Airstrip One

Bud nipping

For all our sneers and jeers at France, she has proved herself again to be an 'important country'. Nationalist and anti-immigrant politicians have been chalking up extensive gains in countries such as Italy, Austria, Holland and Denmark but it is not until Monsieur Le Pen gets a sniff of the French presidency that the entire world gets an attack of the vapours.

British pundits are already postulating about the 'Lepenisation' of European politics and whilst I think they are somehwat behind the curve on that, I can't help noticing that Our Glorious Leader has launched a campaign that is tantamount to a state of national emergency about crime and David Blunkett echoes Lady T by using the term 'swamped' when talking about asylum-seekers (who used to be called 'immigrants', you know).

Mere coincidence that these are the two issues upon which the Front National has ridden the electoral tiger? Looks like the 'Lepenisation' of British politics is what the leader-writers should have been worrying about.