Er, Yes and No

The French far-right has been the main beneficiary of Emmanuel Macron’s continuing slide in popularity, as his approval rating hits a record low.

Macron was always going to be a plastic president – a candidate who offered to be all things to all men and succeeded in being nothing but empty air. And his promised Thatcherite reforms have backfired badly. Well, ain’t that a surprise. The French were never going to like that one – even if it might just prove necessary to get the labour market moving.

But, but, but, Le Pen is not “far right”. She is very typical of a French nationalist – she is protectionist and her polices are the very ones that find favour in rural France. She is also opposed to the EU, so Frexit would be more likely on her watch.

Still, “far right” these days simply means “does not agree with the progressives” it’s become an insult that, like “racist”, no longer has any valid meaning. Opposing uncontrolled immigration is deemed “far right”. The epithet is used so broadly and with such abandon, that most of us will look around us and realise that we are pretty much all “far right racists” according to the virtue-signalling left in the ivory towers of the Guardian and the Independent. Meh.