WHATEVER the rights and wrongs of the great British fuel crisis, one thing is clear: we're getting into bed with the French.

Alf Garnett would have apoplexy while Victor Meldrew would put two feet in the grave and lie down.

It's a ghastly idea to those who'd prefer to lock the boudoir door and stay in splendid isolation as the debate rages over the Euro.

But there's a new militancy coursing up and down these isolated isles that echo the traditional Gallic passion for direct action.

This year alone, the streets of London have played host to violent demonstrations ostensibly in the name of smashing global capitalism.

The Countryside Alliance, including a huge contingent from Worcestershire, mobilised thousands to march to London two years ago and to Birmingham last October.

And next year, up to a million are tipped to return to the capital for another demonstration against fox hunting.

Now we're living through arguably the biggest national crisis since the Miners' Strike of the early 1980s, which has spread to Europe.

Across the channel, the French brought the country to a standstill to batter down their prices - still cheaper than ours at their highest.

And farmer Herv Bos has been jailed for three months for demolishing a McDonald's under construction in Millau in protest at punitive American import duties on French products.

On both sides of the channel, protests are throwing up populist themes: the price of fuel; town versus country; the individual shopkeeper versus the faceless multi-national conglomerate - not to mention global warming, which is likely to turn our cold, grey nation into a Mediterranean paradise complete with vineyards producing drinkable English wine.

Of course, the 1789 tradition in France means demonstrations, tear gas and the riot police are as much a national past-time as petanque, but not over here.

And yet in the midst of this militancy, there's never been a greater lack of interest or participation in politics, both local and national.

Local election turnout in Worcester was virtually non-existent this year, unless you think 19 per cent in St Barnabas, at best 47 per cent in Claines, is a feather in democracy's cap.

But the fuel crisis has demonstrated that if politics is dying, then there's a growing body of people in favour of ditching the ballot box for the roadblock like our Gallic neighbours.

Of course, the Government would say these latest demonstrations have been orchestrated by a minority, which is hard to dispute.

But if you believe what you see and read, they have been fuelled and egged on by a majority increasingly disaffected by policy makers.

Next thing you know, we'll be yelling Vive La Republique, eating horse and not washing