¶ The British consulate in Florence is slated to close, bringing 450 years of English presence in that city to an end. You could take it as a story of mutual deflation: Britain is no longer grand enough to maintain a diplomatic outpost in a city that is not grand enough to require one. Or you could wave a European Union flag. ¶ Maurice Szafran, chief executive at Marianne, surmises that the French press (that is, everybody but him) “is more passionate about the story than the French people are.” What’s he talking about? The royal wedding, of course. Reporter Matthew Saltmarsh sees an opportunity to trot out the names of two pretenders to the French monarchy, Jean d’Orléans and Louis Alphonse de Bourbon. We don’t see why the French shouldn’t be ruled by German princelings just like everybody else. ¶ Looking more than a little spiteful, Harold Schaitberger, head of the International Association of Fire Fighters, has announced the cessation of political contributions, ie political contributions to Democratic candidates, who, in his view, have done precious little for unions. We couldn’t agree more, but also we can’t think of a more naturally Republican Party constituency than America’s firefighters. If they could only repackage their union as a cartel, everything would make sense.

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 27th, 2011 at 10:30 am.