To ask at which point we will ‘do a France?’

[Narwhalelife]

With EVERYTHING that is going on in the UK (and the world) rising energy, food, housing, fuel costs, incompetent, lying, sesspits of governments, underfunded health care, crap education and social care.

The idea that people should be ‘cutting back’ on things from days out with their children and their car to actually buying less food.

My FIL(62) died suddenly last week and I thought afterwards we only get one life here when are we going to ‘do a France’ and tell everyone in power to shove it all up their arse!

*disclaimer - my work have also recently told us that we will be expected to do double our workload for no extra money due to funding cuts but increase in demand (I work in mental health), so I just about feel ready to riot (as long as it’s close by so I don’t have to shell out for extra diesel) 🙈

I'm sure I read that France has just nationalised a large utility company.

So I thought that's what you meant!

I think the government needs to get creative yes.

People are too apathetic in this country.

When we do protest and march against things, due to media bias, its under reported.

I don't know at what point enough will be enough, but I for one, and few up with being shafted.

@DorothyZbornakIsAQueen shafted is the exact word I have been searching for - sums up exactly how i feel.

I’ll be fucked to continue to sacrifice some of the lovely things in life even a mooch down the beach with the dogs because of rising fuel costs, the fear of vet bills and now the pressure of more work! Something HAS to give

@Summerwhereareyou ANYTHING anyone can do the release some of the pressure atm would be welcomed.

France has a very different culture of population protest that goes back hundreds of years. It simply doesn't work like that here, culturally.

Look at the gilets jaune protests in 2018. I mean, they weren't without their problematic element in France. But in the UK they got taken on by a bunch of angry extremists who went on some incoherent ranting about 'wimmin', gays and Jewish people.

I agree, people just moan and groan, but do nothing about it, and just accept the situation, until people stand up and say enough is enough, things will only get worse. Bad government and MSM are too blame.

I heard about a protest where we all refuse to pay our energy bills this autumn.

We should be rioting but I'm scared because of the new protest laws

@NightmareSlashDelightful agree a change in culture is needed here, I feel there is a growing appetite for it

The UK? Never. Well not in my lifetime. Too many cap doffing Royalist flag-shaggers. You only need to look at the last election and the press coverage and public opinion of the recent rail strikes to see which way the wind blows. Used to annoy me until I read read Nietszche on ‘master’ and ‘slave’ moralities (On the genealogy of morals).

@Roselilly36 absolutely agree. And the more people are kept poor and miserable the harder it is to get people in the spirit for protest or otherwise

@Scuttlingherbert anything at this point - surely this is better than nothing

I think people aren’t protesting because we understand the issue. We are well informed and intelligent enough to know how this has unfolded and that it’s a global issue.

@jetadore absolutely this - and I love then term ‘flag shaggers’ 🤣

@RudsyFarmer so have all these intelligent people got a solution for us then?

or is it put up, shut up, and waste the rest of your life?

France / have you ever lived in France?

for years they survived on pleasing the workers everyone had a 35 hours week and plenty of holidays etc and long lunchtimes and the economy was shot to pieces - they elected Macron and get France back to work and then everyone rioted again as instead of appointed for change they got someone who appointed cronies for jobs despite the fact they new nothing - and it will cycle round and round with national front rearing it’s head from time to time

Won't happen. Johnny Foreigner does that. The Daily Mail etc will tell us how we are disrupting the country, patients dying etc. Nationalise? That's so Corbyn and somehow we believe it. Sarah Everard is murdered and the protesters are arrested whilst Cressida Dick retires on a £150k pension and the force she was in charge of is put in special measures. Divide and rule is how the Govt works certainly since Thatcher.

There isn’t a solution. We have come through a pandemic without significant debt and a supply chain issue which has pushed the price up of goods. We have climate change issues causing droughts in countries that supply food for the world and a war which has pushed energy prices up that affect everything. Nothing about that can be solved easily. So yes, we have to keep going and accept it’s going to be hard and could probably get a lot worse.

*with significant debt

The best thing we do could in this country is refuse to participate in the political process, refuse to pay tax, refuse to vote, stop politicians from thinking that they running our lives as they are useless and corrupt. We pay FAR too much tax in this country considering the poor level of service we receive, I don't think people realise how much they get ripped off every month, they just look at the net amount on their payslip and ignore the amount that's deducted by our so-called "betters".

I disagree with this, the only people who are able to be so accepting are those who are not struggling to make ends meet already. I’m ready to riot now but I wouldn’t know where to start! I work in a similar area to you and we are just expected to do more and more with less and less. Oh and the government can afford to increase benefits and pensions by 10% in April but there’s “no magic money tree” to pay its workers adequately.

Have you ever lived in the UK? People working their arses off and still living in poverty and the economy’s just as fucked. Yeh I’d rather take the French version of holidays and long lunches and fucked economy thanks.

And then we have no NHS or schools

The British would rather pay their employer to go to work than strike or say no

A job should lift you out of poverty and off benefits

not keep you poor and claiming benefits whilst working 40 hours per week

Yeah but France is not without its own problems, some might say the rioting has lead to a split in the country. There certainly seem to be bigger difference in France between city and country, and those in a protected job vs those without (this also relates to age).