Paris Protests - Should UK follow suit?

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I am following the coverage of the Paris education protests with interest. A lot of the triggers are failures the UK education system are making too (or at least GB, Im not so sure on N.Ire).

AIBU to think if the Paris Protests are successful, the UK should follow suit?

Our children deserve so much better!

Aye and rioting is going to achieve that🤯
Beginning to wonder if you're an agitator or at it as in wind up.

No.

Mass walk-out of teaching staff across the country would definitely have the most impact.

But there are very strict rules about what teacher's can strike about. They can't protest about funding directly. Hence the last nationwide strikes generally being about pay, even though that's not what the teachers care about. Its the lackof funding. Because the pay awards weren't funded, it was a bit of a unofficial way to protest funding whilst still within the rules.

Protest.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/protest

Here's a link to the definition of protest for those who still get confused.

Throw in some looting. Nothing says protest like stealing trainers

I can't imagine anything more stupid than encouraging people to tear up the streets and cause a load of damage. The community then have to pay for that, the extra policing and then have even less money for public services like schools.

A kid has had his hand blown off, that's not exactly a sit in at the library is it?

What subject do you teach?

I can't imagine anything more stupid than encouraging people to tear up the streets and cause a load of damage. The community then have to pay for that, the extra policing and then have even less money for public services like schools.

A kid has had his hand blown off, that's not exactly a sit in at the library is it?

What subject do you teach?

I can think of a few series of manifestations in France which ended up actually changing things (for the better) or blocked laws which would change things for the worse. I guess hanging around and smiling and accepting things are sh!t is one way to go around things. For the record, I mean genuine manifestations, not burning down cars and smashing things.

Im genuinely wondering if most posters are younger and have no context of an actual protest bringing about change for good. Or just think votes for women/civil rights movement are the only examples and don't count because they're history.

We have the same issues as both France and Spain. Politicians are not listening, have not listened for 25 years and don’t give a shit. We have the extra complication that everything in this country is ruled to benefit London and London’s needs, and sod the rest of us.

Will I personally be rioting? No because I have too much to lose and cannot afford the impacts of me going to prison, nor the knocks to my job options. Britain is far more authoritarian than the continent and we have fewer freedoms or chance to protest here.

Well I’m older and I remember the miners strikes. I am also aware of the Jarrow March, Peterloo, and the General Strike of 1926. Every time the government either didn’t want to listen so used force, or used duplicity and said they’d listen and change, then reneged. The working classes do not get real change, not against the power of full on capitalism and elites. When there have been changes made, such as women’s rights, it was only because there was some benefit to the government. I’m not really sure how us low class poor people can really overthrow an empire. Iran didn’t manage it, Afghanistan didn’t manage it, and even the Americans with their precious constitution and right to bear arms didn’t manage it. The only other scenario is something like the French Revolution or the Russian, and both of those went soooo well.

Funding education has nothing but positives for the government.

•Lower benefit spending
•Lower health care costs
•Lower prison costs
•Lower social care cost
•Increase in economy
•Increase in GDP

That's just at 1st thought, im sure there's plenty more.

But we’re not sat here squabbling about how to spend a ton of money. We don’t have that ton of money to start with.

You do know that AI is on the march? And even without that, computers and cultural change are rendering education meaningless. Many professionals and skilled workers would currently earn better in sectors that do not need education or intelligence.

The elites don’t need plebs any more and would take it kindly if we’d all just bugger off please. They don’t care how bad the poor areas get. They quite like the drugs trade to supply them with their highs.

The reason we don’t have money is because it’s been sucked out of the public system into the offshore bank accounts of elites super rich. Is being, rather.

I think we should have protested a lot more about the extremely damaging lockdowns lasting month after month, one of the biggest wrecking balls to education, especially when Partygate came to light. Schools were closed, while Saint Boris and his merry men partied. (Yes, I know that revelation was sometime after lockdown.) I attended several anti-lockdown protests, one of them really big. How did the BBC report it? “About 200 conspiracy theorists on Speakers Corner.” I saw with my own eyes that the numbers were in many thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands. But it was hushed up.

I listen to 5 live as my default radio source and a very informed, balanced and fair correspondent was interviewed. She stressed that things have not got dramatically worse in recent years in regard to education and school conditions in France in recent years, what has changed for young people is that they feel there are no positive outcomes at the end of education in regards to employment, home affordability, life chances etc so it all feels pointless for young people. Sound familiar? Just like Brexit was not really a vote about the EU in the UK, but a backlash against austerity, young people in France are reacting to a society in which they have no say and are increasingly marginalized. Rather than encouraging the same here, maybe we should support politics and policies that recognise younger people and support then within our society. At the very least, the ponzi scheme that is our pension system relies on them to keep us in our old age.....

People in most Western countries are so complacent these days. Sign a FB petition and think they did their part. "Oh well there is no money so we just have to get on with it"- but there is money, just being spent elsewhere.
In France the society is so much more militant. People do fight for their rights. Sadly these manifestations are often hijacked by some who just like to burn stuff. But the riots of 1994 (?) against police were both violent and brought about a change in the society in the way police brutality became something people started seeing and talking about. I guess many in the UK have little understanding of either French society nor history. Again, dont condone destroying businesses, but the education has been suffering for years and no one was about to do anything about it until things got heated.

Yeah sure, let's protest about something that happened 5 or 6 years ago...

"Oh well there is no money so we just have to get on with it"- but there is money, just being spent elsewhere

Where elsewhere?

"Rather than encouraging the same here, maybe we should support politics and policies that recognise younger people and support then within our society."

Agree, but how do we do that when the policies aren't there for us to support in the first place? Every policy change in education in recent years has made it worse and worse and worse. We need to pressure the government to create the policies before we can support them.

The money isn't there, that's why there is currently a debt crisis and the cost of borrowing is going through the roof. So burning down underfunded schools won't achieve anything.

Sadly there isn't the political will (red or blue) to cut welfare spending as drastically as it needs to be cut. If we did that, we could have a world class education system, or defence or healthcare or any priority we chose.

@Yellowbelliedsapsuckeristaken I meant we should have protested much more then. Instead, people knelt down and begged for more of the madness, while our children's mental health and education crumbled before our very eyes.

And as for now, I think we should still be reminding the government of the damage that lockdown did, for when they're thinking of the next one. (There's a certain billionaire who mentions "the next pandemic" with a little too much certainty.)

It's more being older and knowing exactly what can happen to the children you are merrily expecting to put themselves at risk.

Perhaps you could refresh your memory of what actually happened to protestors as part of those movements?

As with anything, you get a few idiots that spoil thing.

It seems to be more than a few. The coverage I saw was large groups of people setting fire to buildings and bins etc.
Op I get the impression you’re enjoying the whole protest/riot.

Yes what a good idea, let’s riot to get what we want. HTH