretations?



Born in the suburbs of Brussels in 1929, Brel was, and probably remains, one of the city's most famous sons, even if much of his adult life was spent in Paris.

All of which surely makes the decision by the operator of the city's metro to stop playing French music at its stations something of a shame.

Granted Brel might not have appeared on the playlist of international hits piped into the metro system's 69 stops by the metro operator Société des transports intercommunaux de Bruxelles (STIB) or (for the sake of linguistic correctness) Maatschappij voor het Intercommunaal Vervoer te Brussel (MIVB), but he made the odd appearance along with other French language singers.

Unfortunately this apparently upset Dutch-speakers among the capital's travellers, as An Van Hamme, a spokesperson for STIB/MIVB spokesman explained.

"In February we decided to try playing songs from an international hit list and although that meant predominantly English-language artists there was the occasional song in French but virtually none in Dutch," said Van Hamme.

"We received dozens of complaints from Dutch-speakers asking why we weren't playing the same number of Dutch-language songs as those in French."

Ah yes, that linguistic divide in a city which is very officially bilingual.

Street sign in Brussels - in French and Dutch of course

Not a very difficult question to answer - honestly. But a tricky one to deal with.

So STIB/MIVB has done the only thing it could under the circumstances.

It has dropped French songs (and the occasional Dutch one) entirely from a playlist which will now consist of those in English (70 per cent) Spanish and Italian (both 15 per cent).

Perhaps it should have simply stuck to classical music as it does after nine o'clock in the evening.

That would have kept everyone happy - or at least not have upset anyone.