An Easter Message Of Confusion from Alfred N.Muggins Part 2 : France!

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By David Kirtley

Tue, 02 Jul 2024
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7 comments
 

Part 2 : France!

    Meanwhile the French voters and workers are on the streets (again!) as Government ignores their wishes for an easy life, and a pension system which they thought would allow them to retire at 62 (!! If only the Brits could have had that, but women in the UK are already forgetting that their Government, once upon a time, allowed them to retire at 60! (Can you believe that was once possible? Surely that was just a fantasy or was it a dream?)

    Now the Government of boy scout Macron forces them to work until they are 64 (In line with the Beatles song ‘When I’m Sixty Four’ – no doubt!) In many other countries, and Britain for sure, the citizen has already been sold out, and must wait patiently until they are 67 before they can hopefully retire! It is getting closer isn’t it? But the Government keeps raising it higher and higher, like a carrot on a string, to keep us working. Work yourself for just a little bit longer. Probably you will just go straight to heaven when you drop down from work exhaustion! There will be no need for nursing homes and expensive NHS expenditures!

    There seems little chance that workers and citizens in Britain will ever take to the streets in any unified way to protect their retirements, as they appear never to have mastered the rule of ‘united we stand, divided we fall’!

    However in France it is a different matter altogether. Unlike the British, the French are actually very good at revolting, having had plenty of practice in their history. They take their Revolutions very seriously! Their late 18th century Revolution was a model of its kind and triggered Revolutions throughout the Americas, (although the American United States Revolution did actually come first!) The French Revolution in its various stages was actually far more bloody than that of the United States, and was a particularly good example of a Revolution which the Revolutionaries could not agree upon how extreme they should be, which broke up into factions quite quickly and resulted in bloody Civil Wars between fellow Revolutionaries and lots of guillotining of opponents. Not content with this level of violence, under the leadership of Napoleon they decided to export their Revolution to the rest of Europe as well, resulting in serious overwork for their armies and eventual defeat upon the battlefields of Russia, Spain and Waterloo! (The great and famous French Revolutionary motto of ‘Liberty, Egalite, Frivolity and Fraternity’ should be an example to us all!)

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Comments

Submitted by David Kirtley on

This piece (all 3 parts) was written on Easter Saturday 8th of April 2023, last year,but due to being missed was never posted onto abctales until now, more than a year later. It is interesting to compare matters in the news now, with events at Easter 2023. For example Britain seems to be about to replace the Conservative Party from their long tenure of office, with the Labour Party (according to the polls!). And France has just been in the news, with their Right Wing Nationalist party winning a larger share than any other party in the first round of their election. The dissatisfactions with Macron's government, mentioned in this article are coming to further fruition over a year later!

Submitted by airyfairy on

It is interesting to see how relevant your piece is now, a year after it was written.

It saddens me that Brits are no longer taught about our history of dissent. The Peasants' Revolt, the Chartists, the Tolpuddle Martyrs and, of course, the Suffragettes, to name but a few. The narrative these days is that dissent is contrary to 'our tradition', when nothing could be further from the truth.

Anyway, on to Thursday and we'll see what the fates have in store for us this time!

Submitted by David Kirtley on

I am pleased that you see how relevant this has turned out to be to current news in France and in Britain. Britain's revolutionary spirit is perhaps finally resurfacing as it seems to be about to overthrow the current Tory establishment politically. You are quite right, on consideration. There is a history of social dissent in Britain after all,even if they did not usually get as far as they should have done, and often ended up falling for establishment trickery! The demands of the Chartists perhaps did result in gradual extension of the right to vote, and eventually after the effective action of the sufragettes, to women voting. The Union Movement did foster and support the Labour Party, and had a great effect upon working conditions and hours , and standards.These movements did result in effective social and economic improvements and the welfare state etc. In Britain bloody revolution was largely avoided by the pressure of democracy and workers rights, and even the modern Tories are not immune to criticism and democratic choice,as tomorrow is highly likely to show!

Submitted by marandina on

Major change is afoot in France with National Rally bringing credibility to the Far Right it seems. If they make it to government then I think revolution and counter-revolution will be on a scale not seen in decades. I see Europe lurching steadily to the right of the political spectrum. The pot is boiling and the genie wants out of its bottle. Meanwhile the UK lurches to the left with a supermajority for Labour. We are in for an interesting and scary ride... 

 

Submitted by David Kirtley on

Alfred has indeed been remarkably prescient in this article,although even he did not entirely predict the success of National Rally. Itis far from being settled, but it does seem that right wing movement towards the centre on some issues may have allowed them to capture more votes. There are big issues to do with immigration, ethnic integration and economic opportunity which are still not settled or completed. I do hope France does not become a more violent place again,but at least these issues are being dealt with in democratic forums and elections rather than on the streets!

Perhaps the European Union viisions and rules will continue to bend and evolve on these issues. After all Britain, in a sense, crashed out of the European Union on some of these issues!

Submitted by Di_Hard on

This bit made me smile!
"Not content with this level of violence, under the leadership of Napoleon they decided to export their Revolution to the rest of Europe as well, resulting in serious overwork for their armies and eventual defeat upon the battlefields of Russia, Spain and Waterloo! (The great and famous French Revolutionary motto of ‘Liberty, Egalite, Frivolity and Fraternity’ should be an example to us all!)"

Perhaps the UK lets off its steam of discontent before other countries, as with Brexit, and long before that the execution of Charles I?

 

Submitted by David Kirtley on

I am glad you enjoyed Alfred's summary of French Revolutionary History Di. Alfred enjoyed writing that one. Hopefully it won't upset the French, or Napoleon fans too much! I think you are right the UK does seem to have reacted to its own discontent early with Brexit, and far earlier than the French in beheading their divine right monarch (140 years or so ahead of the French!) But only to replace him, in France, with a proper little warmongering Emperor for a while, although I suppose he was a moderniser at least!