The fire ends and the donors get cold feet

Thank goodness for the charitable poor.

When, in April, disaster struck and Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral was engulfed in flames, many rich Frenchmen reminded us all how good they were by offering immense sums of their money to go towards the restoration of this landmark. Their glory received, these owners of well-lined pockets have failed to carry out their end of the bargain, as the cathedral’s senior press officer tells us ‘the big donors haven’t paid. Not a cent.’ Shame on them.

We shouldn’t be at all surprised by this. Politicians constantly lie about their positions on important issues at their party’s conferences and around election time, so as to receive a few more ticks in the boxes next to their names. We hear so much, for example, from the Conservative Party about the importance of the family unit, of rigour in education and toughness against crime, yet, when elected, they attack the family unit and treat us with low-grade education and a flimsy criminal justice system. More fool us for constantly fooling for the rhetoric!

‘The big donors haven’t paid. Not a cent. They want to know what exactly their money is being spent on and if they agree to it before they hand it over, and not just pay employees’ salaries.’

– André Finot, a senior press official at Notre Dame.

While the big donors, with big promises (worth, collectively, almost one billion dollars), have, since offering huge sums, got cold feet – perhaps they were annoyed the plans for the roof of the cathedral to be rebuilt with glass, or with a swimming pool on top, have been refused by the French Senate, which has rightly insisted that it must be restored to exactly how it was before April – many small donations have been made by ordinary citizens through such charities as the Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris.

Less than a tenth of the hundreds of millions promised has been donated, according to the French culture ministry. Franck Riester, France’s Culture Minister, has warned that the cathedral’s vaulted roof ‘could still collapse’ at any moment.

Thank goodness for the charitable poor.