COMMENT: The desecrated image of the Arc de Triomphe has horrified London trading desks

3 December 2018

3 minute read

COMMENT: The desecrated image of the Arc de Triomphe has horrified London trading desks

Paris got ahead of itself. Ever since the start of Brexit and the tortuous negotiations of the British government, the victorious chants about the future place Paris will occupy in the Pantheon of global financial centres have been getting louder. Barely a day passes in which I don't see a post with over 500 likes on LinkedIn that's singing the praises of the City of Lights.

Except for now, the Gilet Jaunes movement has injected a necessary dose of reality into this utopia. It's about time - things were getting ridiculous.

In the past few days, my colleagues in London have been stupefied to discover the context of the French city that was supposed to be the new platform for the financial monsters currently residing in the City, Canary Wharf and Mayfair.

The image of the desecrated, massacred, Arc de Triomphe has been around all our desks - To say nothing of the burned cars and the destroyed shops. What has shocked people here even more than the damage are the locations. - The Champs Élysées, the Avenue Kléber, the Trocadéro, the Place Vendôme... These are the addresses which bankers in London think of when they consider moving to Paris.

Which bank will want to place its sign in Paris after carnage of this magnitude? It's already very difficult for foreign banks to navigate the French bureaucracy. Must they also face the risk of a civil war?

Anyone who would make Paris Europe's financial centre needs to understand that the first foundation has to be political stability. Brexit has shaken the stability of London, but Paris has made itself seem worse by appearing to be a war zone.

The British prime minister, Theresa May, is unpopular, but London is not in flames under her leadership. While cars are burning in Paris, London is strengthening its claim to be one of the world's major financial centres. - And Paris is showing itself to be in a totally different league.

Paul Deschamps is a French trader working in the City of London

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AUTHORPaul Deschamps

Insider Comment

12 comments

De
Del Bunclark
29 December 2018
London is not in flames YET!!!! Give it time.
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Dominic Rowsell
4 December 2018
Who paid to have this tosh written?
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An
Andrew
4 December 2018
This article suffers from an incredible lack of substance.
First of all, when the author mentions " my colleagues in London", this article is already reduced to a pub talk. We all "know people who...". I will tell you a story. "One of my colleague in London" has just recently moved from Italy to work in Canary Wharf, within one week she got robbed in Shoreditch on a Saturday night, someone broke into her house and one of her classmate from the LSE got attacked with acid in London Bridge. Based on my colleague's personal experience, London is a warzone. Am I correct to say that London is a dangerous warzone? No. Is it objective? No. Is it journalism? No. Is it clever? No.
Then, there is the exaggeration: "massacred", "carnage", "civil war", "in flame". Do you even know what is a civil war?
And, to finish, there is the London arrogance: "And Paris is showing itself to be in a totally different league". I am proud to be British but the London arrogance will not lead us anywhere except to the catastrophic situation we are at the moment (have you heard of Brexit? UK low productivity? The increasing and hypocritical racism? Our poor gender equality stats? London's super high crime rate?Inflation? Housing crisis? Austerity?)
"Among my French colleagues and friends", none of them felt happy when the pound lost its value in 2016 or when the signs of a bleak future for Britain started to emerge. On the opposite they all felt sad and supportive to the British people.
It would be nice if you show some decency and do the same as our friends from the other side of the Channel.
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Michael Olenick
4 December 2018
This is idiotic. France, including Paris, is stable. A small number of malcontents put on a show for the cameras but most Gilet Jaunes outside Paris are peaceful protestors; the one's around here had their children and were handing out sweets. Every country will have some amount of disruption dealing w/ the effects of and apportioning the cost of global climate change which is what these protests are really about. The UK doesn't even know if it will be part of the EU in six months. British people don't know if they'll be able to trade and move around freely. That's about as unstable as a modern western democracy can get.
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Julie
4 December 2018
Come on.. civil war really? Don’t over exaggerate please.
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