Building on dry land is difficult too: suitable sites are rare, and Britain's planning system hands obstreperous local residents a lot of power.

ECONOMIST: Gas storage

Taming France's obstreperous left would cap a career of surprises.

ECONOMIST: Lionel Jospin, escape artist

But in fact he had left West Bengal an economic backwater, largely shunned by foreign investors and a byword for obstreperous unionism.

ECONOMIST: Jyoti Basu

But, much though the business-friendly Mr Clement may be tempted, he is being urged by his party leaders in Berlin to try to remake a coalition with the obstreperous Greens.

ECONOMIST: Germany