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Article: We just can't do a demo like the French.(Column)
- Article from:
- The Evening Standard (London, England)
- Article date:
- March 30, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: WILL SELF
THERE'S a tendency on this side of the Channel to look across at the French with a degree of envy. It isn't just their cheese, their wine and their laid-back, sensual culture we covet, but also their no-nonsense approach to the business of civil disobedience.
When a law is unpopular in France, the barricades seem to go up in seconds.
The confrontations between masked, Molotov-cocktail-hurling jeunesse and the grimfaced CRS firing teargas canisters are timeless. This, we think to ourselves, is the very dance of liberty and equality!
By contrast with this week's Parisian riots, the wellbehaved fraternity of our own ...