Should we be a bit more like the French and revolt?

I think too many people in the UK are apathetic

They are protesting about the death of a farmer and his child on another protest last week and EU regulations amongst other things.

I've had this conservation with French friends for nany years. They tease me that the British are too phlegmatic and cool by nature. One friend sent me a photo this week ..... French farmers certainly know how to go into battle!

*many not nany

Try living here whilst this is going on.Some roads closed for a week now, tarmac damaged by burning tyres, friends can't get to hospitals to visit sick relatives and so it goes on. One of our neighbours was in tears today because she can't find an alternative route to visit her husband in residential care. The point has been made now and the public are losing sympathy.

It is mob rule, and do we want that in Britain? We have had a home in France for 32 years and suffered all the inconvenience of road blockages and in one protest parts of butchered cattle being scattered over the road.

It stops the government introducing many much needed changes and just because there are lots of protests it does not mean that those demonstrating represent the majority of the population. It os often just a small vocal protest group forcing the majority to do what they want.

And the Germans. Notice how shiny the tractors are 😂

2nd try.

I give up 😂

I agree, we have enough protests, I wouldn't want to put up with the disruption that it causes, & it's almost "traditional" with the french farmers now, does anyone take any notice any longer? All the same, the right to assemble & protest is an important civil liberty & I was worried when Priti Patel was mooting the banning of peaceful marches & arresting protestors, last November.

I think Joseann’s French friends are right, traditionally the British have been phlegmatic, but the character of the British people is changing, partly through immigration which means people from a variety of different places and backgrounds show far less tolerance because that is their culture, and also I think many younger people are far less tolerant than perhaps we older people were, so we have Just Stop Oil, and other environmental protesters, and all the support for the Palestine marches which goes on and on, and there are people still protesting against us leaving the EU, and of course other protests too. Of course British people have a long history of protesting, but perhaps protests have been more disciplined and less disruptive than is becoming apparent now.

We’ve had people glueing themselves to motorways, (and stopping essential services as well as ordinary people getting to hospitals/funerals/A&E,) we’ve had “slow marches” through major cities, again targeting us the ordinary people, we’ve had tomato soup thrown at paintings and other tactics designed to cause maximum inconvenience.
I think we are doing well (?) enough without emulating the revolting French.

I’ve been pondering this very thing today and wonder how bad things have to get before there are riots here such as we saw during the Poll Tax. Fortunately I think the prospect of a General Election will encourage a ‘wait and see’ attitude amongst would-be activists.

We in the UK are rather good at revolting and protesting and we have a gphistoty to prove it.

Whose Revolution came first? Did the French get the idea of a revolution from us?
The Suffragettes
The Jarrow March
Greenham Common
Poll Tax Riots (1381 and 1990)
Stop The War

There are many others, some very recent.

Farmers in many countries are becoming increasingly frustrated because they feel governments just do not care about them. After all, without farmers, without food, we are all doomed.

gphistoty 🤔
history

It is interesting that the reporting in the UK seems to focus on EU regulations as a cause for the protests, when French news reports the precariousness of farming, foreign imports and rising costs.
I think French farmers have been much better protected by successive governments than British ones and the equipment you see driving around is indeed very impressive. I am appalled by the burning of imported food and the mess made in city centres.
The right to protest is, of course, deeply embedded since the Revolution, but my sympathies are limited in this instance.

Callistemon21

We in the UK are rather good at revolting and protesting and we have a gphistoty to prove it.

Whose Revolution came first? Did the French get the idea of a revolution from us?
The Suffragettes
The Jarrow March
Greenham Common
Poll Tax Riots (1381 and 1990)
Stop The War

There are many others, some very recent.

Farmers in many countries are becoming increasingly frustrated because they feel governments just do not care about them. After all, without farmers, without food, we are all doomed.

I don't think any of those were before 1789. 😂

The ones here disrupt peoples lives and stop them getting to work. They lose sympathy because of how they are. If they want to rebel about something they should go and chuck themselves over the steps to parliament, not block the roads up. They did this again recently because of ‘invasion day’ 200 plus years ago. That and the pro Palestinian lot.

Land ownership and farming is very different in Europe, a much larger proportion of voters have a stake in its “prosperity”. A worker in the city may well have a stake in the family farm, they do value that connection, so any move that will disadvantage farmers has to be carefully considered.

Many of the current problems facing farmers are the result of a series of appalling weather events across France last year. Crops have been devastated by floods, winds and fires on a level we have never seen before in the eighteen years we have lived here. In contrast one of the reasons for the protests is increased controls on products that damage the environment, which some farmers say make them less competitive. The price of diesel is another complaint. I don't know how the government can resolve these contradictory issues.
In terms of levels of protest in France the National Anthem does after all include "aux armes citoyens".

I read that France has retained the Republic’s founding principles of Liberty Egality and Fraternity and this manifests itself in the right to protest against its government. It certainly sends out strong signals to its government. Can we do the same here? I don’t know…

Mamie

Callistemon21

We in the UK are rather good at revolting and protesting and we have a gphistoty to prove it.

Whose Revolution came first? Did the French get the idea of a revolution from us?
The Suffragettes
The Jarrow March
Greenham Common
Poll Tax Riots (1381 and 1990)
Stop The War

There are many others, some very recent.

Farmers in many countries are becoming increasingly frustrated because they feel governments just do not care about them. After all, without farmers, without food, we are all doomed.

I don't think any of those were before 1789. 😂

Yes, I think

The Revolutions here were before the French Revolution; the Civil War 1642 - 1652, the Glorious Revolution 1688, way before that the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.

I'm sure I could think of more 🙂

Have we become more passive now?

nanna8

The ones here disrupt peoples lives and stop them getting to work. They lose sympathy because of how they are. If they want to rebel about something they should go and chuck themselves over the steps to parliament, not block the roads up. They did this again recently because of ‘invasion day’ 200 plus years ago. That and the pro Palestinian lot.

Your present government is decimating farming, making farming so much more stressful and difficult, nanna8. They have an agenda and it is not to support Australian farmers.

I don't think the population would survive for long without farmers.
It is your government you need to criticise, not the hardworking farmers.

French farmers have enjoyed large subsidies for years from the CAP hence the expensive tractors you see on TV. Times are changing and they don't like it.