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Karen French's avatar

Awwr! Beautifully written as usual Darling Hannah! Absolutely love the watercoulour " cost me an arm and a leg!" 😂 yes, Kate has a little musical toy with Art mice in Parisian berets with tiny easles and a tiny table with coffee cups on it. It plays " I love Paris in the Springtime and she has it to this day! Little did we all know that Paris in the Soringtime would one day where she would meet you and make her home!

Paris and Springtime is such a marriage that its most dissapointing to learn that the weather has only just decided to behave as it should!

We have literally millions of ravenous midgies up here on the West coast of Scotland . So springtime is a mixed blessing indeed! We spend a lot of time breathing in many lit incense sticks of Citronella and spray ourselves with Deet insecticide if we wish to venture onto the patio for a drink!

So look forward to seeing you and Babs before spring turnd the corner in to summer.

Love your substack. Lots of love X

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Andrew Robinson's avatar

Dear Hannah

As always your letter is very well written, as befits the journalist you are, but I felt I must respond to some of your points.

As it happens I am in Paris as I write this and, having come from Provence where spring has definitely not arrived (cool, windy and damp), it is nice to be here where it clearly has, judging by the cafes overflowing into sunny streets in Montmartre.

I am not certain the weather changes are as big as is being said or that we should be so alarmed. I don't doubt that we have made the planet a bit warmer but the consequences aren't universally bad. England's burgeoning sparkling wine industry has been helped. More people die of cold than heat.

I am more concerned that are politicians, rushing to 'net zero', will add huge costs to economies which will have to be paid for by all of us ultimately, making everybody poorer. I note that President Macron is uttering some words of caution. I believe we will see some re-thinking of net zero policies in the UK when the cost and practicalities of creating an all electric economy become clear.

Which moves me on to your comments about Thatcher's legacy. I lived in London 1975-79, before she came to power. Nothing worked - rubbish in the street, bodies unburied, electricity blackouts. She tamed the unions whose abuse of power had led to this sorry state. Not everything she did was good and there are social legacies today (lack of social housing, for example) from her actions, but I am certain she was on balance a good leader for the times and generally made most people in the UK feel prouder of their country. Some of her reforms (and particularly Reagan's in the US) contributed to the 2008 crash but the main cause was greedy bankers who failed to judge risks properly in their investment and trading, to benefit themselves primarily (at a cost to society ultimately).

I also feel that Macron is economically right in trying to raise pension ages in France. As people live longer, the State cannot afford to pay pensions for many more years of peoples' lives. We recognised this in the UK 10 years ago and made the retirement higher and there aren't many complaints today. I don't believe it reduces job opportunities for the young, if other economic policies encourage growth and job creation. What does Ha-Joon Chang say about this?

Keep on writing and drawing!

Andrew

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