Food products are not included among the ten French corporate species that are now to be officially protected but when this summer there were suggestions that PepsiCo would be interested in acquiring Danone, the bristling of governmental hackles was sufficiently hostile to frighten off the American company.

President Chirac made clear his distaste for overseas ownership of the yoghurt maker. He was reported as saying that “the splitting up and the instability of the capital of certain large French businesses are risk factors for employment and for our industrial strength.”

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin went further. He called for “real economic patriotism”. “When times are hard, when the world is changing, it is a question of gathering our strengths . . . and defending France and things French,” he declared.

While Britain agonises over what might be meant by “Britishness”, the French are getting on with remaining French. “It’s better to anchor our companies in the national soil,” said M de Villepin.

That the French have always felt this way has been clear but that the leaders should now spell it out so clearly shows a remarkable lack of concern for sensibilities in Brussels. Just as Kenneth Clarke has now completely given up on the euro, it appears that the French have decided that there is no need even to pay lip service to the idea of a single market, in which the free movement of capital is supposedly an important plank.

Britain long ago gave up any thought of governmental interference in building national champions. Even in the field of defence it has been prepared to say that market forces should prevail, much to the aggravation of BAe Systems. That company is hoping that a review of the defence industry by the defence procurement minister Lord Drayson will conclude that it is vital to ensure that a British prime contractor is retained. That, however, would be against the trend elsewhere in government, which has seen contracts awarded to overseas companies such as EDS without any of the qualms which would ripple through the Elysée Palace.

Defence, naturally, features on the list of industries that the French will not countenance being taken over by foreigners. Others such as nuclear power and the production of antidotes for life-threatening diseases are easier to explain than computer systems and casinos. The suggestion that maintaining the casinos in French ownership will make it any easier to prevent money laundering seems a little far-fetched.

Industries that do not feature on the list will probably not be too concerned. The way that the French Government manoeuvred last year to prevent the Swiss Novartis taking over the Franco-German pharmaceutical business Aventis would have impressed any investment banker. The solution, a merger of Aventis with French-owned Sanofi, ensured that a stronger French business emerged.

That would undoubtedly be the result if Saint-Gobain were to succeed in its bid for BPB. The latter’s chief executive, Richard Cousins, cannot expect the British Government to rally to his support. Neither will his shareholders stay loyal if the French come up with a higher price. Britain is for sale.

Brown’s errors catching up

GORDON Brown’s reputation as a successful Chancellor will now depend more than ever on his becoming Prime Minister as soon as possible. Pigeons are coming home to roost and they could well be carrying bird flu.

In theory, it does not matter if Britain’s budget deficit exceeds the eurozone limit for excess deficits two years running. The UK is not likely to join the single currency zone this side of the political horizon. The big members perennially break the rules anyway, and there is an argument that they do not allow enough for the effects of economic cycles on budgets.

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