Friday, March 31, 2006

Fair's Fair, Now

The attacks by the casseurs on French demonstrators are being covered by the BBC.

They're just not being given the kind of prominence they would be if the attackers were natives and the victims not.

During a recent protest "thugs hit the shop windows on their way up the avenue, and hit the demonstrators on their way down".

Who are they? Ask any shopkeeper, and they will tell you that they are the same youths of immigrant origin who rioted across France's impoverished suburbs in November.

This report manages to tell the truth and ignore it simultaneously. Can you imagine the BBC's coverage if the casseurs were white 'right-wingers' ?

"The festival atmosphere quickly darkened as a small group of troublemakers began to target trade union stewards trying to keep order on the march.

Those youths smashed the windows of a cafe and soon took on the trade unions' security men in random brawls, as the peaceful protesters - young and old - continued on their route across the River Seine and on to Place de la Republique"

"But once they reached their destination in the eastern city centre, most student demonstrators - and the workers who came out in support of them - quickly left as more youths descended on the square, with the sole aim of picking a fight with the riot police.

These youngsters - aged between 15 and 25 - were wearing hooded tops that obscured their features. Many wore masks, so they could not be identified."


"The irony is that the government's new job contracts were brought in hurriedly to help youngsters in France's troubled suburbs - where last November's rioting brought severe social and racial problems into sharp focus."

An irony not lost on the great Dalrymple.

"Whether they know it or not, the people on the streets in France were demonstrating to keep the youth of the banlieues — who recently so amused the world for an entire fortnight with their arsonist antics — exactly where they are, namely hopeless, unemployed and feeling betrayed. For unless the French labour market is liberalised, they will never find employment and therefore integration into French society. You have only to speak to a few small businessmen or artisans in France — the petits bourgeois so vehemently despised by the snobbish intellectuals — to find out why this should be so. The French labour regulations make employment of untried persons completely uneconomic for them."

UPDATE - via the comments, France-Echos with photos of the kind of thing the BBC prefer to ignore. Not sure if I follow his politics, but the snaps are pretty eloquent.

Photos via France-Echos

Photos via France-Echos

UPDATE 2 - More Dalrymple.

"The French do not go to the banlieues, but what they fear is that the banlieues will come to them. Perhaps it is starting to happen. My nephew and a friend of his were walking through the Bois de Vincennes, overlooked by elegant Parisian bourgeois apartment blocks, when they were set upon by two Africans and three Arabs. They were not badly injured, but at the hospital their mothers were told by the staff that such attacks, carried out not for gain but for the sheer pleasure of revenge upon the hated comfortable French, were now commonplace."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

But then it is their country after all. Are we so much better here with our more liberal employment setup, how much would they integrate anyway?

Anonymous said...

Anon

I think you’ve missed the point; it is the lack of BBC coverage in any significant depth as opposed to the blanket coverage it provides when white indigenes people are responsible.

“Are we so much better here with our more liberal employment setup?” Ans, yes we are.

“How much would they integrate anyway?” Why don’t you read up and speculate for yourself.

Anonymous said...

What point is Theo making? Does he really believe that if it were not for French labour laws the youths in the hoodies would be lining up for a job?

His sub-heading is:
French students should go back to class to learn some economics

This is real dog bites man story.

The term Orwellian used to refer to political manipulation and invasion of privacy. We now seem to have moved on to the boot stamping on a human face phase.

http://en.france-echos.com/?p=40

Now that’s a real story but TD missed it. I am disappointed in him.

I apologies for re-posting a link from yesterday but the images and the muted reaction to them in the UK are shocking. It gives an indication of how this story will be spun when similar scenes are played out in the UK.

Anonymous said...

Thugs? Those aren't thugs, those are "suburban youths". Just ask the New York Times, as I explained here.

- Jim Miller

Anonymous said...

Im the 1st anaon above.

"Their country etc" So the French want an impractical econmic arrangement, well its their business. Why should they reorder their society to accomodate a large group of immigrants who, if the French had ever been given a say, would not have allowed into their country in the first place.

“Are we so much better here with our more liberal employment setup?” Ans, yes we are.

Hmmm really, July 7 2005 ring any bells?

I find TD great on his descriptions of our problems but his libertarian solutions are pie in the sky. They might apply if we were only talking about the French, but not the 3rd worlders in their midst. Muslims dont see things in individualist terms.

Anonymous said...

how dare you compere the socialist workers party to the crap that is new labour!
besides the correct format is swp/respect. get it right