Can you hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men?

If Victor Hugo were alive today, he’d find ample literary inspiration in the growing wrath of ordinary French citizens.

They are increasingly fed up with an economic crisis that they feel has been foisted on them by an elite of bankers, bosses and political bunglers. And their anger is spilling into the streets.

In one case, livid workers from the French plant of German tyre maker Continental burned tyres in Paris to protest the company’s decision to close their factory next year.

Disgruntled workers at two other companies – Sony and 3M – resorted to more personal tactics: they briefly took their bosses hostage to drive home the point that there’s a limit to how many concessions they’re willing to make.

The growing disconnect between how the man-in-the-street sees the crisis, and how the man in the Elysée Palace (French President Nicolas Sarkozy) views it, is apparent in a new survey by the TNS-Sofres polling institute.

Its principal findings are that a majority of French think their leaders are a) not telling them the whole truth about the gravity of the crisis and b) that the steps taken so far to fix things are little more than window-dressing.

Now, politicians and other so-called experts, as a group, have hardly been rosy-eyed optimists about this crisis. Many of them, notably Barack Obama in the United States, have gone out of their way to stress the hardships ahead.

Blaming the bankers

But the French people are in a state of deep malaise. Mounting job losses, coupled with a sense of dwindling purchasing power, have left many in a funk about the future.

Asked by the Sofres poll whom they blame for the crisis, a clear majority – 58% - blame the banks (66% if we limit ourselves to those who identify themselves as being on the “right” of the political spectrum). Politicians are seen as the primary culprits by 41%, while 30% reserve their opprobrium for investment funds.

Further down the list, in descending order: shareholders, big business, experts and economists, and insurers.

Most French believe, if current trends hold, the mood will grow even darker. Nearly two-thirds of respondents – 64% - saw the possibility of the crisis ending in a popular revolt, or violent demonstrations.

Nor is recession rage limited to those anarchic Gauls. Britons are also bracing for trouble.

On the eve of the G20 meeting in London, the International Herald Tribune reports, police are asking financial institutions to hire more security guards, while City bankers are being advised to dress down – i.e. ditch the pinstripes - so as not to attract unwanted attention.

A man’s home is his castle, they say, but if you’re a City boss – or just a former one – you'd better fortify the ramparts. The ex-head of the Royal Bank of Scotland had his home in a rich suburb of Edinburgh vandalised. A Mercedes parked in the driveway suffered some damage as well.

Meanwhile, a recent march in London reportedly saw some protestors hanging an effigy of a banker.

Maybe things would have turned out differently if he had given back his bonus…

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