The riots in France are against the political establishment, rather than against the European Union. But they have an urgent lesson for the British, and indeed for the people of other countries. Does economic inequality reach a point where democracy itself appears to be failing as a way of redressing grievances, and taking to the streets becomes a valid alternative? Does social disaffection sometimes provoke political action aimed at destabilising a distrusted establishment, as in the vote for Brexit? Each delivers a shock to the system which might act as an overdue wake-up call, if the political establishment has the good sense to hear it.

In Britain and France, a substantial proportion of the population feels disregarded by insensitive central government. As in the music hall song, the “rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. Thomas Piketty’s statistical analysis has described how the “myth” of French egalitarianism has disguised a reality that is the precise opposite.