They said it served us right for Brexit. Our troubles were just punishment for voting to leave the EU.
In September 2022, after Truss’s mini-Budget fiasco triggered a run on the pound, the Financial Times said EU politicians were struggling to contain their Schadenfreude.
French finance minister Bruno Le Maire blamed us for voting to “come out of European protection”.
Vítor Constâncio, former vice-president of the European Central Bank, accused the UK of “hubris and denying reality”.
He said Brits were “delusional” over Brexit and as a result “the pound is no longer an internationally meaningful currency”.
It’s funny reading those quotes two years on, as Paris burns and investors ditch euros to buy pounds.
Which currency is no longer “internationally meaningful”?
PM Keir Starmer has enraged pensioners, farmers, businesses and taxpayers, but compared to France we look like a haven of political tranquility. For now.
In Paris, they’re waving flares, burning barricades and taunting riot police. President Emmanuel Macron scorned Brexit but these days he’s the one being scorned, by his own electorate.
Prime Brexit-basher Michel Barnier, once a thorn in the UK’s side, now faces the shame of being the shortest-serving French PM in modern history. Try not to laugh. Please.
As the euro crumbles and French borrowing costs rocket, John J. Hardy, chief macro strategist at Danish bank Saxo, says the UK has lost its unwanted title of sick man of Europe. This now belongs to Europe itself, Hardy says, “or at least the core eurozone countries France and Germany”.
It’s quite a turnaround.
Yet we should resist the urge to Schadenfreude. In the spirit of taking back control, we should deplore that cold-hearted German word and deploy our traditional British noblesse oblige instead.
There’s another reason to resist gloating. The way Labour is carrying on, we could be next.
The Tories left a total mess but all Starmer has done is double down.
Our financial position is now even more perilous. Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ disastrous tax-and-spend Budget hasleft us a rounding error away from financial disaster.
We’re facing exactly the same problems as France as our spending grows, debt climbs, public services decline, population ages, birth rate slumps, immigration runs out of control and politics get more divisive.
Kick starting the UK economy will be even harder if Europe lurches deeper into chaos. So will standing up to Vladimir Putin.
The French collapse is nothing to gloat about. It’s a warning shot and Labour must heed it. Otherwise it’s our turn next.
