IFRAME: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/index.html?headeronly=true&decorator= headeronly&mastheadImage=/i/pix/blogs/blog_richardwaghorne_2_masthead.p ng&omniture=false « Austerity budgets: The silent acceptance of Irish folly | Main | French downgrade shows that Marine Le Pen's role in French public life is not merely legitimate but increasingly necessary » 16 December 2011 5:42 PM French attacks on the UK's economy are utterly absurd Always prudent to ask, the question ‘just what is Nicholas Sarkozy up to now?’ presents itself with fresh force. On Monday, the French president appeared to be attempting some very limited reparation for his public rudeness towards David Cameron, telling Le Monde newspaper, ‘we have need of Britain’. By Thursday, two French cabinet ministers and the country’s Central Bank Governor had, within hours of each other, launched a bizarre attack on Britain’s economy, all but inviting credit ratings agencies to downgrade the United Kingdom. One is initially tempted to ascribe this chicanery to the meeting of traditional French instincts with guilty frustration at the dismal plight of the Euro. There is, after all, little new in French politicians complaining that Britain is not adequately committed to Europe while treating the country with ostentatious discourtesy. Spend enough time in Paris and you learn, when the subject of Europe comes up in conversation, to set a mental stopwatch for bitter mention of Margaret Thatcher’s victory in securing Britain’s EU rebate. Never mind that it happened almost thirty years ago and that the UK has contributed vast sums since. This week’s attack on Britain’s economic strength is, however, exceptionally outrageous. In the first instance, it has clearly been coordinated, involving both the Prime Minister François Fillon and France’s unnervingly youthful looking Finance Minister François Baroin. (One can disregard the Governor of the French Central Bank Christian Noyer : a central bank governor who does not control his country’s currency or interest rate is always liable to have a dangerous amount of spare time on his hands.) Then there is the sheer affrontery of Mr. Baroin’s claim that ‘one prefers being French than British on the economic front at the moment’. It betrays no undue complacency about Britain’s economic predicament to wonder just which statistics the French Finance Minister is being fed. At any rate somebody in the never knowingly under-staffed French public service might remind him that the French work fewer hours to be more heavily taxed and enjoy a higher unemployment rate. Or that France has a slightly higher national debt as a percentage of GDP than does Britain. Or that France’s exports are shrinking while Britain’s are, albeit slowly, increasing. Or that French banks are almost twice as exposed to the periphery of the Eurozone than their British counterparts. That last fact betrays the true absurdity of the attack. Not only has France compromised its sovereignty in the desperate attempt to shore up the Eurozone at any cost, it has compromised its economy as well. The reason France draws ineluctably closer to the loss of its triple-A debt rating are these disastrous liabilities, implicitly guaranteed by the French State. The reason the French State is so ill-equipped to do anything about it, in sharp contrast to Britain, is that Eurozone membership deprives France of the flexibility enjoyed by, notably, the Governor of the Bank of England. So, to pose the question again, just what is Nicholas Sarkozy up to ? A glance at France’s domestic politics helps a little. Trailing in the polls, President Sarkozy has been in search of an international success with which he can re-present himself to the French electorate burnished by the trappings of statesmanship. It is locally reported that, whatever his motives for intervening in the conflict in Libya, he had hoped to celebrate France’s annual parade in July with victorious Libyan resistance units processing through the avenues of central Paris. In the event, the war ended two months too late. The next explanation circulated for his refusal still to declare himself formally a candidate for next May’s presidential election is the desire to do so in the immediate aftermath of a definitive resolution of the European debt crisis. That not being in prospect, to put it mildly, Plan B appears to be the strategy of pinning the blame not on two generations of utopian French-fuelled European empire-building but on Britain’s polite refusal to volunteer for a first-class seat on the impending train crash. Do not be surprised if David Cameron’s disinclination to sacrifice the City of London for a worthless certificate of good European credentials becomes the founding myth in a fantasy explanation of why the Euro could not be saved. It would not exactly be the first time a French premier has attempted to hold on to power by making enemies of his theretofore unsuspecting neighbours. December 16, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (0) Share this article: * Digg it * Del.icio.us * Reddit * Newsvine * Nowpublic * StumbleUpon * Facebook * MySpace * Fark Comments Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post. Post a comment Comments are moderated, and will not appear on this weblog until the author has approved them. If you have a TypeKey or TypePad account, please Sign In. You are currently signed in as (nobody). Sign Out Name: ______________________________ Email Address: (Not displayed with comment.) ______________________________ URL: ______________________________ [_] Remember personal info? Comments: ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ Preview Post Enter search term: ____________________ (Submit) Search Advanced Search Richard Waghorne's blog Richard Waghorne's blog rss * What is RSS? * All our RSS feeds RICHARD WAGHORNE Richard Waghorne is a researcher in political philosophy and political commentator. He has worked in Washington, Dublin, and London and is currently based in Paris where he writes on French and European politics. Formerly Chief Political Commentator for the Irish Daily Mail, he has reported from conflicts in Chad and Georgia and published policy analysis on the Arab-Israeli conflict. IFRAME: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/blogs/bloggers_list.html Recent Posts * French downgrade shows that Marine Le Pen's role in French public life is not merely legitimate but increasingly necessary * French attacks on the UK's economy are utterly absurd * Austerity budgets: The silent acceptance of Irish folly * Was Dominique Strauss-Kahn set up? * How much more damage can the French President do before he's ejected from office? * Is Nicholas Sarkozy cracking up? There is enough reason to start wondering * Victory for Francois Hollande would have consequences far beyond French borders * Madame or Mademoiselle? How about the French economy? * The alleged persecution of French Muslims is an extravagant fantasy * An unprecedented admission of moral failure Archives * January 2012 * December 2011 * November 2011 * October 2011 * September 2011 IFRAME: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/index.html?footeronly=true&decorator= footeronly [t3.dll?230&0&%20&iAddPAR&iREGQry&iSale&0&0&0&0&0&0&%20&1500&%20&0] Quantcast