Claude Moraes, the president of the European Parliament’s all party anti-racism group, is pontificating about the disturbances in France. The British Socialist says that:

unrest among French immigrants was bound to be more acute than in London or in Dutch cities because unemployment among some ethnic groups in France can be 5 or 6 times higher than the national average.

This may or not be true, I have not seen the evidence. But what it seems to miss out is that France’s own unemployment is massively greater than the UK’s or indeed Holland’s. There again I wouldn’t use the Netherlands as an exemplar of racial harmony following the Van Gogh killing and the torching of schools and mosques after that hiorrific event. A country where politicians are kept in prison for their own safety.

Selected quotes from what can only be referred to now as the delusional Left as it relates to the declared state of emergency in France:

André Labarrère, a Socialist senator and mayor of the south-western city of Pau, said he was “totally opposed” to the state of emergency. “It is a form of discrimination that will be very badly received.” Communist Party leader Marie-George Buffet warned that the decree could enflame rioters. “It could be taken anew as a sort of challenge to carry out more violence,” she said.

Yesterday, Michel Pajon, the mayor of Noisy-le-Grand near Paris, asked for the French army to intervene and stop the violence which is taking over France. The mayor – a Socialist – went on French radio to say that what is happening in his country is absolutely appalling:

“Women have been made to stop on the streets of my town. They were dragged from their cars by their hair, they were practically stoned and their cars were set ablaze... The situation is absolutely dramatic and inacceptable. This is a real scandal. I sound the alarm bell in my town. If the state is incapable of defending us, we will have no choice but to defend ourselves. My town has a psychiatric hospital which has been attacked with molotov cocktails. This is beyond comprehension. I have never seen anything like this in my entire life. I do not ask for the resignation of the Interior Minister [Nicolas Sarkozy]. I want him to do his job. At the moment he is not doing his job.

Send in the army? I do not know, for a socialist to say that the army has to intervene is an inconceivable admission of defeat, but what I can say is that one cannot abandon the people like this. At some point we need to know whether this country still has a state.”

Will the whole of Europe be burning by next week? As was expected, the Muslim insurgency did not stop at the French borders. Last night five cars were torched in Berlin. The cars were set alight in five different streets of Moabit, an immigrant neighbourhood of Berlin, and the Tiergarten area, only a few kilometres away from the seat of the German government. The German police are investigating whether the incidents can be linked to the events in France. Meanwhile, the Berlin police announced that they will step up their presence.

In Brussels, too, five cars were destroyed by fire last night. The cars were parked in Sint-Gillis, one of Brussels’ Muslim quarters. Sint-Gillis is the area surrounding Brussels’ Midi Station, where the Eurostar trains from London arrive. It is barely three kilometres from the European Parliament. The Belgian authorities admitted that cars had been destroyed, but is reluctant to give more details because “the Brussels Fire Brigade is providing no further information in order to avoid knowledge of these acts of violence spreading.” Believe it or not, that is the official explanation. According to the Brussels police there were “only a small number of youths on the Brussels streets.” National radio said this morning that everything is calm. People do not believe it.

Here are today’s headlines in Belgium’s (only) Sunday newspaper De Zondag. Page One: “No Sign of Revolt in Belgium Yet.” Page Five: “Violence Moves Towards Belgium.” It almost sounds like a weather forecast, anticipating the onslaught of a hurricane that is inevitably coming.

What is happening in France has been brewing in Old Europe for years. The BBC speaks of “youths” venting their “anger.” The BBC is wrong. It is not anger that is driving the insurgents to take it out on the secularised welfare states of Old Europe. It is hatred. Hatred caused not by injustice suffered, but stemming from a sense of superiority. The “youths” do not blame the French, they despise them.

If Nicolas Sarkozy had been allowed to have his way, he could have saved France. Last Summer the outspoken minister of the Interior was France’s most popular politician with his promise to restore the law of the Republic in the various virtually self-ruling immigrant areas surrounding the major French cities.

These areas, which some compare to the “millet” system of the former Ottoman Empire, where each religious community (millet) conducted its own social and cultural life in its own neighbourhoods, exist not only in France, but also in Muslim neighbourhoods in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and other countries.

Do you know why Alan Greenspan, the retiring chairman of the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, is praised so highly? He made fewer mistakes “pricing” the U.S. dollar than some of his recent predecessors. The “price” referred to is the short-term interest rate – the rate the Fed charges banks that borrow from the Fed.

If you think for a moment, you might find it odd that a few government officials set the “price” for short-term money. After all, markets are best at pricing such things as oranges, computers and underwear. When government officials set prices, we almost always have shortages when prices are set too low or unintended surpluses when prices are set too high. Clear thinkers who understand economic history know markets are best at setting prices, because the market price will cause the supply to correspond with the demand.

While Paris burns, Poland does not. Isn’t that strange? The Poles have an unemployment rate which is as high as the unemployment rates in French suburbs. Yet while “angry French youths” burn down their neighbourhoods, including their public transport buses and schools, Polish plumbers, construction workers and nurses are too busy to be angry. They travel abroad for several weeks at a time to work in foreign lands. One of the places they go to is France, where they work harder, often delivering better quality and at lower wages than French workers. Can’t the “French youths” do the same? Do not tell me that there are no plumbers, construction workers and nurses in places like Clichy-sous-Bois?

The riots in Paris are exposing the very soft underbelly of Europe. Economic malaise, government failure, and an emasculated response to violence have all played a part in the rampages and destruction of property.

Economic malaise. News reports are rife with the staggering statistic of 30+% unemployment raging in the ghettos. This is accompanied by calls for government to “do something”. Doing something invariably being the provision of more taxpayer money for sporting clubs, community centers, and the ubiquitous outreach programs. Quite frankly these elements are not the domain of government. None of these feel-good measures get at the root of joblessness. The matter is not helped with the cradle-to-grave socialistic subsidies sans accountability programs rife in Europe. How can one riot for 8 days straight and not worry about paying for housing, food, the bills? Easy, wait for the government to send the subsidy check. Introduce accountability and responsibility into the system and watch people not have as much time on their hands to riot.

The EU has just adopted its budget for 2006. As usual, much of the money in it will be lost or stolen. For ten years in a row, the European Court of Auditors has refused to endorse the accounts and, barring a miracle, this year will be no different.

We are so accustomed to this state of affairs that it no longer makes the headlines. But just imagine if a private company were to behave this way. Imagine if, when presented with a firm’s accounts, the auditors announced that as much as 91 per cent of its expenditure might be going astray. The directors of such a company would be in prison. But, when that company is the EU, it is considered impolite to mention the subject.