Virtue signalling -- the new generation

It is possible that Remain/PV might be losing some of its energetic younger supporters.The new game in town seems to be protest about climate change, with a series of exciting demos in London to disrupt traffic and signal virtue with a delightful range of posters. Extinction Rebellion, which claims to be a major organiser, advocates banning flying (what, even to Europe? Even the aircraft flying in fresh veg?), taking all internal combustion engine vehicles off the road, and disconnecting 26 m gas boilers. It's classic U Beck new middle-class awareness of risk territory.

Says juvenile Swedish school striker, or 'schoolgirl climate change warrior' as the Guardina calls her G Thunberg:

Forget Brexit and focus on climate change, Greta Thunberg tells EU

Guardian coverage is exemplary as ever. Reporting the motives of those (even younger than millenial, but carefully balanced in the article with old people) climate protesters:

Nathan, 15, from Wanstead, east London
“For the past 40 years we have known about climate change and we have tried to go through governments and peaceful marching through the streets [as an embryo?] and it hasn’t done anything.” Nathan has been working with Extinction Rebellion as an organiser, which he said had been an incredible experience. “I was able to pick up so many skills … I’ve met some amazing people.”[ work experience with added fun then?]
Julia Spindel, 26, biology PhD student at Cambridge University
“I am just terrified that we will wipe our species out and take many others with us,” she said at Waterloo Bridge
Charlie Griffiths, 19, engineer from Cambridge
“The main reason I am doing this is because our government is lying,[a target to oppose as is necessary] ” said Griffiths, who was taking part in the blockade of Waterloo Bridge in London. “They are lying about issues on which there is concrete scientific consensus. For me it is totally unacceptable to lie against scientists who have spent their careers painstakingly researching this stuff. [dear God,science = truth now? Must we abandon all our New Age thinking?] 
Josiah Finegan, 22, student from Bristol
said it was the first time he had been on this sort of protest, and it was “really positive and interesting”. “I am freaking out about the climate, to be honest,” he said. “There have been so many warnings from scientists about what we are facing, it is quite shocking

Equally grippingly, and crucial for students of cultural politics, the fate of Notre Dame Cathedral after a fire has attracted world-wide (well, European petit bourgeois) sympathy and emoting. TV carried pictures of devout Catholics on their knees singing hymns, allegedly in Paris!, C4 News talking of holy relics being rescued (including bits of the crown of thorns dating from the 13th Century, and the tunic of the king, later sanctified, who carried it into the cathedral). E Maitlis led (sic) a discussion last night on Newsnight about why we (sic) mourn buildings: H Sebag-Montefiori, channeling E Durkheim, explained it was because they were sacred. Everyone reverently agreed (no more Durkheim then) .

Naturally, E Macron spoke for France just as Blair once did for Britain over Princess Di. The Times headline was:

Notre Dame fire: Emotional Macron finds the right words to speak for a nation 

 “Notre Dame is our history, our literature, part of our psyche, the place of all our great events, our epidemics, our wars, our liberations, the epicentre of our lives ... So I solemnly say tonight: we will rebuild it together.”

Only a few cynics managed to connect his TV apperance with the need to distract from the gilets jaunes protests. Indeed, one of the broadcasters, BBC I recall, specifically said this should be a warning to the gilets jaunes that we cannot tolerate damage to buildings.

Guardian snippets included:

C Ockrent: Notre-Dame de Paris will survive, and most of its treasures. But our hearts will bleed for ever.

And the Times's B Macintyre reminds us that:

This one building somehow cohered all the contradictions in French history: religious yet secular, ancient and modern, royal, radical, and imperial, a backdrop for English kings and French presidents, home to strutting potentates and the most famous disabled person in literature.

  
Meanwhile, it's an ill-wind. Says the Graun:

Hunchback of Notre-Dame goes to top of bestseller list after fire

So: climate change not Remain, and Notre Dame not 'Europe'. Business as usual. 

Interesting issues here and there too. While C4 News and even The Times talks of 'Christian' ( including Protestants?) agreeing Catholic fetishes are symbols of France, two more and pro-EU  Gruandina commentators argue that:

among the rightwing, the history of Europe can still be celebrated as a narrative of a white Christian civilisation – a mighty past to be looked back on with pride and self-assurance. We strongly condemn such views, which entirely set aside the cultural, religious and political diversity so characteristic of our continent and the responsibilities inherited from our past.