Crème with everything….

A bad week for France got worse today as EDF’s chest beating, guns blazing, all action bid for British Energy fell flat at the first hurdle.

The £10 billion bid (the concept of a ‘billion’ was actually conceived by the French way back in the fourteenth century, ironically enough) tabled at the weekend, was rejected outright by the British Energy board for registering too low on the international hard currency scale.

Add in the lacklustre, stuttering showing by the national team in Euro 2008, plus the revelation presidential squeeze Carla Bruni is prone to traffic stopping temper tantrums Naomi Campbell could only dream of throwing, and it’s really not looking good for our Gallic chums right now.

Great cameo by David Ginola in the Ladbrokes TV ad though.

So what are the implications of this rejection for EDF, and where do they stand now?

Well, it’s pretty much put the kibosh on EDF’s plans to speedily hoover up UK sites ripe for new nuclear power plants, a move integral to their stratagem of getting the jump on the other five big energy suppliers in the great nuclear race.

A timely boon for environmentalists and anti-nuclear campaigners no less, but an unwelcome obstacle to those (including government ministers) who foresee an impending energy crisis should these new nuclear plants not be built pronto.

Building nuclear power plants in super fast time; doesn’t that all sound a bit Springfield? By taking more time over the construction of these power plants, maybe the likelihood of something catastrophic happening could be significantly reduced? They’re not the sort of buildings you want to be screwing together in five minutes.

It only takes one French Homer Simpson (Hervé Simpson, naturally) to become momentarily distracted by a tasty looking brioche, and it could be la fin d’histoire for the unfortunate region of the UK in which these stations are placed (probably Bristol if the DTI list of most fancied potential nuclear power plant sites is to be believed).

So who wants a nuclear power station in their back garden? Can I get a quick show of hands please?

Don’t all shout out at once.