*Thought for the day.*
I heard an interesting story recently told by a highly respected politician in France, Philippe de Villiers.
Numerous citizens in popular neighbourhoods have been receiving very well written letters proposing help with shopping for the elderly, financial loans, and social services of one kind or another, services which the town hall has not been able to provide.
It turns out these letters are written by drug traffickers, with the intention of taking over some of the state's sovereignty in these politically sensitive areas, building a kind of parallel public and social services network, all at the initiative of and with support from what we'd call drug lords.
Well, it's a bit of a sensationalist story. No doubt it's already happening and certainly it's a common arrangement in places like Mexico and poor parts of american inner cities, where local government can't reach, but not here in the UK, not here.
Of course, their - the drug lords - rule of law is enforced in ways different from our rule of law, and this means that the people living in those neighborhoods are left without protection.
It's not just drug traffickers that work like this, but political organisations do so as well, providing support where the state fails and garnering loyalty in return, often, using quite brutal methods.
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