I am writing this on the train to Paris where the inhabitants can sometimes feel, to a visitor, a little ‘brusque'.
France is one of the most professionally miserable of all countries Ipsos track on a monthly basis around the world. Ask the French about how things are going overall and only 23% say things are going well. In the UK, despite our higher inflation and cost of living crisis – it's 33%.
But here's the thing – when it comes to comparing local public services, one gets quite a different picture (despite French miserabilism).
Overall, with a significantly higher level of spending on public services, in Paris I see things that disappeared in the UK long ago – well maintained local parks, with park keepers, local childcare we would be jealous of, effective health services and much more.
As The Economist puts it ‘one of the abiding mysteries of France today is this: a country with an aversion to change, a talent for revolt and an excessive taste for taxes still manages to get so much right. Since 2018 cumulative growth in GDP in France, albeit modest, has been twice that in Germany, and ahead of Britain, Italy and Spain'.
In contrast in the UK, we have more and more local authorities at risk of bankruptcy as hysteresis in our public spending on local services takes its course. So, as I approach Paris, I will be arriving in a city where people are divided over the future of public services (balanced between optimists and pessimists) – leaving one where the clear net expectation is of further deterioration (-19%).
Across the world big government is back in fashion though we have yet to agree how it will be paid for. In the UK 79% say they worry the Government is doing too little to help them. Across Europe the average is 70%. But in ‘miserable' France only 64% say the same.
Their long-term planning – by yes, big government – has given them a better rail network, safety from fossil fuel dependence and more. Watch their battery industry compared to ours. It pains me to say it, but maybe we will need to be a bit more French in future.
Ben Page is global chief executive of Ipsos
@benatipsos
