The most famous modern manifestation of leftish fury, in Paris in May 1968, seemed to him a Club Med affair of spoiled middle-class kids.

ECONOMIST: Eric Hobsbawm, historian, died on October 1st, aged 95

But Debord's finest hour was in May 1968 on the streets of Paris when for a brief moment his philosophy suited the situation perfectly.

ECONOMIST: May 1968

It is led by Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a Franco-German figure from May 1968 who is now more a bourgeois eco-romantic than a hardened rebel, and Eva Joly, a Franco-Swedish retired magistrate.

ECONOMIST: France's victorious centre-right