Emmanuel Macron wins by a landslide, ruining Nigel Farage’s evening

Emmanuel Macron is to be the new President of France. His victory was followed by a rather odd TV appearance in which he looked like a somewhat confused and youngish Alan Milburn. What could possibly go wrong?

But bravo, Macron.

Far better an empty suit than a fascist inside a suit. Actually, that’s a trifle unfair, although not to Marine Le Pen. The new president of France is not an empty suit, despite plenty of people (me included once or twice) saying so. His successful run for office is by any objective measure a bold and brave endeavour. In establishing his new political movement he demonstrated that the populist, nationalistic, negative right can be defeated.

My niggling concern is that we’ve seen a version of this movie before. Charismatic and smiley young chap takes office and lot of people get excited. Blair… Obama…

Still, one of the main reasons to raise a glass of something French tonight is that the result and the scale of the victory has ruined Nigel Farage’s evening. The LBC disc jockey and former UKIP leader had been saying that France would rise up and that Le Pen was the “real deal.”

Nope. Santé!