The grenouilles have it

Christine Lagarde has got the job of Managing Director of the IMF, as many had thought she would.

For myself, I am not so sure this is a good idea. It is not that I doubt her abilities, it is just that she is, well, French.

There are other problems, too: it is high time the job went to one of the newer developed countries, and this should have favoured the enormous Mexican, Carstens. Presumably the Americans don't like him.

And the French, if she survives in her post for the full term, will have held the post for 46 out of the previous 58 years.

But it is her Frenchness I want to talk about. Why is it that when a Briton goes abroad, within a few months he goes native: think Chris 'Fat Pang' Patten in Hong Kong, and almost everyone we have sent to Europe (Leon Brittan was a sensible realist until his plane landed in Brussels); but when the French go abroad they become even more French? And French means believing in the power of the State, and in a ruling political élite, and of course in the interests of France, which should be the interests of everybody.

The appointment of Mario Draghi to the ECB was held up because the French complained Italy already had a member of the board and France did not; therefore Lorenzo Bini-Smaghi should resign. The first president of the ECB was a perfectly competent Dutchman, Wim Duisenberg, but he had to step down half way through his term because he wasn't French.

Perhaps those who choose the IMF head  didn't think all this was important. I rather think I do.