French citizens in the UK will for the first time be able to vote for an MP, with the creation of a Northern Europe constituency in the French parliament. What role will London play?
London is home to the majority of the vibrant UK French population for whom the capital is not just a city of transit.
They will soon be represented by a new French MP for the recently established Northern Europe constituency comprising the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia and the Baltic states.
It is difficult to measure the exact number of French people living in the British capital. Over 120,000 are officially registered at the French consulates in London and Edinburgh, but not everybody decides to register and other London estimates put the French population at anywhere between 300,000 and 400,000 citizens.
London could hold the key to victory for any candidate as it has the largest concentration of French people across the whole constituency.
"All of the main parties have chosen candidates based in London," says Philippe Marliere, professor of French and European politics at University College London.
"It's going to be a London contest."
Of the 20 official candidates for the seat, nine are based in London, and a further three live in other regions of the UK.
'Key issue'Although the French have long had a tradition of MPs from their overseas territories, this is the first time France will allow elected MPs for its expat population to have a seat in parliament.
The decision to create new constituencies for the French abroad was taken by former president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose government passed legislation in 2008 to give them the right to elect their own MPs.
Prof Marliere argues this can be seen a political move by the right to boost votes. Traditionally, the French abroad are less likely to support the left, even if the gap is narrowing in the UK.
Statistics from the French Ministry of the Interior show that the majority (53.05%) of overseas French citizens voted for right-wing candidate Mr Sarkozy in the 2012 presidential election.
But French people in the UK bucked this trend for the first time by voting for Socialist candidate Francois Hollande - though Mr Sarkozy won almost 52% of the second round vote in London.
Party politics aside, Prof Marliere says there are more and more French people living abroad. They can encounter problems with the education, pension, tax, social welfare and health systems in their host country, issues that an expat MP could help them with.
Candidates for Northern Europe constituency
- Axelle Lemaire, Socialist Party (London)
- Emmanuelle Savarit, UMP party (London)
- Yannick Naud, Democratic Movement (London)
- Will Mael Nyamat, independent (London)
- Olivier Bertin, Green Party (London)
- Olivier Cadic, Centrist Alliance (London)
- Denys Dhiver, supported by the Christian Democratic Party and France Ecologie (Leicester, UK)
- Gaspard Koenig, Liberal Democratic (London)
- Guy Le Guezennec, National Front (Kent, UK)
- Jerome de Lavenere Lussan, independent (London)
- Marie-Claire Sparrow, Gathering of French residents overseas (Essex, UK)
- Bertrand Larmoyer, independent liberal (London)
- Aberzack Boulariah, independent (Ireland)
- Olivier de Chazeaux, supported by the Radical Party, New Centre, and Republican, Ecologist and Social Alliance (Paris)
- Lucile Jamet, Left Front
- Patrick Kaboza, independent candidate (Riga, Latvia)
- Ezella Sahraoui, Radical Party of the Left (Lille, France)
- Christophe Schermesser, European Federalist Party (Finland)
- Edith Tixier, Solidarity and Progress party
- Anne-Marie Wolfson, independent (Paris)
This is reflected in the official manifestos of the candidates, which also mention the challenges faced by French people abroad in business.
But Prof Marliere says that the "key issue" for the UK-based candidates is education, as French families are keen to send their children to French schools.
Providing a French education for their children can be costly for parents and French-speaking schools are oversubscribed.
Because of this, the French embassy, teachers and parents have been working to deal with the shortage of places, opening a new school in Kentish Town, London, last September, says Frederique Brisset, headmistress of L'Ecole des Petits and L'Ecole de Battersea.
"The choice of French schools is limited and there are fundamental differences between the French curriculum and the British curriculum."
"French schools are not free," says Prof Marliere. "Although the French state subsidises education by sending French teachers, the rest is not paid for by the state."
This issue is not going away as within the UK, the make-up of the French community is changing. It is getting younger, and therefore more likely to have children.
In addition to those working in the financial sector and employed by international companies, the UK's French population now includes "students, people in the service industries, public servants and young families", says Prof Marliere.
French LondonersClelia-Elsa Froguel, a 26-year-old consultant born in France, is part of this younger generation.
She says the creation of an expat MP enables the voices of French emigrants to be heard in the French parliament.
"We are French Londoners, not expats," she says. "The election of an MP for us is extremely important."
While she can vote in the French presidential elections, up until now she did not vote in the French parliamentary elections because she felt she was "not represented."
And David Medioni, a political journalist based in Paris, points out that French people in France view it as "normal" that expats should have some political say.
'More and more British'But others are less than enthusiastic about the idea, arguing that the MP will have little impact as the French abroad are not the government's priority.
Prof Marliere says it is difficult to see how the French abroad can place demands on the government, as many do not pay taxes in France.
He asks: "Why would the government in France supplement our life choices?"
And Muriel Demarcus, a 39-year-old business owner, says the introduction of an expat French MP is unlikely to change anything.
"After four or five years you turn a corner and you become more and more British. I don't think we are French any more."
The successful candidate will sit in the French National Assembly in Paris and will have the same duties as any other French MP, representing a vast constituency stretching across 1.5m sq miles (4m sq km).
Prof Marliere expects that the elected representative will divide their time between the French capital and their home country, making frequent trips to other regions.
Although the figures are disputed, the London population has grown so big that it is sometimes referred to as France's sixth city. Because of this, French people in other European countries, such as 22-year-old Maite Delvarre from Stockholm, say that the views of non-UK based constituents won't be heard.
"The culture in the UK and the Nordic countries is not the same. That's why we need somebody else here."
Even for experts like Prof Marliere, the outcome of the election is difficult to predict.
"It's totally new. Nobody knows what is going to happen."
Registered French citizens in the Northern Europe constituency |
||
|---|---|---|
| Country | French Consulate* | Electoral List** |
|
*As of 31 December 2011, **As of 29 Feb 2012 |
||
|
Denmark |
5,214 |
3,450 |
|
Estonia |
182 |
126 |
|
Finland |
2,569 |
1,596 |
|
Ireland |
8,881 |
5,799 |
|
Iceland |
341 |
244 |
|
Latvia |
193 |
123 |
|
Lithuania |
379 |
215 |
|
Norway |
5,034 |
3,337 |
|
UK |
123,306 |
80,750 |
|
Sweden |
6,329 |
4,312 |
|
The actual number of French people living in these countries is estimated to be significantly higher. |
||
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
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Rebecca Adlington has been receiving abusive messages on Twitter after revealing "nasty comments" meant the double Olympic champion would be using it sparingly during London 2012.
The 23-year-old was catapulted into the public eye after her triumphs in the 400 metres and 800m freestyle in Beijing, with the Mansfield-born swimmer feted on her return to Great Britain.
However, not everybody was so pleased – something she discovered the painful way. Now she does not read on-line interviews she has given and neither will she be using Twitter as much during the London Olympic Games.
On Sunday Adlington pasted a message that has been sent to her on Twitter, prefacing it with: "I had a perfect example of what has been said in the papers this week tweeted to me this morning. I apologise for the swearing when I RT it!"
She then posted: "How lovely is this person…" before retweeting a message to her which read: "@BeckAdlington you shark fin nosed d*******, you belong in that pool you f****** whale."
Adlington quickly received support from many of her Great Britain team‑mates. The former world 100m freestyle silver medallist Fran Halsall tweeted: "what a small insignificant life that person must lead", echoed by the former double Commonwealth champion Caitlin McClatchey, who wrote: "his parents must be so proud to have raised such a pathetic idiot! Well done for ur amazing 800 hun BOOM! Good luck today xx"
The Olympic open water bronze medallist Cassie Patten addressed the perpetrator directly, saying: "It must be hard for you, you obviously have achieved nothing in your life, as you feel the need to Insult @BeckAdlington."
It all follows the revelation by Adlington to a number of reporters that she has been subject to abuse on Twitter as well as negative comments online. She had said: "I love the block button on Twitter. I don't know how people expect to send a nasty comment and not get blocked.
"With Twitter I think it's one of those things if you like it like Liam [Tancock] who is on it every two minutes – 'just having my lunch, just doing this' – he loves it, he is like that in real life. Whereas I am on Twitter every now and again, I tweet here and there but not every day all the time.
"I think I will be going on every now and again but I won't be checking it.
"I want to stay focused – obviously the messages of support are absolutely amazing and I love reading all of those but you have got the chance of somebody saying something just to annoy you and you don't want that added stress. For myself, I think I'll tweet once it's over."
She added: "I used to [read articles] when it first happened but I am one of those people who then scroll down to the bottom and read the comments and I learned very quickly not to do that. Because it is awful and I get angry: even if there are 10 nice comments you always get one idiot.
"It makes you angry and frustrated. I've now given up because it upsets me or makes me angry."
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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