Governments have a well-deserved reputation as abysmal dealmakers. Yet the UK’s sale of its 36 per cent stake in British Energy as part of the takeover by EDF of France now looks quite a coup.

The price, valuing British Energy at £12.5bn, was agreed in July, when estimates of the company’s worth ranged a lot higher than they would now. The economics of new nuclear reactors, built to last for six decades, are not affected by what happens to oil over the space of six months. But for British Energy’s ageing fleet, most of which is due to go out of service over the next decade, expectations about the oil price are quite important. Oil touched a peak of $147 per barrel in July, boosting the price of gas, which is one of nuclear power’s principal competitors as a source of electricity. As of Monday, when the deal was finalised, a barrel of oil would have cost you only about $50. It may have been more luck than judgment on the UK’s part – the government’s objective was the strategic development of nuclear power, not the making of a quick buck. Still, ministers in the French government – which owns 85 per cent of EDF – ought to mutter a grudging “chapeau” to their British counterparts next time they meet.