No we weren't really to start with. What happened was a lot of European business executives worked out the best retirement plan for them was to either sell off our industry or subcontract everything out. I worked for two companies in succession that were sold out to US defence ownership.

Now their successors, who have been hoping that there isn't a tough discussion coming up, are now edging around that it was a terrible idea and backtracking as quickly as possible. Fortunately the US didn't move all the staff out so there are US subsidiaries in Europe which have staff in an uncertain situation who are probably quite easy to hire.

It's a step in the right direction for Europe but only because it was historically a terrible step in the wrong direction.

I think France are probably in a better place than most countries at the moment. That is it.