Eighty years ago, the French are told (almost literally) to tighten their belts whilst the British government uses augmented wartime powers for rather less honourable purposes

The French finance minister, Paul Reynaud, gave a radio broadcast setting out a series of economic measures to the public. Chief amongst these was the planned introduction of food rationing. This came some months after Britain had brought in similar measures. With five million men mobilised for war, France’s still heavily agrarian economy was in a poor position to meet the population’s food needs. Prices had started to rise. The war was clearly going to last well beyond the next harvest so the move was pre-emptive. On the demand side of the equation, the government would subsidise the import of foreign labour and the cost of spring sowing; the price of fertilisers would be brought down. In ceremonies redolent of the wars of early in the previous century, the ships’ crews of Ajax and Exeter which had defeated the Graf Spee in the Battle of River Plate were fĂȘted on their return to London. They were inspected by the King, paraded through the capital and treated to a grand f