Macron’s France has much to learn from Britain’s peaceful election

The left-wing French newspaper Le Monde last month sent its London correspondent across Great Britain to gauge the mood before the general election. He reported that Britain was ‘a broken nation’, and its people ‘glum and divided’. Britain is not in the best of shape, a point on which the people and its politicians are agreed. So the Tories have been booted out and it’s Keir Starmer’s responsibility to try and reinvigorate the country.

The transition was achieved calmly, peacefully, democratically, with the only dramatic incident of note the day a silly young woman desperate for attention threw a milkshake at Nigel Farage.

Across the Channel, France is in the midst of its own parliamentary election – and it is a contest devoid of calm, peace and democracy. On Thursday, it was announced that 30,000 police and gendarmes will flood the streets on Sunday when the results of the second round are issued.