The French appear to have swerved an ultra right wing parliament , perhaps influenced by the British tactical voting model. The FT has found a French political risk consultant who opines

“The squabbling, political forces of left, right and centre will struggle to agree anything in the months ahead to soften the French electorate’s anger or anxieties,”

Sports fans glued to the Tour de France and from July 26th the Paris Olympics will hopefully be immune to the political shenanigans and many British holiday home owners will breathe a sigh of relief as the prospect of French wealth taxes recede.

But is France a great place for British emigres, frightened by the prospect of a Labour Government (as depicted by the Telegraph?). I think not.

France continues to be dominated by ideology from both left and right. It is showing itself quite the opposite of the UK and anyone considering an ex-pat lifestyle in France had better take a tin-hat and a set of earplugs.

The seat numbers break very much like the votes (an interesting lesson for the UK)

But it’s hard to see how this leads to the kind of political stability that last Thursday’s poll in the UK should bring us.

Macron wanted a snap election with a lightning three-week campaign to be a moment of political “clarification” for France. It has provided anything but. Voters showed what they were against but not what they were for. The country now faces months, possibly years, of political uncertainty and unstable government. That in itself is bad news for France and its European partners.

Would Britain be better with a proportional representation system? Here is an example where in Britain we’d have a coalition and in France they probably wouldn’t.

The ideological nature of French political system may make for more interesting debate but I’m not sure it makes for better Government. Rather a pragmatic centrist majority for Starmer that gets things done, than a dog-fight with Macron spending his time keeping the dogs from each other’s throats.

I suspect that many French people will look across the channel with envy. The next few months are going to be painful for the French people at a time when they should be putting forward their best feet as they host the greatest sporting event in the world.

But that really is a French problem, we have our own and – it being Monday morning – we’d better get on sorting them.

Meanwhile