That was bold, to say the least. Bold, and oh so appealing – thoughts of speedy canters through airports, and hassle-free migration to France flooded my mind…

And why wouldn’t Scotland embrace this reconciliation after such a bumpy breakup? Two months in France this summer furnished me with irrefutable proof that the French love us. What’s more, they seem to be aware that Scotland voted overwhelmingly to stay in Europe and are poised to kiss us enthusiastically on both cheeks upon our return.

Over a quarter of a million French tourists visit Scotland every year; an influx only exceeded by our American cousins, desperately sniffing out their ‘Scotch’ heritage, or ‘doing Europe’ in a whistlestop, box-ticking rush. But the French come for the culture, the heritage, the landscape, and of course, the tartan. In fact, rather delightfully, there is the perfect fusion of gallic je-ne-sais-quoi and Scottish tradition, in the form of a French kiltmaker in Edinburgh, called, inevitably, “the Auld Alliance”.

But what about England? The deep fracturing in society caused by the aftermath of Brexit remains unhealed for our southern neighbours, and if Burnham’s timetable is the next general election in 2029, what would the EU even look like by then?

Next year France goes to the polls to elect a new President. (Macron is excluded as he has already served two terms.) The question gripping France now is who can stop le Rassemblement Nationale (National Rally). The RN is commonly referred to as a far-right party. It was formerly known as le Front Nationale which was founded by the recently deceased Jean-Marie Le Pen, famous for his career as a torturer for the French army during the Algerian war of independence, and his infamous description of the Nazi gas chambers as ‘just a detail of history’.

His daughter, Marine Le Pen, rebranded the FN as le Rassemblement Nationale in 2018 and expelled her father. Since then the party has toned down a lot of its extremist language, and on economic issues, has drifted to the left. However, last year she was found guilty of embezzling EU expenses and thus her eligibility to be the RN’s presidential candidate is still in doubt.

The party is now currently led by Le Pen’s protégé, the 29-year-old Jordan Bardella, charismatic, handsome, smooth-talking, and could still well be their candidate for the presidency next year. Bardella is himself a child of Italian and Algerian immigrants. He seems to be doing his level best to continue the party’s rebranding mission to turn the RN into a right-of-centre defender of core French republican values, effectively garnering the support of under 30s (he has a massive social media following) and thereby transforming the demographics of the RN’s support.

France has a voting system very different to ours; a kind of a knock-out event where the top two battle it out in a final showdown. France also has a very strong presidential model, sometimes referred to as a ‘presidential monarchy’. Furthermore, secularism (laĩcité) is rooted in its constitution. Not that long ago an airline stewardess was prosecuted for wearing a crucifix necklace because public displays of any religious affinity are forbidden. The far-left in France is now challenging this legal enforcement of laĩcité.

Similar to the Left in the UK their agenda in France has shifted into cultural and identity issues. The largest left-wing party, La France Insoumise (France unbowed) is championing Islamic customs such as the right to wear the Burkka. LFI is also questioning the status of the French language itself. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the party’s leader and likely presidential candidate next year, argues that the French language, as it is spoken in France, should be redefined to as a ‘Creole language’, because colonialism spread the French language to many other countries and as a result, it should no longer be considered the property of the French nation.

This year we have also witnessed the rise of the AfD (Alternative for Deutschland) in Germany: virulently anti-immigration, pro-deportation, and soft on Russia. The AfD won two regional elections this year and now have their sights set on being the next federal government at the next nationwide elections, which are likely to be held in 2029. And of course, just like France, the AfD have historical spectres at their feast. They don’t get much worse than Adolf.

Then there is Spain. They go to the polls in a general election in November this year! If the Socialist government of Pedro Sanchez lose, and the conservative leaning People’s Party emerge as the largest party, the PP are expected to form a coalition with the anti-immigration, anti-Muslim Vox Party; a populist force, and for some, a reminder of their own fascist past, that has emerged from nowhere to become the third biggest political party in Spain today.

There are far-right movements in every European country and most of them seem to be on the rise. The same is true for the far left. We seem to be living in a new era of polarization and many of us are justifiably concerned about where this is leading.

All this does leave me wondering what exactly we mean by the terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ today. They seem quite different to what I remember from my youth. It is worth recalling that the origin of the left/right divide came about during the French Revolution of 1789. The catalyst was the seating arrangements in the French National Assembly Those who supported the King’s absolute power sat on the right of the chamber. Those who didn’t sat on the left. Who would have thought that furniture arrangements could have such an impact on global politics for centuries to come.

Inevitably what is meant today by the labels of left or right has moved on from debating whether or not to slice off the king’s head. In my youth the left was all about class and the redistribution of wealth, summed up by the words that used to be on the Labour Party’s membership card, until Tony Blair removed them: ‘To secure for the workers, by hand or by brain, the full fruits of their labour’. In other words, blue-collar trade union power and nationalisation.

Today the meanings have changed again. The left seems to be consumed by a very different agenda, with issues such as climate change, gender identity and Palestine hogging the limelight, (perhaps less so under Burnham). What’s more, the fertile ground for left-wing parties tends to be more affluent middle-class neighbourhoods. A university education is likely to be the norm, as is an almost de-facto readership of the Guardian.

Solid Labour-voting working-class communities with their Working Men’s Clubs and trade union gala days are a distant memory.

One of the most intriguing aspects of this change of voting demographics is the swing from left to right in working class communities. In England, with both Boris Johnson in 2019 and Reform since, we have witnessed the hovering up of former die-hard Labour voters. In the former solid Communist voting towns of northern France, they are now overwhelmingly supporters of Rassemblement Nationale. In Germany it is the former communist east that had migrated to the far-right.

All these changes perfectly illustrate, what I feel is the most significant underlying shift that has been unfolding across Europe, including the UK, in recent times; namely the disruption in our sense of community. How we feel about where we live, our neighbourhood, our sense of belonging is changing. The far-right seems to have embraced this theme; with their crude solution being to keep strangers, especially foreigners, out!

To be human we need to belong, and where we live day-to-day is where we hope that need will be fulfilled. So, does it really matter if our neighbours’ first tongue is a different language, if their skin is a different colour, if their customs, their beliefs, the way they dress, are different to ours? What price a smile when passing a stranger on the street? What harm is there in good manners. What risk is there in offering a helping hand?

As Gordon Brown says in his recent book about our need for stronger communities: “the future starts with us”.