It’s no coincidence that his plea came within days of France erupting into some of the worst street violence since the student riots of the Sixties. There seems to be a worry in Westminster that the vicious street battles and looting which we saw plastered across our television scenes, could make their way across the English Channel.
Could the UK be about to witness the violent clashes between rioters and police that we haven’t witnessed since the confrontations between police and the miners during the Thatcherite era of the early Eighties?
With only about six months to the next Presidential elections in France and with the Far Right scoring well in the opinion polls, outgoing President Emmanuel Macron will not want his last few months in office, or indeed, his entire Presidential legacy, to be one that he failed to control the streets of his own towns and cities and mob rule and criminal looting were the orders of the day.
And we in the UK and other European nations - whether in the European Union or not - cannot merely dismiss this deplorable rioting as ‘simply a French thing’.
It’s not just the French elections which could be seriously affected. If copycat rioting was to erupt in other nations, such as Spain, which is having its crucial elections later this month, it could set a deeply dangerous precedent for democratic elections across other states.
Countries, such as the UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Albania and even Southern Ireland, will be concerned that groups with legitimate concerns, especially over the cost of living, could take to the streets - but as in France, see their protests hijacked by Hard Left activists and criminals.
The bitter medicine which Macron and his French authorities must swallow is that for a period of time - albeit a short spell - they totally lost control of their own streets to the mob. Even with the deployment of water cannon, plastic bullets and tear gas, who could forget the scenes of riot places being chased along their own streets by the mob.
In terms of a strategy, the French police were totally unprepared for the initial student protests over cost of living and educational resources when they turned violent.
From the start, the French army should have been deployed as a back-up to the the police. It’s all very well the French authorities saying they had learned from their mistakes and deployed at least 70,000 police for last month’s protests when some 400,000 took to the streets of various cities.
Those 70,000 riot cops plus army back-up should have been on French streets from the start of the initial protests. As the proverb says, its no use trying to shut the door after the horse has bolted!
French authority spin doctors were emphasising the implementation of partial and localised curfews and bans. But equally, the French authorities did not have the resources to enforce them fully.
There also seemed to be a failure on the French intelligence service to clearly identify who the main agitators of the horrific violence were. This was not a spontaneous spate of unrest - this was organised anarchy.
The French are paying the price of implementing a snowflake, woke, softly, softly approach to dealing with student demands.
Yes, the right to legitimate protest is a hallmark of any democratic society. But there is a massive difference between disgruntled students organising a sit-down protest in the street about the cost of living, even participating in a campaign of civil disobedience, and hurling petrol bombs and looting shops.
If French intelligence had been doing their jobs properly, the violent agitators would have been rounded up before the protests began and interned for a period of time until the French government could reasonably address the needs of the protestors.
The real danger is that protest groups in other European nations see that their demands can be met with violent street action as in France, and this cancer of rioting spreads throughout the Continent like a rapidly mutating computer virus.
Was Secretary Streeting preparing the UK for similar rioting when he asked people to stockpile?
The ultimate nightmare which many European nations that are facing student protests have to consider is - could student protests be hijacked as in France by Hard Left extremists which could finally lead to a resumption of terrorist activities as happened in the past?
France suffered in the past from the terror group Action Directe; Germany had its problems with the Red Army Faction; Spain with ETA; Belgium with the Fighting Communist Cells (CCC), and Italy with the Red Brigades. Given the destruction of businesses and looting in France, at what point do the tear gas canisters have to be replaced with lead bullets and the leading petrol bombers shot?
There may be a cost of living crisis, but what about the cost to the French economy to police these protests and especially regain control of the streets? What will be the financial costs of the clean-up operations? What is the economic damage to tourism?
Basically, the French authorities lost complete control of the situation in the early stages when they should have unleashed an iron fist security strategy and implemented marshal law in potential trouble spots using the French army.
Lessons need to be learned, too, by the other European nations as a result of this French debacle. Given the well-organised nature of this rioting, it will not be fixed with a concessionary sticky plaster - it will require tough radical surgery.
Likewise, the Macron regime will be burning the midnight oil to evaluate who politically will benefit as a result of the inability to contain the rioting and regain control of the streets in a fast manner.
The Far Left will be able to say that violent action forced the Macron government to capitulate to their demands; the Far Right will be able to promise an iron fist approach to control the streets from rioters and looters. The centre ground parties will suffer at the ballot box.
But the real sinister question which must be seriously addressed by not just the French authorities, but all European nations facing protests over the cost of living - is there an outside country stirring up all this trouble?
British PM Andy Burnham has already pointed an accusing finger at Russia over alleged interference in the 2016 Brexit vote. Simple follow-on question - could Russia be also interested in allegedly influencing the outcome of this month’s Spanish election and next year’s French elections?
Indeed, is it imaginable that if such French-style rioting was to spread across other European Union member states, the combined influence of the rioting could actually politically and economically destabilise the EU?
Politicians may wish to appear to be the champions of democracy, but the bitter pill they may need to swallow is that to protect that democracy from anarchist rioting and criminal looting, the iron fist strategy may need to be deployed. This is the radical surgery which must now be on the tables of the various government cabinets.
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| Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter Dr Coulter has been a journalist since 1978 and is currently a political commentator with GB News. |
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