As I
was leaving Paris on Tuesday morning, the city was hunkering down preparing for
another national
strike. Transport workers were going to be expressing their dissatisfaction
with adjustments in their pension schemes through making commutes to the city
and travel across France very difficult. But it was only the latest in a series of
such protests. The country that gave the world the word aplomb responded
with plenty of it, some workers staying home, others finding others means of
transportation, and one seasoned Parisian explaining to me that "we have to get
used to this, there will be many more to come before all this is over."
What
is "all this?" He was speaking of French
political battles, but he could just as easily be addressing the current wave
of coming to grip with fiscal realities that is buffeting Europe, causing
protests from Greece
to Britain. Indeed, as Europe seeks to
address the underlying causes of the crisis that nearly sent world markets into
an even deeper tailspin months ago, it is clear that so much belt-tightening
needs to be done and so many programs that have been taken for granted will
need to be cut, that for all Europe there will indeed be many more strikes and
protests to come.
In Britain,
which I visited before my stop in Paris, the news was dominated by headlines
from the Conservative Party Conference and the
backlash to the announcement by Chancellor George Osborne that child
benefits for wealthier families would have to be cut back. Notably, and with
considerable courage, equanimity, and grace, Prime Minister Cameron did not
sidestep the issue and indeed pushed in his keynote
address for more resolve to undertake even the painful reforms that would
be necessary to restore British fiscal health. "I'm not saying this is going to be easy, as we've seen with child benefit
this week. But it's fair that those with broadest shoulders should bear a
greater load."
At the core of his deservedly well-received
speech was the message that in order to cut a deficit of 155 billion pounds,
sacrifices were required, regardless of their political costs. Furthermore, and
importantly, he suggested this was a national challenge, not just one for the
government, "The point I want to make is this, the state of the nation is not
just determined by government and those who run it. It is determined by
millions of individual actions, by what each of us do, and what we choose not
to do."
In today's Washington Post, Ruth Marcus, has
an excellent
piece entitled "The True Conservatives: Britain's Realists vs. America's
Wishful Thinkers" in which she wishes that she could summon up Christine
O'Donnell-like witchcraft to transform American conservatives into British
Tories. She makes a powerful point. But she does not go far enough. Because if
we are conjuring here, let's transform the Democrats too, please.
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