Why are Brits not like the French

[Worker29]

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?

So they shot a three-year-old cross German Shepherd-Rottweiler that was running hard at them. That is a rather different scenario from the one you first described.

Rain bunny what a silly assertion! Equally could be said for the left wing press and we all know how low brow and selective the guardian has been in recent years. Its distorting information I shudder when people proudly declare they only read the g.

You could also argue that propaganda has been pumped out across Europe from eu hq but reality now clashes with lies.

We see swathes of unemployed youths across the eu (but being offered free travel by junker 🙄), we see how open borders has allowed sex slavery, gun running..and terrorism to flourish.

We have seen how counties cannot seem to share basic information and that whilst the eu is in crisis.. They spend millions on building themselves nice new offices...

So.. It could exactly both ways... One side promotes brexit and the other side pushes the eu.

Personally I always advocate reading as many press sources as possible and never limiting oneself to one source and indeed. One side.

My dad marched to Aldermaston with DBro in a buggy in the 1960s for nuclear disarmament.

I marched for CND, education cuts and the Greater London Council in the 1980s.

DM bailed out DSis boyfriend when he got arrested in the Poll Tax riots of 1990, abd remebmbet unrest around the petroleum strikes in 2000/01(?).

I’ve protested with Unison and joined Critical Mass.

Have you somehow missed the anti-Brexit protest marches?

This kind of strong central control would never be tolerated in the UK.

We’ll find out if that’s true if Corbyn - Supreme Leader, Gracious Guide and Great Helmsman of the Islington Soviet - gets in.

Like I said, the neighbor of my colleague saw the puppy running, not attacking, they entered the garden over the fence without checking with any of the neighbors or the owner via the shared front door, and then used three bullets to kill the dog.

Are you honestly telling me, if the UK police encountered a complaint of a similar kind they'd act in this way? And get away with it?

hadenough
Well there is a simple difference.
The French are proud of their country (rightly so) and proud of their solidarity towards one another.

The English are not aloud this.

They believe in a global community.

hahaha, good joke. as for the rest its the same in France

Well seeing as the British police have in the past got away with shooting unarmed Brazilians and men carrying random table legs, I wouldn't be surprised...

Honestly I'm not defending the French police, I'm not a fan. It sounded in your original post like they marched in and shot a cowering puppy to stop it barking. I think one policeman panicking when a potentially aggressive three-year-old crossbreeed runs straight at them is a different matter. Not one I can condone, and it should be investigated of course, and I'd be very surprised if the policeman in question wasn't investigated for firing his gun.

Momasita - Sorry you may not like it but it's true, the UK is internationally notorious for it's terrible tabloid press.

Tha is Jock. I appreciate that a lot of mumsnetters don’t have the experience of poor, marginalised communities but it is frustrating that they can’t grasp the simple point that people in those places are desperate for change. They aren’t stupid but they have been betrayed by the very people who told them to vote remain and don’t trust them.

@ivykatie...I don't mean they always start for greedy selfish reasons...they may start when some people feel justifiably upset about something...a protest...but then the troublemakers wade in for their own gain

I remember when I was 16 I went to Paris for new year with some girl friends (first trip abroad without my family). On the stroke of midnight, it all went mental, people chucking their glass bottles as high in the air as they could, they were crashing down all around us. Then there was a scrum to get on the last metro, people literally grabbing others and shoving them off the train so they could get on.

That was a celebratory occasion!

I think they are just a lot lairy-er than we are as a nation.

We’ll find out if that’s true if Corbyn - Supreme Leader, Gracious Guide and Great Helmsman of the Islington Soviet - gets in.

And if he did, there is an institution called Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition whose role is to, well..oppose. Corbyn can't manage to be an efficient opposing voice, don't see him being a strong central leader type.

France does not have an institution equivalent to a recognised opposition party - in fact, the legislature is relatively weak there to start with. With the collapse of both traditional conservative and leftist parties, Macron is having a field day. My theory is that visible protest is necessary in France just to get public opposition noticed. Here, it is not necessary due to a stronger legislature and built in opposition.

This kind of strong central control would never be tolerated in the UK.

Central control, yes - but strong?
President after president has tried to implement radical social and economic reform to no avail, largely due to the opposition of the unions and public outcry in the form of mass protests. Macron is just the latest in a long line trying to attempt to assert his authority. I doubt he'll get far.

We're civilised.

You think 🤔

I never understand protests about taxes and higher costs, if the government needs more money to pay for something then they need to collect more money one way or the other. The taxes pay for the roads, schools and the NHS amongst other things. These are important things.

And the french always are demonstrating or on strike. It's more violent this time which is why it's in the international news.

Historically, I think change in Britain has been an evolutionary process, rather than a revolutionary one.

Look at suffrage - it took around 500 years to get from the point where a few rich people could vote in elections to a parliament that had very limited powers, to all adults of both sexes having the right to vote for parliaments that had very real powers. There was the odd riot which led to change (1832 "Reform Riots" spring to mind) but in the main, the PTB have allowed just enough change to shut people up. And when they didn't, they responded with extreme force (eg, Peterloo).

The British are just more phlegmatic, or even apathetic, imo. Look at the erosion of workers' rights over the last 40-odd years. If that had happened in France, the riots would have brought the country to its knees in days.

This kind of strong central control would never be tolerated in the UK.

We're becoming very centralised, one of the more centralised states. Local government weakened with powers and funding taken away for the last 40 years, and a PM who is invoking 'Henry VIII' powers. This is exactly why the rest of the country is complaining about London-centrism. We aren't tolerating it exactly, but we have very few avenues left for protest.

Cos the French are from catholic stock

Countries with a proddie history tend to be more rule adherent

In Europe anyway

Probably because we haven't seen a steep rise in fuel tax. If you want a riot you have to piss off the people most likely to riot. Stick a huge tax on petrol and beer and see what happens. Cuts in this country have mostly been directed at women.

Namechange / what cuts have been aimed at woman?

And there haven't been Brexit riots (yet) because the people most likely to riot all think they're getting what they want. Except they're not. I expect rioting when their pennies finally drop. The fact that some people think Brexit was a revolution and they kicked the establishment just shows how clueless some people are.

Ivykaty - benefit cuts, cuts to lone parents, cuts in wages (or no pay rises) in jobs which are mostly done by women, cuts in teaching, civil service, NHS.

You can get away with pissing women off, they're not going to leave their toddlers at home and petrol bomb a police car are they.

Name I would agree with teaching, and benefit cuts predominantly affecting single female parents

But is the NHS the biggest employer, really predominantly female?

Woman as a generalisation seem to shy away from union and striking, which fits with the shift from the 1960s & 70s when unions were much stronger but predominantly Male members