• COMMENT
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FRENCH FARCE
• The French have a word for it —"Laissezfaire". It means that any time there's trouble in France the French authorities shrug their shoulders and do nothing. First it was the French farmers, then it was the French lorry drivers. Now it's the drivers and the farmers, with the latter blockading railway lines in protest about the road blockades of the former. Talk about a French farce.
Only it isn't funny at all. Not when there are hundreds of British drivers and operators wondering if their insurance companies will foot the bill for losses they've sustained as a result of the French drivers' action.
The insurance companies — never tempted to mix business and benevolence — will doubtless wave the CMR fine print in the air and tell drivers "Well you must have known there was a dispute on so you can hardly claim your losses were due to 'unforeseen civil disturbances'. We're not paying!"
Some people hope the French Government will pay compensation. Fat chance. No doubt their excuse will be "we didn't blockade the roads". Just like they didn't attack British trucks carrying lamb and set fire to them. In fact they haven't done anything at all_ They haven't stopped hauliers holding the country to ransom and interfering with hundreds of British truck operators going about their business.
Nor have they told the French drivers that the laws of the land are made by Government — not by a bunch of bullies who mistakenly think they ought to be treated differently than any other road user.
Hungry hauliers trapped somewhere in France with rotting loads will have their own ideas on the treatment this lunacy deserves.