Are You Bothered? Yet.....?

Here’s some ideas from the yellow vests in Australia…

https://australianyellowvestalliance.info/?fbclid=IwAR3Ggbhw-OaRPLUTGbSg08RySP3WSSiB1_BeUT_sNCSeaXttkIZKLf3eYXg

I’m glad you are taking part in the Census… even if you don’t want to vote… :grinning:

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I don’t think that there’s a choice Stella, I think the heavies might be sent in :wink: ! At least it can now be done on line :slight_smile:

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Ha ha… where there is a will, there is a way… :thinking:

Not bothered but mightily pissed off that the twats have smashed most of the cashpoints in central Bordeaux as I discovered today.

And who’s going to be paying for that I wonder? Oh yeah, those of us with bank accounts…

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You watched too much Dixon of Dock Green.
Those days are gone, long gone.
I’ve visited many European countries and have never, ever feared approaching an armed police officer or being approached by one.
Indeed, only a few weeks ago on a visit to the prefecture in Angoulême, there was a large demonstration in the vicinity and we spoke to a policeman on the front line asking if it was safe to proceed through the crowd. He responded helpfully in spite of us (obviously) not being French.
Line it or lump it, the forces of order, no matter what flavour (Police, Gendarme, CRS, GIGN) have the law on their side and that must be respected.
Disrespect them at your peril!

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Well said Catharine - We have had to put up with it for nine weeks and the poor commercants are suffering dreadfully at tremendous personal loss. Prat’s is putting it mildly - l can think of a rather more colourful phrase. Bordeaux seems to attract the very worst - But hey, according to some on this site, that’s what it’s like ‘Here in France’ and don’t forget you will benefit from the GJ protest. (A little angry sarcasm) :smiling_imp::smiling_imp::smiling_imp:

I’m actually becoming more concerned about the problems here than what will happen with Brexit. Macron simply doesn’t seem to have a clue, his latest idea for a ‘Grand Debate’ is nothing more than a ‘can kicking’ exercise whilst the GJ’s carry on regardless.

For those with one foot in Oz and the other in the UK/EU I think Oz residents are more concerned with having a new government every year yet still topping the list (alongside Switzerland) as the most enviable place to live:

That’s if you dont mind a temperatures range between -10C and +40 and major rivers that never reach the sea and now full of dead fish.

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Now that we have compared the Jilly Jones with Brexit, here is a nice excerpt in today’s Times from Hugo Rifkind:

'… The Gilets Jaunes movement began as a fairly specific revolt against fuel prices … It is a whole month since Macron vowed to scrap fuel tax rises and push up the minimum wage, yet Paris is still burning thanks to a far more nebulous feeling that things are still awful and it’s still all his fault.

Everybody remembers Peter Finch’s seminal political breakdown in the classic film Network , when he shouts: “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this any more!” Almost nobody, though, remembers what he was actually mad about.

These yellow vests, I think, will not be our revolution. For one thing, their demos are simply impossible to responsibly steward. …The forebears of these people already published their long, vague, simplistic list of stuff they didn’t like … then they won a referendum with it. Now look where we are.

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I went up to the big town today and when leaving I saw several gillet jaunes standing on a roundabout on the N10. It was only after having gone around the roundabout and was about to take my exit that I noticed their work van parked on the other side of it and realised that they were workmen working.

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Never!!! :wink: :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::grin:

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Isn’t that a bit of a patronising laziness on working people, Simon? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::thinking:

What are your thoughts on the yellow vest Australia flyer…???

I follow the Australian max Igan and the crowhouse and love his perspective…on many things…

If it Australian GJ movement (never mind the flyer) leads to the current Macron consultative process throughout France I think it will have a positive outcome.

This is provided any Australian ‘copy cat’ Yellow Jackets are not stupid enough to trash Australian cities. And it they think they can get away with confronting the Australian State or Federal Police I predict they’ll (a) get a shock and (b) meet far greater / vocal / aggressive public opposition to any extremists. Some Australian State Police have reputation for being trigger happy, (fatally) something the French security forces have not been to their immense credit (apart form the odd stray gas canister).

So how bad is Macron actually as an economist and consultative leader? OK he had to be ‘urged’ re the latter. I note today’s good economic news re France finances and investigation of the disparity of wages. In France where the boss can earn 178 times his average employee. In Norway the boss earns no more than 60 times. and that’s without any legislation.

I must confess Western Democracy does have its many faults and changes are more often than not initiated though protests. Perhaps the GJ movement will have a positive outcome after all.

Nevertheless I hope the those identified as anarchists and looters hiding among the pacifist GJ ranks are brought to account for the damage they have inflicted on small business, France’s economy and through intimidation of the public and those who protect us. - which brings us nicely back to where this debate started.

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I was comparing the ill thought out uk flyer with the newborn Australian yellow vest flyer…their first protests are due 19th January…I read a lot about Australia…and yes trigger happy police and medical kidnap cases…a total clamping down on free speech…branding people as terrorists at the drop of a hat and stripping people of citizenship with no recourse…another police force out of control…??? Edited to add or rather another government out of control and using fear and force against their own people…???

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I rather think the vast majority of Australians would disagree with you - hence their high ‘happiness index’ ranking. And the latest human rights protester, Saudi teenager Rahaf Mohammed rather preferred Australia to anywhere else. Canada just had its own pressing anti Saudi agenda to miss the opportunity.

Actually Mr Prakash chose himself to renounce his Australian citizenship, denounce Australian / (Western) laws and values and democracy in general and chose to become a citizen of the Islamic State, so he has that to fall back on. It was in fact he by his actions by telling Australia to just F*** off and not the other way round. He just didn’t back a winner in his first choice of citizenship. An interesting test of Article 15 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights nevertheless .But most countries ignore that anyway - it’s only a ‘common standard’ after all.

All others who have lost their Australian citizenship had their original one to fall back on. They just consistently failed to meet the standards of their adopted country and its people by committing serious crimes. Not people I’d prefer as neighbours.

Anyway we have hijacked this debate so I’m retiring from it (sigh of relief expected) now that there appears to be a glimmer of positive outcome from the GJ movement.

Cordialement…

“ A fireman is in a coma after he was shot in the back of the head ‘like a rabbit’ by police during demonstrations”

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What’s your point Helen?

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Just how lethal the weapons are…this man is a French fireman…shot in the head by the police…he’s a father of 3 and is currently in a coma…

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