It is an annoying fact of British life that every government contract will run over budget and over time. The same is probably true of most modern and not so modern nations. Yet France builds the worlds tallest road bridge and does it on time and on budget. Perhaps the most amazing thing about this is that the french construction industry and government contracting were both so corrupt only ten years ago that this could not have happened. Assuming the bridge does not fall down in the very near future, one can safely assume that the French have learned lessons, lessons they could rightly teach most other nations.

Psychologically the timing of this interests me. The French were condemned under the “you’re with us or against us” banner as being against all that is good and right and true. This was for trying to build bridges and avoid a war - a war that now turns out to have been sold on lies. It seems in some ways as though the Millau bridge over the River Tarn is a big finger in the air to the USA.

See it on BBC News.