What is it about Liz Truss and the French?
A few years ago she plunged Anglo-French relations into the deep freeze by saying the jury was out on whether France was Britain’s friend or foe. French officials then looked on with glee when her Chancellor’s September 2022 mini-budget threw British capital markets into chaos.
Now the French financial establishment is asking whether it is in the middle of “un moment Liz Truss” with stocks plunging and bond yields soaring after President Macron’s shock decision to test the electorate’s love for the far-Right with full-scale parliamentary elections.
France will at least be spared a currency crisis — one assumes — as its monetary fortunes are tied to the euro, although if this turns into a full-blown emergency for the eurozone’s second biggest economy then all bets are off.
The slump in French stocks has at least created some rare good headlines for the London stock market, which has regained its status as Europe’s most valuable bourse after two years in second place. Yet this is certainly no time for complacency.
It did not get the attention it should have done last week but the strong hint from Greg Jackson, boss of Octopus Energy and one of Britain’s most impressive business chiefs, that the company would not list in London was truly ominous.
Under Jackson’s leadership Octopus has become Britain’s most admired energy giants. It is exactly the sort of British company that has London as its automatic first choice when making the decision about where to list its shares.
The fact that Jackson seems more likely to conduct Octopus IPO across the Pond is a damning indictment of the current state of things.
So let us enjoy this moment when London returns to the top of the leaderboard by all means. But let us also not forget it is the crise across the Channel not our own brilliance that has got London back to where it belongs. For now
