Social turmoil in Europe is not exclusively restricted to France which today experienced a national strike, disrupting public life. Britain was hit by a major shutdown too today:

Teaching assistants, clerks, trash collectors and other government workers throughout Britain shut down thousands of schools and disrupted transportation and businesses in what may be the nation's biggest strike in 80 years.

More than a million workers downed tools today to protest Prime Minister Tony Blair's plan to raise their retirement age to 65 from 60, the Unison union said. Last year, Blair pulled back from similar plans for central government employees.

We are entering a new phase in British politics with Gordon Brown waiting in the wings, ready to take over and some believe that he is far less of a centrist than Tony Blair is. And a succession battle in France is shaping up as well where rivals De Villepin and Sarkozy are activley positioning themselves to take over the reigns from Chirac next year. Whoever wins wil have to face a resurgent left and may be forced to take the hard edges of any reform package.

So, against the backdrop of intense social unrest there is an increased likelihood for both France and Britain to take a more measured approach to necessary pension and labor reforms, something we already witnessed earlier in Germany. Whatever reform Europe may need, it may be an extraordinary hard sell and therefore take much longer to implement.