If you’ve spotted Nicolas Sarkozy nailing Gordon Brown’s head to a Downing Street coffee table in the past few days, it may not simply be due to a difference of opinion about the need for a global fiscal stimulus.

Plans for EDF, the French state-controlled company, to sell 25 per cent of British Energy to Centrica are looking a little wobbly. Luckily for the prime minister, he no longer has a dog in this nuclear fight. The government’s sale of its own stake in British Energy – struck when oil was near its peak last year – now looks brilliantly timed.