I've always hated the 'but their great for the tourist industry' argument as well. The French draw in more visitors than us each year, and they had the sense to take our demi-revolution of the 1650s through to its logical conclusion 150 years later. Humankind will never make the next great leap forward until we throw off the security blankets of religion and/or monarchy and start to take a collective resposibility for our collective futures. The trouble is they tried all that with communism and unfortunately it didnt progress past its initial Dictatorship stage. For good or ill I think a form of communism might well be the only logical step forward and is particularly resonant in the current climate. Cor, its a toughie innit!