France is in chaos .

[Top Cats Hat]

Slight thread drift, but I heard somewhere that the reason diesel is so popular in France is that Peugeot were the first motor manufacturer to make a small diesel car engine that didn't sound like a tractor! 😀

[Lockdoctor]

1 hour ago, Top Cats Hat said:

Slight thread drift, but I heard somewhere that the reason diesel is so popular in France is that Peugeot were the first motor manufacturer to make a small diesel car engine that didn't sound like a tractor! 😀

To be fair to L00B  didn't he  say earlier that France were the first nation to  fall in love with diesel cars. I think it is common knowledge the French beat the Germans to make a diesel car engine which didn't sound like the tappets needed sorting out.

[tzijlstra]

49 minutes ago, Lockdoctor said:

To be fair to L00B  didn't he  say earlier that France were the first nation to  fall in love with diesel cars. I think it is common knowledge the French beat the Germans to make a diesel car engine which didn't sound like the tappets needed sorting out.

Sounds like an excellent reason to continue polluting at a rate higher than required.

[Longcol]

5 hours ago, Shogun said:

I'm not surprised  we spent a a few weeks over there in the summer their cost of living is a lost higher than ours the fuel is a lot more their shopping is a lot more costly than ours their wages are less they are in  a pretty bad way financially the only things that are cheaper there is fags and booze   

I've lived here for 4 months now and I'd say cost of living is similar but quality of life (and food) in France is much better .

 

Housing in the countryside is much cheaper than the UK - our 3 double bed bungalow with 2500 sq m of land and swimming pool cost about the same as a terrace in Walkley.

 

And we do tend to get rather more sunshine.

3 hours ago, Top Cats Hat said:

Slight thread drift, but I heard somewhere that the reason diesel is so popular in France is that Peugeot were the first motor manufacturer to make a small diesel car engine that didn't sound like a tractor! 😀

It's also a long way between cities and towns compared to most of  England - the nearest place of a size comparable to Sheffield is a two and a half hour drive and we've nothing bigger than Worksop within an hour-   and MPG from diesels is generally much better than other fuel.

[geared]

20 hours ago, geared said:

 

I recon he'll just delay the taxes, kick the problem down the road a few years to appease everyone.

 

20 hours ago, L00b said:

I’d like to think he won’t. At least, not effectively*

 

*some assembly powder-to-the-eyes required

as if by magic

 

Quote

The French government will suspend a fuel tax rise which has led to weeks of violent protests, local media report.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said he would present "gestures of appeasement" in a TV address to prevent the situation from deteriorating.

 

[ricgem2002]

6 hours ago, geared said:

 

as if by magic

 

 

so they postponed it for 6 months hoping that will please the movement 

[melthebell]

An interesting take on it by Atilla the stockbroker

 

The mainstream media in the U.K. seem astonished at the speed and totality of the French people’s revolt against Macron. As someone with a lifelong interest in French politics I’m not surprised at all.

His election as President was not in any sense an endorsement of his policies or of himself as an individual.

It happened because, in a typical bit of squabbling by centrists who can’t accept their ideas have been overtaken by the realities of modern history, the now redundant and utterly loathed Parti Socialiste refused to withdraw their candidate in the first round of the last presidential election, thus splitting the Left vote and eliminating the radical socialist candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon. This meant that that the run off was between far right candidate Marine Le Pen and neoliberal bankers’ candidate Macron.

Many on the left refused to vote for Macron, even to keep out the far right. (‘Ni patron ni Macron’ - neither boss nor Macron) But, because he had cast himself as an ‘outsider’ with no party political base and thus unconnected to the ‘elite’ - a career technocrat, he most certainly is - many French people somehow though he would represent them, despite his overt neoliberal, pro globalisation, pro free market stance, on show even before the vote. And of course, many voted for him simply to keep out fascist, Vichy-rehabilitating Le Pen, daughter of one of the most contemptible figures in modern French history.

It didn’t take long for the reality to sink in. Tax cuts for the rich, public spending slashed, attacks on workers’ rights. The scenes on the streets of France are a popular revolt against one of the last representatives and advocates of a world order soon to be swept away by history.

Neoliberalism, globalism, globalisation and ‘the laws of the free market’ which have left so many people hopeless, homeless, devastated, forgotten are being rejected in a howl of rage by people right across Europe.

The politics of the centre is dead. 
The choice is now clear.

It’s either we socialists, who seek justice for all and put the blame for the devastation of free market economics on those who cause it - bankers, bosses and their hirelings in the media - or the scapegoating and division of the far Right, now bankrolled by wealthy elites as they were eighty years ago.

No worker takes the job of another. A boss gives it to them because he is greedy and can make more money from people so desperate they will work for less than a decent wage. No hospital runs short of beds because of immigrants. It runs short of beds because the bankers’ stooge politicians starve the NHS of funds to bail out bankers - who should have had their assets seized and been tried on public television for their crimes instead of being told they had ‘done nothing illegal.’

The current showdown in France will soon turn into one between Melanchon’s La France Insoumise and Le Pen’s Front National, now renamed Rassemblement National. As in England between us on the Left and the far right of the Tory Party/UKIP. The politics of privatisation and globalisation are over: in the U.K. as in France there is a massive majority for the return of the commanding heights of the economy to public ownership. The ‘populists’ of the far Right will pay lip service to this while ensuring it doesn’t happen - they are bankrolled by the rich. It is socialists who can make the transformation.

The future is ours. We need to seize it.

[RollingJ]

Interesting, melthebell? Sounds more to me like the Communist Manifesto, but I suppose 99.9% of the posters on here will agree with you - after all, anyone who dares to raise a different view on here is instantly 'wrong'.

 

I don't like what little I know about Macron, and he appears to be like most politicians - says one thing and then does something  else, but the French elected him on his pre-election stance, and have now realised he's just like the rest - in it for what he can get for himself and his pals.

[melthebell]

10 minutes ago, RollingJ said:

Interesting, melthebell? Sounds more to me like the Communist Manifesto, but I suppose 99.9% of the posters on here will agree with you - after all, anyone who dares to raise a different view on here is instantly 'wrong'.

 

I don't like what little I know about Macron, and he appears to be like most politicians - says one thing and then does something  else, but the French elected him on his pre-election stance, and have now realised he's just like the rest - in it for what he can get for himself and his pals.

Yup interesting, if you look at how he says people are voting or denying certain factions a chance in France. Interesting that Macron couldve got in because the left have split their vote and so no one party got enough.

[XXTickerXX]

From another forum

 

Quote

 

It's important to note that the majority of protestors are middle aged, these are not college or university students, who make up the usual French protests. This is a grassroots protest. It's been reported anywhere from 50-80% of the French support the gilets jaunes. This is NOT just about taxes.

The protests began over the new taxes imposed by Macron's government on fuel. The taxes are viewed as punishing those who use cars and those who can't afford to buy newer ones. The French already pay heavy taxes on fuel, along with high tolls on highways. Every car in France is required to have 2 high visibility vests (gilets jaunes). The protestors began wearing those vests while protesting.

Along with this, the cost of living is incredibly high while salaries are painfully low, especially in larger cities like Paris. The myth of government-ordered 35 hour work weeks isn't the reality for most salaried French people. Taxes eat huge chunks of their money and the French are fed up with making the same amount in their salaries as those who don't work at all and rely on government assistance.

Parts of France are also filled with unassimilated migrants. These migrants get government assistance as well. A large part of the French are sick of paying for migrants when French people are suffering as well. There are areas that have stopped being culturally French and cities the French avoid for holidays because of the migrant problem.

In addition to this, retired people have been lodging their dissatisfaction with their retirement pensions (one woman in a video circulating around French Facebook confronts Macron about having to live off of 500€ a month) and Macron's reactions have been condescending across the board. He currently has about a 26% approval rating.

All of this started bubbling up a few weeks ago as the protests began with the gilets jaunes in November. The protests last weekend got violent. Statues at the Arc De Triomphe were broken; the Arc was defaced. In Marseille, an 80 year old woman was killed as she was closing her shutters. The police threw a tear gas canister at her window. While outside of larger cities, many police officers and firefighters are taking off their helmets and/or standing in solidarity with the gilets jaunes. There have been reports that they have also refused to shake Macron's hand and have turned their backs to government officials while serving in official capacities.

On Monday (December 2), there was a protest by the ambulances in Paris. They stood at Concorde with lights flashing and sirens sounding. Truck drivers have also showed their solidarity. They have also driven through Paris with lights flashing to show their dissatisfaction. Roads have been closed down by gilets jaunes and they are blocking access of oil in both ports and at stations. As of posting, over 650 stations are on a list of facing shortages or out of fuel. During yesterday's news cycle, many truck drivers were seen disrupting broadcasts by honking in solidarity with the gilets jaunes.

On Tuesday (December 3), the French government spoke about their plans for "appeasement" of the gilets jaunes. Their offer was to postpone the start date of 3 taxes (related to fuel). This offer has been scoffed at by the gilets jaunes, who have called it "crumbs" as the taxes haven't even been implemented yet and the offer does nothing to address the issues regarding cost of living.

Along with this, the French have begun demanding that Macron refuse to sign the UN Migration Act on December 10. This has begun appearing across the Facebook groups and events but has not been widely reported in the French media as far as I can tell.

This has culminated in everything from demands Macron step down to the creation of the 6th Republic. There are protests planned for Saturday across France. The protestors are calling the Paris protests ACT 4. They are quoting from the French National Anthem ("Aux Armes Citoyens") and planning to protest at Bastille. The medical community is also participating in the protests on Saturday.

 

How true it is I do not know. I was stuck in it on the first weekend after visiting Ypres in Belgium after the anniversary of WW1 (puts things into perspective seeing the western front and front line) and they had blocked  Dunkirk port off which delayed us hours. No one in the queues had any idea what was happening and were walking up and down the motorway. It seems France has found the threshold of how much you can tax people before they become outraged.