Emmanuel Macron looks shiftier and less likeable by the minute

One of the must-have applications for smartphones in France is called C’est la Grève, which helpfully shows all the strikes ongoing at the moment, and those to come, with useful regional breakdowns. It’s indispensable for le planning and proof that French developers understand how to tailor digital products to local market demands. At the moment at the top of the list on my C’est la Grève app is a national and general strike this Thursday, which promises to be a key moment in what looks like an increasingly desperate effort to bring down Jupiter, Emmanuel Macron, president of the republic.

The French left, when they are not ripping each other to pieces, is throwing everything it has got at this week’s action, promising to shut down trains and planes, schools and clinics. There will doubtless be blockades of the motorways, which the French call operation escargot. I can’t understand why the cops don’t go out and bust those who block roads but my Gendarme friends tell me they haven’t enough manpower and their commanders have ordered them to back off.