Question for those on my friends list who are now or have recently been in France.

So, the debate on the EU constitution is reaching its climax in France. The French electorate votes on Sunday, and according to news reports it's become a pretty divisive debate, with families and workplaces split by the issue.

My question for my friends currently in, or recently returned from France is this: was this political debate obvious, or are the media exaggerating? (Or both?) What did you see and hear?

A story on the overfishing of bluefin tuna from The Independent (London).

The world sushi trade: An appetite for disaster

The hunting of bluefin tuna is a hi-tech marvel. But global greed is leading to the extinction of one of the world's great fish.

By Peter Popham

27 May 2005

"The whole affair is a miracle of the modern world. One stands aghast and amazed before the complexity and cleverness of it. There's only one thing about it that is not so smart: it is leading, fast, to the extinction of the bluefin tuna. Faster than a speeding bullet, this industry is disappearing up its own fundament."