Crippled Financial System Plagues Europe'S Mini-Japan

The French, after all, appear to have been smirking at the UK's economic and financial problems for several years now, notably at the time of its humiliating exit from the European exchange rate mechanism four years ago.

The collapse of sterling's value since then has meant that the British holidaymaker travelling in France has been able to buy only seven or eight francs for his pound rather than the nine or 10 he got before. This hurts British pride as well as British pockets.

Perhaps the rentamobs which appear regularly on the French political streets (these gangs of farmers, pensioners or workers are the necessary counterparts to the narrow clique of inarchs that governs the country) will now focus on domestic problems rather than on attacking British lambs or cows, or blocking British ferries.

 

And if France misses the Maastricht budget deficit ceiling for the single European currency