If you don't know Simon Heffer he writes for the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph and, although Connexions doesn't espouse a political line of any sort, contributions to its letters page ould easily be written by the same people who write to the Mail/ Telegraph.
"France would be such a lovely country if only these French would just make it more like Surrey" - you get the idea.
Like some UK papers it does specialise in reporting the barmier things that are in the news - "Men in Toulouse strike for right to wear skirts" was a memorable one. So,when it arrives one or other of us usually produces a Victor Meldrew like "I don't believe it!" as we read thorugh the articles. The trouble is it's getting harder to tell "Barmy" from "New Government Policy".
Once such example was a speech made by Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti in April 2013 where she attacked Amazon for its pricing, saying it “slashes prices to get a foothold in markets only to raise them once they have established a virtual monopoly".She went on to propose that free shipping of books should be made illegal as it undercut local booksellers (Amazon and other on-line retailers in France are already restricted to a maximum 5% reduction below the "official" price of books).
Not just a bit of populist political rhetoric or a shock story to be reported; the policy was introduced in early 2014. There's a general distrust here of globalisation and global businesses - at least in our distant part of the country.
Culture
Minister Aurélie Filippetti has already attacked Amazon for its
pricing, saying it “slashes prices to get a foothold in markets only to
raise them once they have established a virtual monopoly".
- See more at:
http://www.connexionfrance.com/news_articles.php?id=5097#sthash.thMYgpoM.dpuf
Culture
Minister Aurélie Filippetti has already attacked Amazon for its
pricing, saying it “slashes prices to get a foothold in markets only to
raise them once they have established a virtual monopoly".
- See more at:
http://www.connexionfrance.com/news_articles.php?id=5097#sthash.thMYgpoM.dpuf
Now, from my user's perspective Amazon operates on a Pan European basis, my UK account was seamlessly available when I first logged on to Amazon.fr, deliveries ordered off the French site often arrive from Germany, Holland or the UK and several times it has been cheaper to order books from the Amazon UK and pay the postage rather than order through Amazon.fr. Which is a pity as it will surely restrict the development of e-commerce in France and thus increase the number of people like us who frequently shop outside France from the comfort of their Internet link. We may not be typical French consumers today - but we might be in the future.
