Do we need a British yellow jackets?

One reason why so many in Britain feel so powerless is the first past the post voting system. Switching to the Alternative vote or Proportional representation would not be difficult (compared with the mess we've got ourselves into now) and would make people think that voting was worthwhile.

So the French government has backed down and the jeunes gilets are pleased. They represent exactly what is making France such a creaking economy where it is cripplingly expensive to set up even the smallest business, where unemployment is growing and taxes are growing and public services are over staffed, expensive to run and inefficient.

Sound just like the party led by Jeremy Corbyn and his acolytes.

The reforms to small businesses have gone through and seem to be generally welcomed MOnica. I am not sure that taxes have gone up that much if you take into account the end of the taxe d'habitation for medium and lower-income households. There is still much to be done with l'administration, I agree.

They represent exactly what is making France such a creaking economy

Can you explain how they are doing this, MOnica?

Sound just like the party led by Jeremy Corbyn and his acolytes

And in exactly what way it resembles the Labour Party?

(Which, I might remind you, is doing nothing which affects the UK as they are not in government)

I think that people in this country who are poor (including many who have low paid jobs) are often just too busy keeping body and soul together to think about joining marches and demonstrations. When you're not sure how you'll pay the rent next week or are worried you're going to lose your DLA/PIP then demonstrating against injustice is taxing in physical, emotional and financial terms.

I wholeheartedly believe in non-violent civil disobedience as a means of opposing injustice - and right now I think this country is treating many people dreadfully. I would never condone violence though.

Yes that's right Mamie, not sure about taxe d'habitation seems to be different in each Departement. I think taxes are high for larger businesses and employment laws are not helpful. I heard that 60% of French people don't pay tax for one reason or another but I don't know how accurate that information is.
There have been gilets jaune on a roundabout near us since the protests began, they have built themselves a shelter and put up a Christmas tree, the gendarmes support them. Clearly people who are not working but that is a protest in itself.
We still are happy living here despite these protests and any problems Brexit will bring.

Unless I have missed something today the only backing down has been over the introduction of the fuel tax in January and the gilets jaunes are still far from happy.

From this sodapop the tax d'hab is going everywhere for 80% of the population.
80% des foyers bénéficient de la suppression progressive de leur taxe d'habitation sur leur résidence principale (diminution de 30% en 2018, 65% en 2019 et 100% en 2020)
It will be significant won't it? Several hundred euros a year I guess.

I like our method of protesting. 700,000 on the anti-Brexit March and very little trouble. 31,000 today in France and look at the violence and damage.
Yes its lovely Ive been on british protests they were very friendly and civilised...and achieved exactly nothing.

I have several timea heard fellow british protesters say that they go to protests to feel that theyre not alone in their views & to feel less helpless and impotent.

British protests often dont have a clear goal. They are often "anti-..." something but dont clearly demand what they want to happen instead

So I would say that brits are pretty bad at protests. Even though the majority of protests are polite and civilised. Maybe even because of that?

Well, to be fair, the French have more experience of this than the British. They've been revolting for over 200 years, off and on.

Yes, we do. The English (Brits?) seem content to just moan rather that make their feelings known.

Im with Ellenvannin. Don't have to be violent but we are so lazy and take any old rubbish rather than get off our backsides. And we could support each other.

MaizieD French employment law makes it very difficult to employ staff and then downsize when necessary and this is both making French industry uncompetitive and also stopping industry from growing because employers are unwilling to recruit new staff and grow their company because of the problems in down turns or if things go badly,

The retirement age in many nationalise industries like the railway is only 55 and attempts to increase this to 60 (we should be so lucky) end in strikes and industrial unrest.

I said nothing about the Labour Party. I referred to Jeremy Corbyn and his acolytes.

I said nothing about the Labour Party. I referred to Jeremy Corbyn and his acolytes.

So you're saying that "the party led by Jeremy Corbyn and his acolytes" isn't the Labour Party?

Anyway , thanks for that explanation. I also suspect that being in the euro, thus not having a sovereign currency, and having a president wedded to neo-liberal economic theory doesn't help either.

Don’t you think we had our protest when the majority voted Leave?

Currently, he seems to head a mismatched group of feuding factions.

" So do we? and would you join in? "

No!

No!

Much of the destruction was caused by gangs of “casseurs”, urban guerrillas determined to loot and pillage, some of whom were wearing gilets jaunes. Among the “yellow vest” protestors were black-clad and masked youths who, the authorities suggested, belonged to ultra-right, ultra-left, or anarchist groups
From today’s Guardian.
This seems to me the nub of the problem
with violent protest - that what starts out as a protest fuelled by a reasonable grievance becomes infiltrated by extremists with a completely different agenda.
I think the idea that we need our own yellow jackets is an irresponsible suggestion.

Thanks Mamie let's hope it comes to pass and is not supplanted by another tax.

Jane I think this is a problem everywhere, extremists will take every opportunity to hijack protests.

From Chewbacca
"Well, to be fair, the French have more experience of this than the British. They've been revolting for over 200 years, off and on."
Someone on another forum asked why the French have these revolutions, and we don't? I think it's we English who are so staid, phlegmatic. The Irish and Scots are more fiery. Not sure about the Welsh.

M0nica you missed an 's' out of your post and you have a perfect description of Mrs May and the Conservatives.
I think one of the problems is that the concept of "Fraternitie" has been cleverly destroyed by successive Tory governments and a right wing press in this country. Here it's every one for him/her self. And God help those at the bottom.

If I were younger and more mobile I'd be out there with a banner and a jacket! I took part in protests in the '60s and I get really cheesed off with people moaning but doing nothing. I don't agree with violence - totally unnecessary - but I do think we Brits should be more proactive.

Ever rising fuel prices , rising council taxes, loss of services, the cost of dying, the rise in insurance costs and taxes, the massive rich/poor divide, the rise of the retirement age/WASPI women and crikey knows what else and what do we Brits do ? Sweet b*gger all !

Trisher, I quite agree the description can be applied to both. I thought it at the time but didn't put it down because it was irrelevant to the post