Let us pause to consider the peculiar logic of a French mayor cancelling a football match against the Democratic Republic of Congo on the grounds of Ebola, only for the headlines to laud UK border protocols. This is vintage nonsense from the continent, where the Whac-A-Mole of panic politics meets the bottom line of common sense.
Three thousand miles separate the DR Congo from France. The idea that a football friendly poses any measurable risk is an insult to epidemiology and basic arithmetic. The mayor, presumably acting on a cocktail of voter anxiety and media hysteria, has set a dangerous precedent. What next? Cancelling the Paris-Dakar rally because of camel flu?
Yet the curious twist: the British border is suddenly the model of rationality. Let me disabuse you of that notion. The UK's border protocols have been a comedy of errors in recent years. From the shambolic lorry queues to the endless dithering on visa policy, the idea that we are a beacon of public health competence requires a suspension of disbelief that even the most creative accountant would baulk at.
The market signal is clear. Capital flight is a silent barometer of governance quality. When French politicians start cancelling fixtures over phantom risks, investors start looking for exits. The pound sterling, for all its recent wobbles, has not suffered the haemorrhaging one might expect if the UK were truly the paragon the headlines suggest. No, this is a Europe-wide disease of irrational risk aversion.
Consider the yield on French OATs versus UK gilts. The spread tells you more about market sentiment than any press release. French bonds are yielding roughly 30 basis points more than their British equivalents. That gap reflects not just fiscal discipline but confidence in decision making. The mayor of a commune cancelling a match because of a disease that hasn't reached Europe? That moves the needle, believe me.
What is the cost of this cancellation? The lost ticket sales, the transport costs, the hotel bookings, the spin-off economic activity. All for naught. This is the public sector spending other people's money with abandon. If I ran a business like that, I would be fired. But in local government, you get re-elected for making a grand gesture that solves nothing.
The UK border protocols being 'lauded' are a classic case of setting the bar so low that any halfway sensible measure looks like genius. We have temperature checks, passenger locator forms, and a traffic light system that changes more often than the weather. It is a mess. But compared to a mayor who thinks Ebola can jump three thousand miles because someone kicked a football, we look like paragons of virtue.
This is the dangerous nexus of politics and fear. The mayor's decision is not just wrong; it is economically illiterate. It undermines trade, tourism, and international cooperation. And the media lapping it up as a reason to praise UK border policy are missing the point entirely. The lesson here is not that the UK is brilliant, but that the EU is dithering.
The financial markets see this. Sterling has been relatively stable, but the euro is under pressure. Why? Because investors hate uncertainty. And cancelling football matches over Ebola is the definition of uncertainty. It signals that policy can be hijacked by the next panic. That is not a good look for a currency union already struggling with debt and demography.
In summary, the French mayor's decision is a microcosm of everything wrong with European public policy. It is reactive, emotional, and economically damaging. That the UK border is held up as a comparison only shows how low the bar has become. The real story is the cost of irrationality in governance. And that cost is paid by every taxpayer and investor.
Let us hope sanity returns before the next friendly. Otherwise, we will be cancelling matches because of a bad weather forecast. And the bond market will exact its revenge.
