The Elysee Palace is serving up a feast, but it’s not going down well. President Macron’s opulent banquets, a tradition wrapped in republican grandeur, have provoked a storm on the French left. Workers on the breadline, officials at the trough. The contrast is stark, and angry.
Here in Britain, we do things differently. Our own state banquets? They exist, of course. But the bloat is minimal, the optics managed. The British establishment has a built-in bullshit detector for grandeur. It’s called the Lobby. And we know when a minister is taking the piss.
This isn’t about being puritanical. It’s about survival. A Labour backbencher told me last night: “If Starmer tried to pull a Macron, we’d have a full-scale revolt over canapes. The public would hang him out to dry.” That’s the key. The British public has a low tolerance for performative excess. The aristocracy learned that after the Profumo affair. The party might be in power, but the hangover is watched.
Macron’s misstep is a gift to the far left. Marine Le Pen will feast on this. But for the British left, it’s a warning. The Corbyn project imploded not on policy, but on culture. On the perception that the leadership was out of touch, enjoying its own little feasts away from the membership.
Downing Street knows this. The current lot are masters of optics. But the rot can set in fast. One lavish dinner, one tone-deaf remark, and the “fair play” tradition is forgotten. The mob storms the barricades of Twitter, and the frontbench is on the back foot.
For now, the British government is safe. The banquets are small, the staff quiet. But the French storm should set off alarm bells in SW1. If the economic storm keeps brewing, and the tables stay laden, the fair play tradition may not hold. It’s a thin line between tradition and provocation.
And in that gap, the left is waiting.
