All the stuff you never knew you needed to know about life in rural France.....and all the stuff the books and magazines won't tell you.

Monday 29 October 2012

ENA Sharples


No, I haven't muddled minuscules and majuscules in a fuddle of Funchal:
I wish to consider two institutions.

The first, Ena Sharples, prominent character in the early days of the soap opera 'Coronation Street'.

The second, ENA, l'Ecole Nationale d'Administration, sausage machine for turning out bureaucrats in the soap opera France.

Ena Sharples was an eldery harridan in a hairnet, whose self proclaimed high moral principles enabled her to terrorise all around her into overlooking her propensity for passing her time in the pub and ruining reputations.
One flick of the basilisk eye was enough to reduce any critic to ashes.

The ENA is another elderly harridan, though without hairnet, whose control of French public life is such that it too, with a flick of a basilisk eye, can light a funeral pyre under its critics.

General de Gaulle founded it in 1945, with the idea of forming people to become bureaucrats on the grounds of merit...to give France a dynamic internal direction.
Needless to say, it soon fell under the influence of the very people de Gaulle decried and mistrusted.
The well connected.

The very same who had let France walk into the abyss in 1940.

I have just been re reading a 'L'Etrange Defaite' by Marcel Bloc, radical historian of the Middle  Ages and before, a reserve officer called up in 1939 and member of the real Resistance, shot in the later stages of the war, where he treats of the reasons for the collapse of France in 1940.

He puts it down to people in authority being hidebound, stuck in a career path where their superiors would command their fate for the rest of their working lives, where it was better to do something stupid, but approved, than to do what was needed.
The ultimate horror...using their initiative!

And then serendipity, in 'Le Nouvel Observateur' this weekend is an article by Patrick Fauconnier who compares a book by Olivier Saby on his time at ENA with that of Bloc.

Saby describes the plodding, uninspirational ambience...where no one dare buck the system for fear of bearing the cost all their working life...for the future depends on how you are graded at the end of your studies...
Up at the top and its the Inspection des Finances...finangling between state jobs and top jobs in the private sector, with the little retirement prize of  being named Conservateur des Hypotheques for your area where you get a percentage of the fees paid when property changes hands....something else the 'living the dream' magazines and blogs don't tell you.
At the bottom..and it's off to a sub prefecture in the Deux Sevres...or, if you've really been radical...Bethune in the Nord. Bienvenue chez les Cht'is.

The essential art is to memorise French and European legislation...and don't make waves.
Above all...don't contradict your superior...don't let yourself stand out as an individual...or your career will get nowhere.

Those formed by the ENA are not just civil servants...they can take indefinite leave of absence to go into politics or the private sector, sure of returning to the bosom of the public services when the balloon bursts,  guaranteed by their passage at ENA.

For all the good people formed like this are to France they might as well spend their time sitting in the pub wearing a hairnet, slagging off those who don't conform to their views.

And Francois Hollande, product of ENA and so dim that he never made it to the private sector, President of France, has surrounded himself with his colleagues from his year at ENA...the promotion Voltaire...who must be revolving at Mach 3 at the misuse of his name.

Ena Sharples would have eaten Hollande for breakfast.

Merkel is heating the toaster......







 

32 comments:

  1. Ena Sharples, a haddy of the highest proportions, real, as sharp as her characters name suggested. In Glasgow during the late 60s I was watched over by these often maligned creatures, guarded, scolded when necessary, loved by the most, beaten by a few.

    Ahhh the memories.

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  2. Hollande is the only politician who, when I see him on the telly, makes me want to throw things at it.

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    1. My mother used to cover the television when Alec Douglas Home came on, on the grounds that he resembled a talking skull....
      Given his nickname, I can only suppose your set is splashed with a brand of dessert...

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    2. My great-grandmother is reputed to have had Gladstone's face painted on the interior of the chamber pots in her house. No-one knows quite what he did to deserve that.

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    3. The mind boggles! Gladstone, of all people!

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  3. Give me an honest, even-handed though fiery, down-to-earth Elsie Tanner any day.

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    1. Well, all right, but don't tell your wife I sent her...

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  4. This system is a constant puzzle to me and I don't understand how the French put up with it. But it's very French, isn't it? Do the job (barely), don't make waves, lets continue to talk but for heavens sake, don't use any imagination to solve a problem. Too much risk. I'm flabbergasted by this and by the fact that the current dolt is even in office. Any kind of office.

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    1. One of the problems faced by Sarkozy was that he wasn't from ENA....so his proposed reforms were onstructed all the way by his own party as well as the opposition and the civil service...he proposef to rock boats.
      Not that I was fond of him either...but he might hsve freed things up a bit...

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  5. Great post, Fly. I love the comparison between our Ena and l'ENA - great observation!

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    1. Ena had a heart of gold underneath it all. Despite the spats, she and Elsie understood each other, and she might have yelled at Minnie Cauldwell, but she would have protected her to the ends of the earth. ENA, however seems to have no such underlying worthiness. I love this post Fly...great stuff. Jx

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    2. Well, I suppose ENA protects its own to the ends of the earth...but to no good end!

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  6. *dry very wry chuckle* Excellent post.
    Perhaps we should suggest that La Merkel finds herself a nice old fashioned toasting fork? She might find it more satisfying than a toaster.

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    1. Yes. good idea. Who'll light the fire at which to toast him?

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  7. Hello:
    Oh how well we remember Ena Sharples and her pontifications in the Rovers' Return. The matriarchal harridan, alive and well in her many different incarnations in Northern England to this day.

    And, how perfectly Ena and ENA seem to complement each other. What an acute observation of yours this is. We lesser mortals rely upon the hairnet to pinpoint these modern day harridans since that is always a give away in our view. We have, of course, not been fooled by how Hollande's coiffure and Merkel's hairdo stay in place!!!!!

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    1. I shall be inspecting both closely in future!

      Mother had grave doubts as to the morals of Polish pilots in wartime on hearing that they wore hairnets at night....

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    2. Goodness only knows how she discovered this....

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  8. Just popping by to say I've been reading if not commenting. Trying to catch up with work and book - but then it's November shortly, so will TRY and do the blog a day thing!

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  9. The Bike Shed.....between work and the book promotion you{ll be super busy. Good to hear from you and looking forward to November!

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  10. I enjoy reading but as I decided to be a photo only blogger, I stay away from politics and comments of the sort
    i did enjoy this post though, very interesting!

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    1. If I could be as good a photographer as you i might have other preoccupations too...loved your Leuven posts!

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  11. A brilliantly accurate comparison, Fly, and like so many of your critiques of French institutions, it sent me off on a Google search, this time for more about the Conservateurs des Hypotheques.

    You'll be pleased to know that I discovered that the gravy train was supposed to be reformed as from next year. I wonder if it's still happening?

    http://tinyurl.com/8bw7yc6

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    1. No, I hadn't kept up to date, but I see it is another Sarkozy era project.
      If cynical I would suppose it depends on how many of the C of Hs are in the same 'promotion' as Hollande.....but it would be good to see the end of a sinecure.

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  12. You’re so right about hidebound and initiative not sleeping well together. Had my fill of the old regime’s a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Managed to pole vault over the outer walls and stow aboard an old tramp star steamer headed for a far more free and diverse thinking little planet for my liking. You’re right, Hollande’s fast starting to look like a one act, one song, poorly conceived show. Courtesy of his DNA at the ENA. Thing is, what will Merkel do with the crumbs once she’s done finished with the toaster?

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    1. I was about to say that the Germans don't normally invade until the roads are dry enough for their artillery....and then I remembered the Ardennes campaign...

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  13. Best description ever of Ena Sharples. Wonder what she'd make of her street today? Do you still watch?

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    1. No....and haven't for years unless visiting mother who still follows it.
      I think Ena would be turning at Mach 3 too...

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