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AIBU?

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Original poster

Why are Brits not like the French

167 replies

Worker29 · 01/12/2018 23:23

BBC News - France fuel protests: Tear gas fired in clashes in Paris
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46411699
There are riots. About fuel taxes.
Brexit has caused no such demonstrations.
Why?

OP posts:
Fatasfook · 02/12/2018 08:29

And what do these peaceful protests achieve?

ivykaty44 · 02/12/2018 08:33

Fatsafook

We pay council tax on property not a personal tax to the council

Biologifemini · 02/12/2018 08:35

The French are, rightly, a proud nation,
Much less so here.
Protest is much more accepted there.
We protest in a much less excitable way.

ChardonnaysPrettySister · 02/12/2018 08:38

Do you really want riots on the streets, Worker?

As for Brexit, there have been at least two big demos and they were peaceful. I went to both, but I'm opposed to rioting and encouraging people to do so.

Grow up.

Birdsgottafly · 02/12/2018 08:38

hadenough, what year do you think that started? It wasn't around at and during WW2.

There were noisy demonstrations in Liverpool yesterday about UC, by Labour.

But its too little to late. They were silent during the Brexit campaign.

Liverpool is good at stopping far right Marches. We are the only City that they don't March through.

They were great during the Pole Tax.

But as said, Apathy has spread.

The under 25's seemed to care about Love Island, Instagram and other such stuff and don't care about much else.

We are being damaged by the Cuts and our infrastructure will decline once we have no EU support.

Crime is on the rise. Stabbings and shootings are part of the increase in poverty, so our young Men, in particular, are dying, not just the vulnerable.

The Torys don't spend Up North unless we riot. It's the only way we get heard, unfortunately.

We are pushed to the point were we have little to lose.

The 2011 riots were a reaction to the shooting of Mark Duggan, who was unarmed and now we have Police being given permission to mow down mopeds, that's going to end well.

Fatasfook · 02/12/2018 08:39

Peaceful protests achieve and change nothing.

Birdsgottafly · 02/12/2018 08:40

Biologifemini, why are they quite rightly proud, as opposed to the UK?

What war etc have they took part in that we haven't? What have they done well for their vulnerable and others that we haven't?

ForalltheSaints · 02/12/2018 08:46

Well you would not have riots about fuel tax increases, as they have not gone up for seven years, yet rail fares go up annually.

Original poster
Worker29 · 02/12/2018 08:49

I am not in any way suggesting that Brits should be rioting.
I am just interested in the different reactions and what factors influence them.

I agree that protests here do tend to be under reported by the media.

OP posts:
brizzledrizzle · 02/12/2018 08:50

Because there is no point in having riots when the government won't go anything about it anyway? Brexit is increasingly unpopular but the government line is that it is what the majority voted for (at least the majority who could be bothered to vote) and so Brexit is what we're getting. Unfortunately.

SagelyNodding · 02/12/2018 08:51

It began as a peaceful protest in France. It became violent last Saturday and again this Saturday as people not involved in the original protests used the movement to cause mayhem.
I get stuck in their blockades every morning and every evening of the week and have never been intimidated. They're not getting anywhere though...
Macron is incredibly Paris-centric and is out of touch with the utter misery of a good chunk of the French population imo.

ivykaty44 · 02/12/2018 08:58

Protest aren’t reported but if a protest turns into a riot it hits all the media outlets

Bowchicawowow · 02/12/2018 09:02

Brexit was a revolution of sorts. The ruling classes told the people to vote to stay in in order to shut up a few noisy Tory politicians who were giving David Cameron a hard time. The people in the poorest, more disadvantaged areas of the UK voted against what the ruling classes wanted. It was the ultimate protest vote. David Cameron was too stupid and too arrogant to realise that people would use their vote in that way. I think people know the financial and political mess Brexit leaves us with but they still believe it was worth it to give the Tories a kicking.

Picnictime · 02/12/2018 09:03

Someone always appears to have a beef in france. Striking and protesting about everything. It's annoying.

Caprisunorange · 02/12/2018 09:06

I love the emfench propensity to cause disruption and chaos. It’s alien to here but normal there. I worked in Paris for a summer once and the refuse collectors went on strike for MONTHs. Up the revolution!

CharltonLido73 · 02/12/2018 09:06

The French have always been more zealous protesters than the British. They had a revolution and we did not.

I seem to recall my history teacher telling us that Lenin had expected revolution to come to Britain before Russia due to our more developed proletariat, but that never happened either.
To my mind, Thatcher knocked the stuffing out of the unions in the 1980s, through the protracted miners' strikes. The unions have never recovered, and have seen their powers curtailed through legislation.

ChardonnaysPrettySister · 02/12/2018 09:06

I think people know the financial and political mess Brexit leaves us with but they still believe it was worth it to give the Tories a kicking.

Too bad they didn't realise they are giving themselves a kicking too.
Talk about cutting your nose in spite of your face. And when Brexit misery really kicks in they will still be blaming the Tories and not themselves for voting for it.

Bowchicawowow · 02/12/2018 09:09

The point is though that there will be Brexit misery but people have lived in misery for years already in the UK and nobody cared. They voted for Brexit in the hope that the ruling classes may now listen to them.

Rainbunny · 02/12/2018 09:10

"The British just aren't a revolutionary nation really. Any historical rebellions we've had have been pretty much crushed by authorities."

Well I wouldn't call us that peaceful given that we had a civil war and chopped off the head of our king over a hundred years before the French started doing it, mind you we of course apparently missed having a monarch so badly we invited the dead king's son to come back in under 15 years. And of course it wasn't really a "common people's" revolution.

I remember the poll tax riots that actually forced Thatcher's government to reverse course so we can be a nation of protestors but most likely only when the vast majority feel the same way which can't be said about Brexit.

gamerwidow · 02/12/2018 09:11

Some people are actual dying because of the universal credit system - mainly extremely vulnerable people with mental health difficulties. I'd say that's worse than a few people being hurt in a protest.

Don't be stupid. Yes UC is a disaster and is really hurting people but you don't solve it by hurting more people. Peaceful mass protests, Yes always! Rioting and physical violence, No not acceptable.

LaDaronne · 02/12/2018 09:11

They had a revolution and we did not.

We did, it was 150 years earlier.

ivykaty44 · 02/12/2018 09:11

They voted for Brexit so that the ruling classes may listen to them - and it’s the ruling classes that will gain from their vote and the working classes will suffer

MarshaBradyo · 02/12/2018 09:14

All the London bridges were blocked a couple of weekends ago by peaceful protestors against climate change

Isn’t this tax to also help in climate change? -caught it quickly on radio last night in a taxi

I’d rather our version

gamerwidow · 02/12/2018 09:15

And what do these peaceful protests achieve?

What have the violent protests in France achieved? Yes they've captured the news but what is changing? What changed after the London riots? Nothing.

W0rriedMum · 02/12/2018 09:16

I have been wondering the exact same so thanks for raising the topic.

I am shocked at school cuts at the moment but can't get anyone to do a thing about it with me. I have written letters to my MP and nearby MPs, the local council etc. and clearly they don't care because they're only getting my letters. Even on Twitter, it's an isolated few. If I could find people, I'd be on the streets marching.

Yet everyone watches School and posts here saying the school cuts are killing education.