Britain must learn lessons from the meltdown in Paris

THE FRENCH government collapsed this week after lawmakers refused Emmanuel Macron's plan to shave a relatively modest £38billion from the country's vast budget.

- Esther Krakue Daily Express Columnist

Against annual state spending of around £1.5trillion, it was hardly a radical assault on the French social model.

Yet even that tiny dose of restraint was enough to bring down a Prime Minister and push Paris towards governing without a budget. With debt already over 115% of GDP and deficits running at 6%, investors are starting to demand higher returns just to keep lending.

And so, for the French, what began as a row over public spending has snowballed into a full-blown political crisis, with global markets watching nervously. Britain would be foolish not to take note. Our own numbers are hardly more reassuring.

This year, we will spend about £110billion on interest payments more than we spend on defence and policing combined. And gilt yields, which are the rates we pay to borrow, are higher than during Liz Truss's chaotic tenure; something Labour politicians told us was supposed to be the absolute floor of fiscal competence.

Now we have a Government that pretends otherwise, puffing out its chest with talk of prudence while piling on taxes to create the illusion it has things in hand. So why does debt matter? Because it is essentially the art of eating tomorrow's lunch today and leaving someone else to foot the bill.