The Times - UK (2022-04-09)

the times | Saturday April 9 2022 43

Almost half of French people back a

proposal to make it a criminal

offence to shirk domestic chores,

according to a new poll.

The survey for the Ifop institute

also found that if the idea were

implemented, 14 per cent of

respondents would be prepared to

file a criminal lawsuit against their

spouses or partners for failing to do

their share of the housework.

The idea was floated last month

by Sandrine Rousseau, 50, a self-

styled ecofeminist, after she was

dismissed as a campaign adviser by

Yannick Jadot, 54, the Europe-

Ecology-Greens presidential

candidate, for being too radical.

Monsieur faces the long arm of the chore

Under the law, people would be

able to report work-shy spouses and

partners to the police, prompting an

investigation and a possible

prosecution.

Most media outlets initially

dismissed her idea, before being

taken aback by the findings of the

Ifop poll of 1,992 people. A total of

50 per cent of women and 44 per

cent of men approved of the

proposal.

A further 15 per cent of women

said they would “probably or

certainly” file a criminal lawsuit

against their partners to “force them

to take their share of domestic and

parental tasks”. A total of 13 per cent

of men said they were also ready to

file a lawsuit against their wives or

partners for the same reason.

“I would like there to be an

offence of non-sharing of domestic

chores because I think private lives

are political,” she said.

Rousseau argued that a law on

housework was necessary because

“we have hardly progressed at all

since the 1970s”.

She said that men had only

increased the time spent on

domestic chores by 14 minutes since

then, and that if the present rate of

change continued, it would take

6,300 years to achieve equality in

France.

Women, she added, devoted on

average 10 hours and 30 minutes

more a week to housework than

men and should be given the right

to initiate criminal proceedings

against their partners.

France

Adam Sage Paris

the ground, then descended ten
metres through a waterfall to start
the exploration.
“We have to do this in winter
because the water flow below
ground is reduced and since the
area is a natural reserve there is no
road, but we can use snowmobiles
to get there,” Tilja said.
Working their way up from an
outlet of the river in a lake further
downstream, the team have already
mapped out a one-and-a-half-mile
stretch of tunnels in previous
expeditions, which started in 2007.
The outlet known as
Dolinsjögrottan was discovered

when one of the team noticed gravel

in the lake, dived in and discovered

the spot where river water was

emerging through an aperture,

bringing the gravel with it.

“The network of water channels is

like Swiss cheese down there,” Tilja

said. “Part of that route is out of the

water, so you have to walk then

plunge back in, and it varies from

narrow gaps to eight-metre-high

caverns,” he said.

This year the Expedition

Bjurälven team dug through gravel

sediment in another tunnel called

Festin for the first time. Tilja said

the team strapped their air tanks to

their sides rather than their backs,

to squeeze along tight channels.

“We prepare very carefully, since

you can be down there for six hours

and you can’t call an ambulance if

something goes wrong,” Tilja said.

After mapping two miles of

tunnels, the team hopes to find

another mile which will link the

spaces discovered so far into one

network. “It’s getting more

dangerous as the spaces get smaller

but it’s an adventure and we want to

see what it all looks like,” he said.

“We are the first humans to see

these fantastic limestone formations

and that is a great feeling.”

Secrets of art heist

couple revealed

Page 45

SAMI PAAKKARINEN

Spain’s first

railway line

is falling

into the sea

Spain

David Sharrock Mataro

When Spain’s first railway line was

inaugurated in 1848, its British engi-

neers had no way of knowing its fate

would be decided by climate change.

Now, however, after long service to

millions of Barcelona commuters, the

Maresme Line is falling into the sea.

Hugging the coast as it carries passen-

gers from the Catalan capital for 50km

to Mataro, the railway has recently

taken a battering from heavy seas, forc-

ing stretches of what is the region’s busi-

est line to be temporarily closed as

workers shore it up against rising seas.

The line is one of the main arteries to

reach Barcelona without a car. Its origi-

nal purpose was to connect factories

and bring their products to the port. It

now connects half a million residents,

37 beaches and five marinas.

A government report condemned

poor urban planning that resulted in 60

per cent of the first 100 metres of coast-

line being developed for housing. The

track, right next to the sea, is now on the

front line of climate change. The report

admits that “in the medium term” it will

have to be moved inland but, given the

huge cost, there are no plans to do so.

In 2020 Storm Gloria lashed the

coast with 4-metre high waves but the

€12 million spent on repairs now looks

like little more than a sticking plaster.

“We can resist one Gloria, but not two,”

said Joan Manuel Vilaplana, director of

the GeoRisc Observatory of the Cata-

lan Association of Geologists. “We have

to rethink everything. Nature is doing

its job and climate change is accelerat-

ing it. We have a local responsibility to

take on board the way we have built.”

The line owes its construction to the

decision by a Catalan businessman to

seek financial support and engineering

know-how in London. José María Roca,

a machinery exporter, raised 90 per

cent of the funds from British investors

and commissioned the great Victorian

railway engineer Joseph Locke to over-

see the project.

Isis, says hostage’s mother

Oslo Stockholm

Helsinki

Ostersund

FINLAND

SWEDEN

NORWAY

100 miles

Bjurälvsgrotten

and Festins caves

Route through the cave

Jämtland

Mountains

1.5 miles of linked passageways

some demands. She praised President

Trump for allowing his team to carry

out talks that resulted in numerous

releases under his administration. Re-

fusing to negotiate “is not an evidence-

based policy”, she said.

Obama created the position of spe-

cial envoy for hostage affairs in 2015 at

the end of his presidency, now held by

Roger Carstens, a former diplomat.

James, 40, was captured in 2012 and

there was an attempted rescue mission

by US special forces in July 2014, a

month before he was killed, that failed

to find hostages. “We could have found

our citizens earlier and brought them

home safely. I have no doubt about it. I

mean, we just choose not to,” she said.

Emwazi, 27, was killed in a US drone

strike in Syria in 2015. Asked about

Elsheikh, Foley said: “You know, I pity

him. It’s really sad. Nobody won here.

Everybody lost.”

the White House] even had the decency
to email me or to call me,” she told The
Times. “I had worked for nearly two
years, I knew these people by first name,
a lot of them. Of course Obama I never
saw. Nobody would allow him to talk to
any of us until Jim was beheaded.”
When she finally met Obama “he
had the gall to tell me Jim was his high-
est priority”, she said. “I said, ‘I’m sorry,
Mr President, but that obviously may
be the case in your head, but certainly
wasn’t in any action that you under-
took.’ He was just the same as Biden —
they think they’re doing the right thing.
They think the policy’s protecting us
and they don’t realise that instead,
what’s happening is our citizens are in
harm’s way and are dying because of
our policy.”
Foley contrasted European govern-
ments’ willingness to negotiate and
make payments or find a way to meet