Sean Whelan: Ordered to obey strict austerity measures like everyone else, France nonetheless said non. Italy has followed suit. Perhaps we should be more continental

It is, of course, a lot easier to defy the EU’s budget rules when you have a fleet of nuclear submarines at your disposal. Still, France has gone ahead and given the two fingers to Brussels, prompting some to talk of a declaration of independence, and others (more prosaically) to recall 2003 and the wrecking of the original stability and growth pact.

Like ourselves, France is supposed to get its deficit down below ...