The riots send another 'get out of the Paris Agreement' message to the Australian government; just one more message they will ignore. Riots in Sydney and Melbourne might make them sit up and take notice, but they know that brainwashed, timid Aussies are too scared and apathetic for that sort of thing.

A few good riots by right-minded people and Canberra shuts down with the Gov Gen taking control of the military, smashing commo wind-turbines and army engineers opening new coal mines at Capital Hill.

I don't have much time for the French. For a people who have little or nothing to be proud of, they are far to arrogant.

However they really did not deserve this clown, who is the French equivalent of the US Obama.

It is their own fault. Elect a clown, & you then have to live in the circus.

"...elect a clown and you live in a circus."

Great line.

We'd better get out the face paint.

Leaders are often seen by the governed and opinion piece writers as arrogant and cold? Nobody likes, essential to the nation's financial and economic health, change.

There is only one constant in the entire universe, and that one constant is constant change. There needs to be a mechanism that accelerates the change from fossil-fuelled vehicles to electric options.

Exponentially increasing fossil fuel prices could accomplish that and indeed finance a subsidy that substantially lowers the cost of electric alternatives and or gas powered hybrids!

As always there are the usual plethora of Monday morning experts and politically conflicted foes, who if they can't find a real fault or flaw will invent the same or both?

We don't have time for the modern-day Luddites to get out of the way, so we can actually avoid the catastrophe, now heading our way like a steaming express, thundering in our direction!
Alan B.

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Dear Binoy Kampmark,

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You wrote :

« The initial target was increased fuel taxes, but the indignation has become a broader church of disaffection on living in general »

There you have it in a nutshell, Binoy. The last two weeks of demonstrations and revolt in France have nothing to do with ecology, fossil fuels, greenhouse gases, global warming or the Paris Agreement. The overwhelming majority of French people are in favour of government policy on that important, global, long-term issue.

The leitmotif of the demonstrators for the past two weeks has been “Macron’s concern is the end of the world. Our concern is the end of the month”. It’s all about increased cost of living that has reached insupportable levels for the labourers and middle classes, due to recent increased taxes (and the announcement of more to come in January 2019) coupled with higher petrol costs.

President Macron finally broke his silence today but failed to announce any concrete emergency measures to relieve the financial burden on all those low-income earners who are already struggling to survive. Most of them live in the outer suburbs or in the country and need their cars to commute to and from work.

Because their cars run on diesel (which used to be cheaper than ordinary petrol) they are the hardest hit by the increased taxes designed to penalise diesel vehicles which cause the most pollution. In fact, families often have two or three cars (which all run on diesel) because there is no public transport in the isolated areas where they live.

This is a spontaneous, popular revolt throughout the whole country. It has no leader and no central organisation or official spokesperson. They all communicate together through the social media and react instantaneously. That makes life difficult for President Macron and his government. They are unpredictable and uncontrollable.

They have already announced their intention to hold another demonstration on the Champs Elysées this weekend due to their lack of satisfaction with President Macron’s speech today.

The struggle continues with no end in sight at this point.

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