A Very British Protest

Now almost everybody must have seen pictures of striking French ferry workers protesting in Calais over the potential loss of their jobs. This is no namby pamby protest; hundreds of tyres are unloaded onto the motorway leading into Calais. They are then set fire to the tyre making a highly effective barrier against anyone trying to access the port of Calais. As an added bonus it is visually very effective when broadcast on news bulletins. It can be constructed by only a few strikers, and has huge impact on cross channel travellers. So it is win win all round if you are striking ferry worker.

In the past French farmers have been equally effective in making protests, typically they would drive a few sheep onto the local motorway and wait for the chaos to start, or more simply they would drive their tractors very slowly round town. We experienced this today on our local trunk road, but here it was simply combines driving between fields.

So I return to a previous subject the price of milk and in particular what framers are paid by the major supermarkets. Now if you are a French farmer you would start a manifestation, a highly televisual protest causing the maximum inconvenience to all concerned and being blazoned across all national and local media.

Now imagine my amusement when I learnt on the news today how farmers in Northern Ireland are protesting against the low price they are being paid for milk. They indeed strike right at the heart of their foes the supermarkets. Their protest, they surround the cool cabinet at a supermarket with shopping trollies. Now I am not sure about the precise detail so I do not know if they locked the trollies together but I rather think not. This is such an understated protest and is a huge contrast with the actions of our continental cousins. It is really rather quaint, a very British protest.