Power fail: French tantrum diplomacy is wearing thin

It’s hard for tabloid journalists to engage in mad hyperbole when politicians seem all too willing to do it for them.

Clément Beaume, France’s Secretary of State for European Affairs, has just desperately threatened to turn off the power supply to Britain. Or as Bloomberg so delicately puts it, ‘to leverage [France’s] electricity supplies to the U.K. in an effort to force Boris Johnson’s government to grant access to British fishing waters.’

‘The Channel Islands, the U.K. are dependent on us for their energy supply,’ said Beaune in an interview on Europe1 radio. ‘They think they can live on their own and badmouth Europe as well. And because it doesn’t work, they indulge in one-upmanship, and in an aggressive way.’

Aggressive? Le pot appelle la bouilloire noire.

‘Brexit is populism in action,’ Beaune said. ‘It’s shown to be a tragic failure.’

This is, of course, catnip for Europhiles in Britain and on the continent, and it is clearly a crude attempt to exploit Brexit Britain’s current energy crisis for diplomatic advantage.