Does anyone else rather admire the French?

[squashyhat]

They're not taking the proposed pension changes lying down are they? France riots

I dont agree with the rioting, I also dont agree with the British to put on a stiff upper lip and let the government screw them over at every opportunity.

I think there should be a middle ground, where protesting gets the cover it needs without the violence to make it newsworthy

Nothing ever happens when it's only peaceful protest.

My partner is Fench and he doesn't 'admire' his fellow countrymen at all.

And that’s the problem. In 2003, I was one of millions who travelled to London to participate in the biggest protest in U.K. history, against the illegal invasion of Iraq. It changed nothing.

This. Violence is never the answer.

I hate this glorification of violence by people who don't have to endure it. So OP you live in a nice street and have a nice car parked outside and a good job somewhere safe .... Riots on the telly - such fun!

Agree. And just post about how you’d like to see violence. But it’s someone else’s property or damage.

Admire their pure hatred of disabled people? Nope!

Its tricky, because while i dont agree with destroying buildings and businesses, i do admire their passion.. we seem to be apathetic with many things here and peaceful protests get us nowhere. Unfortunately there doesnt seem to be a middle ground.

I think it's brilliant and we should take a leaf out of their book. People in charge need to be regularly be reminded that there's more of us than there is of them. And people not in charge need to regularly remember who "us" is. Clue: it's not your boss.

Otherwise you end up with working people getting shat on, like we currently have in the UK.

Not really. It is not unheard of for people to get killed in riots. Plus they are damaging/destroying property. Nothing admirable at all in causing fires. There is nothing wrong with opposing change, but rioting is not the way to go about it.

I admire that they make their own government sit up and take notice of what the want/don't want. Rioting and burning is not so good, but standing about and wringing hands gets everyone absolutely nowhere. The government work for the people. It seems a lot of governments seem to forget this.

Yep we just roll over and get fu every time

Exactly. What was that report out this week? Wages haven't risen for 15 years in the UK. We're all £11k a year every year worse off as a result. So before even starting to consider how much more rents/mortgages/fucking bread and milk cost now than 15 years ago we're losing.

And as our pension age edges ever closer to 70 - ie 16 years beyond the healthy life span point (that is, the age at which long term and intractable health problems develop) for the poorest areas - we tut about how riots are a problem because of damage to property.

I think it’s childish to riot and set things on fire because you want to retire young and someone else to pay for it.

Not for rioting, peaceful disruptive protest is best. Their government and ours needs to have a serious look at how we fund pensions. Means testing would be a fairer measure IMO.

Yeah much more mature to eat swedes and argue about which slanket is best value for money when you need something to cover granny as she waits 12 hours on an icy path after a fall while watching your cabinet of multi millionaires funnel every last penny from your economy into their personal financial portfolio .

You can retire whenever you like if you pay for it. The U.K. state pension costs fully 11% of the total tax take. It’s really unaffordable and it’s paying funds to some of the richest people in society at the cost of younger age groups. If we set things on fire, that won’t make it any more affordable. We need to decide if we want to pay more tax for that or not. And we don’t.

So would you riot?

Light a match and burn something down?

We live in a democracy. If you want a different government you can vote for it.

Yes.

I have no assets and the money I earn is worth less every day.

Give me a match.

And also the conspiracy theory that somehow the cabinet are covertly siphoning all the money out the country is utterly crackers. They’re not great but no evidence at all of any theft never mind on that scale. Grow up

I think you are a little mistaken about how trade and investment works.

I’m sure you can get one yourself.

It’s easy to type of course less so to face consequences of actions.

What’s stopping you?

I've just done my sixth day of work this week and my feet and back ache plus I have the beginnings of what I think is going to be an ear infection.

So I don't quite have enough energy right now to start the revolution.

But if someone else does, I'm in.

Let's face it, it's not like I have anything to lose.