La lune de miel est terminée!

Rroff said:
Problem is peaceful protest doesn't achieve much unless you can put the pressure on - most people have jobs, lives, etc. they can't spend days on end piling the pressure on and the ruling classes rarely respond to anything other than being under sustained pressure.

Violence unfortunately can achieve the same result in much less time.
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The Junior doctors were a bit of an exception to the rule but absolutely, I think the politicians rely on the fact that most of us can't afford to get into trouble with the law because it can be career-limiting.

Some of us can't even fart without getting prior approval. Never mind turning up outside Westminster with pitchforks and molotovs. :/
 
Rroff said:
Problem is peaceful protest doesn't achieve much unless you can put the pressure on - most people have jobs, lives, etc. they can't spend days on end piling the pressure on and the ruling classes rarely respond to anything other than being under sustained pressure.

Violence unfortunately can achieve the same result in much less time.
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In practice, for the reasons you mention, the "ruling class" rarely need to resort to violence; they can rely on apathy and selective use of the law and judiciary whilst the majority simply have to "adopt the position and take it".

Democracy is only the tyranny of the majority over the minority in fiction, in reality the rich minority have all the power.
Would peaceful protests have ended the Poll Tax?
Would peaceful protests have ended the Vietnam War?
Did peaceful protests by millions of people prevent the illegal invasion of Iraq and the inevitable, predictable chaos in the Middle East?
 
France is *****, Italy is ******, Germany will be paying thru the nose once we depart and then they will see popilist uprising.

European Spring, just what the CIA wanted.
 
The whole thing is bizarre - the French do seem to have form for direct action protestors who are a bit different to the usual crusty environmentalist vegan types!

Not so long ago they were burning British sheep in lorries, now it is a bunch of petrolheads protesting fuel prices and vandalising speed cameras :D
 
DB_SamX said:
From teh same BBC article,



Yeah sure, the speed cameras know that you're poor...:rolleyes:

Bunch of vandals!
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The problem is that the speed has been reduced yet all the signs have not been changed.

Got first hand experience of this as I got flashed in what I thought was a 90 zone.
 
stockhausen said:
I take it that the French don't have Attorneys who will defend your speeding ticket on a technicality if you cross their palms with 30 pieces of silver . . ?
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I take your point, but being able to afford to pay to get off punishment for a crime is not an excuse for committing it in the first place. At the end of the day, someone will end up paying for repairs or replacements and my assumption that is likely to come from their own taxes.

i-bert said:
The problem is that the speed has been reduced yet all the signs have not been changed.

Got first hand experience of this as I got flashed in what I thought was a 90 zone.
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I had no idea that was the case (signs not changed; I have seen articles about speed limits reducing though); got a link?
 
DB_SamX said:
I take your point, but being able to afford to pay to get off punishment for a crime is not an excuse for committing it in the first place. At the end of the day, someone will end up paying for repairs or replacements and my assumption that is likely to come from their own taxes.



I had no idea that was the case (signs not changed; I have seen articles about speed limits reducing though); got a link?
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Sorry, can't find a link on the subject. But while we were there they had a news section where there was a guy complaining about the amount of times that the limit will change on one stretch of road. It's crazy.
 
Speeding tickets are just chump change to big earners.

We have now moved over into means based fines, but the elite still felt the need to cap it....
 
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