The French have found a good use for Britain’s dead Brexit

In 1981, the author and illustrator Simon Bond released his best-selling book 101 Uses For A Dead Cat, which proposed various ways in which a fallen feline might be used in everyday life once its own nine had expired. With hindsight, the book was neither very clever nor very funny, yet at the time it had millions of fans. Which reminds me of something else…

It has been another desperate few days of headlines like “UK admits ports could be overwhelmed under post-Brexit rules”, “Italian man removed from UK despite post-Brexit Home Office certificate” and “Holidays cancelled as firm shuts down due to Brexit and Covid”. But happily, someone has finally found a good use for a dead Brexit.

It is France’s young prime minister Gabriel Attal, who is using Britain’s pitiful progress since leaving the European Union as a weapon against Marine Le Pen’s far right National Rally (Rassemblement National) party, which is expected to win the most French seats at the European elections in early June.

In a recent speech, he said: “Brexit’s supporters promised happy days for the British economy and the British people. Last week, because of Brexit, the last blast furnaces in Great Britain closed. Steel is no longer produced in the UK. In France, on the contrary, thanks in particular to investment from Europe, industry is coming back.

“Who were Brexit’s first supporters? Who has openly displayed their support for the leader of the Brexit camp? The Rassemblement National!” he added, referring to Le Pen’s friendship with Nigel Farage.

Mindful of the disaster that has befallen Britain, Le Pen no longer supports an in-out referendum but is instead proposing a series of French consultations and referenda on issues like immigration that would lead to direct conflict with the EU and – she appears to hope – an enforced Frexit.

With Germany’s AfD, which expects to perform strongly in the EU poll, supporting a straight Dexit referendum and Geert Wilders, whose party gained the most seats in the recent Dutch general election, backing a Nexit vote, expect the next four months to be full of liberal politicians across Europe making clear the extent of the UK’s failures in an attempt to turn the tide.

If our example actually persuades Europeans not to turn right in June, it would surely be the first good use of a dead Brexit. But good luck finding 100 more…