And this was passed last February, without much fanfare as a trailer to another law about veteran soldiers compensation. Very few people took notice.

Now that the smelly material has eventually hit the proverbial fan, Chirac & Villepin are frantically trying to extricate themselves out of the mudhole, without hurting their own troops.

Since the outbursts of urban violence last month, there's been a resurgence of racial slurs in France, notably (that's the adjective du jour) from right wing lawmakers.

Just yesterday, commenting on Sarkozy's postponed trip to the French Caribbean, Lionnel Luca, deputy (UMP) of the Alpes-Maritimes district, talked about "a tempest in a teapot" and added that "those in the Caribbean who are making parallels with slavery are not above accepting welfare checks from the former colonists!".

Yep, there are jerks everywhere, even in the French Parliament; what do you know... Welfare queens driving a Cadillac can't be far behind I expect.

Jerome is regularly highlighting the casual slurring of the Frenchs in the British press, but we can find plenty of this in our very own press these days.