French Sauce

Hollande was clearly stung when Cameron said we would roll out the red carpet for those French coming here to escape the new French socialist government's tax impositions. London already has over 400,000 French residents and is the fifth largest French town. Hollande couldn't wait to get his own back and duly did so when he was here to see his compatriots competing in the Games. With France third in the medal table he said he was grateful to the British for rolling out the red carpet for French athletes winning medals. Who will have the last laugh though, not on the medal front but on the more serious one, that of making a living without prohibitive taxes. All the betting is on France losing out. Hollande is reversing the retirement age back to 60, is imposing a 75% tax on high earners, is doubling the wealth tax (albeit for one year only), is imposing a tax on foreigners who own French properties and is introducing a financial transaction tax on companies headquartered in France. France is in a worse financial position than the UK and it is anticipated that data to be released in October will make it clear that Hollande's measures are making France's finances even worse. Not only are more French expected to come to work in London but that the headquarters of French companies will be moved here too. Cameron has welcomed the French arrivals, will Boris Johnson welcome them too? I'm sure he will as some of them will have voted for him in the Mayoral elections. With Cameron's star sinking and Boris's rising will we see the latter elected the new Tory leader in time for the election? Only if Cameron fails both to get his act together this summer and to come out fighting in September with Tory ideas that involve cuts on employment regulations, taxes, european red tape and government spending. In this regard it will be interesting to see what the forthcoming ministerial shuffle brings. Cameron has already made a start on cutting government staff but needs to be ruthless with the likes of Ed Davey who has increased the number of employees working for his department. Davey needs to be sacked and replaced by a climate change sceptic. On the other hand Cameron needs to support Francis Maude who wants to modernise the Civil Service and make it more accountable. This is a thoroughly good idea as it must be right that any civil servant who obstructs the implementation of a policy can be sacked.