So much for l’Entente Cordiale. When your closest allies begin to lecture you like distant cousins at a family wedding, you have to wonder what friendship truly means.
President Macron’s state visit to Britain has achieved little of substance, but it has done one thing in blazing technicolour: it has confirmed the arrogance of the globalist elites who believe their worldview is not only superior, but unchallengeable. Macron, one-time golden boy of Davos, now reduced to something between a postscript and a cautionary tale, arrived not to build bridges, but to rehearse old dogmas.
There is, of course, a long and complex bond between Britain and France- one built not just on rivalry and shared wars, but on mutual respect. That relationship will endure regardless of who occupies the Élysée or Downing Street. But Macron’s visit was less about diplomacy and more about delusion. His thinly-veiled disdain for Brexit- delivered on the floor of the British Parliament no less- wasn’t just provocative, it was revealing. It told us everything we need to know about the intellectual paralysis afflicting Europe’s ruling class.
This is the creed of the elite: Starmer, Scholz, Von der Leyen, Trudeau- the Davos set- who continue to traffic in the sanctity of liberal internationalism, permissive migration policies, and a near-religious belief in supranational governance. They sneer at figures like Trump, Meloni, Milei, Farage- those who have the temerity to speak in plain language about sovereignty, law, and the right of a people to govern themselves. But these “populists” do not emerge from nowhere. They rise because the alternative- the pious, aloof, bureaucratic club Macron embodies- has failed to offer anything but managed decline and moral preening.
It is staggering that, nearly a decade after the Brexit vote, the Eurocrats remain baffled by it. Rather than reading it as a democratic rejection of their project, they see it as some historic aberration- a tantrum from an ungrateful nation. Their response has not been introspection but punishment: from the weaponisation of Northern Ireland to the vindictive approach on trade and fisheries. And all the while, they refuse to acknowledge their own mounting crises- from economic stagnation to border breakdowns across the Mediterranean and Balkan routes.
France itself is now seeing increasing illegal arrivals, particularly across its Italian border. The so-called “European solution” is failing- despite its pretensions to moral and managerial superiority. The post-Covid period saw the UK outpace France and Germany in growth. Our trade expanded, our economy proved more resilient. Even on migration, where Britain still struggles, our numbers began to fall in 2023 whilst those into Europe soared.
I’ve been in the room with French Ministers. I’ve asked Macron directly why more can’t be done to intercept the small boats before they launch. I’ve made the case- rationally, respectfully- that if the French authorities policed their beaches, disrupted the criminal gangs, and physically prevented launches in French waters, the entire Calais-to-Kent route would collapse. That would benefit France too: their own citizens are fed up with migrant camps, criminal activity, and social decay in the north. But the answer has always been the same: Jamais.
It is a cocktail of pride, resentment, and spite. They will not be seen to appease Britain. They would rather watch migrants set off to die in dinghies than cooperate meaningfully. That is not diplomacy – it is dereliction.
And now, to cap it all, Macron leads the charge for unilateral recognition of Palestine. At a moment when Israeli hostages remain in Hamas captivity, Macron offers terrorists diplomatic legitimacy. It is the triumph of gesture over reality- the familiar path of the “useful idiot” class who think symbolism is statesmanship. The UK must resist this pressure with every fibre of its being. Recognition now is not peace-building; it is capitulation to terror.
For the avoidance of doubt, I’m not saying that l’Entente Cordiale is dead. The bonds of language, commerce, military alliance, and shared history run deep. But under Macron, France is becoming unmoored from the common sense of the people. And with Starmer’s Labour Party looking more and more like a franchise of Brussels, Britain too risks drifting into that same orbit of technocratic detachment.
In the end, the real divide is not between nations, but between those who believe the public should be listened to- and those who think they should be managed.
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Suella Braverman is a former Home Secretary and Conservative MP for Fareham and Waterlooville.
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By Suella Braverman
