Does Le Pen win, no matter what?

That’s Julian Barnes’s argument, and I hope it’s not true. God, Barnes does write incredibly well, and I think for the most part his political observations are on the mark. The real judgement on Le Pen will come not this Sunday (he’ll lose massively, of course), but in the June parliamentary elections. If he and his supporters build their parliamentary presence, then this will no longer look like a one-off, protest vote abberation.

And I hope Barnes is right that the shocking result of France’s first round has politicised the young in France. Yesterday, much of Britain had local elections. For the first time in years, the turnout was up. In a small way, I think it might have been because France demonstrated that exercising your vote is an essential part of maintaining a democracy.