THE annual French Car-B-Cue saw just 1,067 vehicles burnt on New Year’s Eve.

This is a a “significant” year on year reduction of more than 10 per cent, claims Manuel Valls, the Interior Minister.  He hails it as a “positive result”. A result of what? Less petrol? Less cars? A clamp-down on matches? He’s non-specific.

But we can remind him that 1.79m vehicles were bought in France last year, the worst performance in 15 years, 5 per cent down on the previous year. Ford sold 17.3 per cent less cars; Volkswagen sales fell 8.1 pre cent.

If the youths do tend to favour US and German cars, then the so-called positive result could be attributed to lack of options. It was ever the way…