The French government is so terrified of the anti-EU movement within France that it is still, nearly a decade on from the Brexit referendum, doing everything possible to “punish Britain for leaving”. It’s not so long ago that the French stupidly detained the captain of a fishing boat from Jersey, forcing Boris Johnson’s government to send a navy frigate to the Channel Islands as protection. Nor is it that long ago that President Macron described Northern Ireland as not part of UK territory (who does it belong to then? The EU?). And who can forget the French minister who proclaimed, with incredible arrogance, that Britain must be seen to suffer from leaving the EU in case others were tempted to follow.

And now, putting its own selfish interests before Europe’s desperate need to build its defences against Russia, the French are demanding that the UK pays an outrageous £5.7 billion to take part in the EU’s rearmament programme. The British response? Quite rightly, we are ready to walk away.

What silly childishness from the French. How ridiculous to keep up these crazy attempts to mete out anti-British punishment beatings when it is transparently in all our interests for any pan-European armaments programme to include Britain’s strong industry and expertise.

If the EU is so wonderful then why the desperate obsession with punishing just one member out of 28 that decides to leave?

Apparently, Britain is still, even now, prepared to negotiate a more sensible deal to be part of the armaments programme. But let’s be clear, the British taxpayer will not take kindly to anything approaching a £5 billion bill – especially when Keir Starmer’s much trumpeted “re-set” with the EU last summer was intended, so we were told, to ensure a more even-handed relationship.

Perhaps the Prime Minister is learning that the EU is not minded to negotiate in good faith, nor to recognise the obvious benefits of cooperation – certainly not when the French have anything to say about it.

The reason for all this? The French are the most Eurosceptic people in any EU country. A recent YouGov survey reported that over half of the French public believe that the EU is heading in the wrong direction, and only 18% think it’s going in the right direction.

Just one in five French people say that the EU has made their country better off, whereas more than a third say it’s made France worse off. And here’s the real zinger: only 49% of French people report that they’d vote to stay in the EU.

So, if you want to know why the French government is so obstructive to cooperation, look no further. Macron’s government is terrified of a Frexit to accompany Brexit.

He’s on the record as saying that the French should never be given a referendum because they might well vote out. And of course, he’s terrified that someone from Marine Le Pen’s Eurosceptic National Rally Party might win the next election.

So, never mind the interests of Ukraine or the increasing threat from Putin’s Russia. Never mind that war threatens the European continent more than at any time since 1945. What matters to Macron’s government is to continue bashing the Brits to show the French that whatever else they do, they must on no account leave the EU.

Well, my bet is that the French will tire of this propaganda. Macron is already unimaginably unpopular. His final gift to the nation could well be to hand the reins of power to a party that is as sceptical about the EU as the French people so clearly are.