The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

Link: Olympic torch extinguished amid Paris protests – Telegraph.

It seems the spirit of 1968 lives on and that French protesters remain both more stylish and more effective than their British counterparts. Despite the protective and (disgracefully) protected presence of hireling thugs of foreign powers in both London and Paris, our French cousins managed to extinguish the Olympic flame not once, but twice.

I do love to see the pomposity of authority punctured. Within hours of their head announcing – with an implied sneer at London – that his officers would guard the flame "like a visiting Head of State", the Paris police saw it snuffed out on their watch. You have to smile. I wish our Head of State no harm, but I do hope they guard our Head of Government to the same standard next time he is in Paris.