quote

“…if you put a rat up a drainpipe and he can't do anything to get out, what's he going to do?" so said david handley one of the fuel protesters.
the answer is pretty simple: the rat is going to be stuck in the drainpipe until it dies or is let out. not quite the rallying cry that mr. handley was after.

the fuel protests of this weekend met with little success with the number of protesters in the tens and not the thousands.
oddly while they were not succeeding in getting their message across (and it seems to be “we don’t want to pay taxes mr. brown and can you persuade the oil companies to settle for just super profits and not outrageous profits?”) the usa was succeeding in their scuppering (once again) of any chance of their being any targets in the quest to stop climate change. the american’s preferred approach is one where countries assume a voluntary stance to cutting their emissions.
hey i believe it will work!
we can see it in the attitude of the chinese and indian states: hey you can’t stop us from industrialising; you did it so we are going to as well.

as for the fuel protesters they will no doubt be back, they will complain that their industry and their livelihoods are under attack (as they are the only people that has ever happened to) they will appeal to the self-interest of drivers everywhere and sometime soon we can watch the spectacle of cars queuing up at petrol stations to fill up because a few truckers and farmers will have blockaded a fuel depot somewhere.
showing that where the environment is concerned self-interest rules the roost.