It looks as if we are in for a winter of discontent

THE old joke about lunch being what French people do between strikes has some truth in it.

Along with Belgium and Denmark, France heads the list of working days lost to strikes over recent decades. French writer Sylvain Tesson, who once toured the world by bicycle, wrote: “France is a paradise filled with people who think they are in hell.”

The French, who are not averse to a bit of Bastille storming now and again, traditionally have distrusted politics and authority.

Their republican revolutionary origins, educational philosophy and union militancy (despite the small number of members) have lived up to their claim of being ‘built on revolt’

Someone once suggested that Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am” can easily be translated into “I question, therefore I am”.

Probably the first ever strike took place under the Pharaoh Ramses III in the 12th Century BC when artisans of the Royal Necropolis walked out having reached a dead end in their negotiations.

The industrial revolution was the context of much Welsh strike action when owners of mines and factories used their power over the workers to their advantage to increase profits. Striking was their only method of getting their employers to take them seriously.

So it looks as if we in Britain are in for a winter of discontent, and as the striking orthodontist said: “Brace yourself”.

For university staff, packaging workers, nurses, plane cargo handlers, postal workers, doctors, teachers and dock workers are all planning action or are in disputes.

In France they would say (in French) that doesn’t break three legs of a duck, but all strikes are failures in management, communication and relationships.

They constitute grievances over working conditions, low pay and unfairness which have not been resolved by talking.

Probably a more pragmatic government would have done better, but one which is ideologically driven to ensure a small state, low public spending, tax cuts and bonuses for the rich and is currently in meltdown has produced only a shrinking economy.

As the French would say: “C’est la catastrophe” but it seems Richy Rishi would still sing: “Je Ne Regrette Rien”.