The French will be taking control of the port of Dover.

Well, it’s not really the French, it’s the Nord-pas-de-Calais regional council, which will be assuming control as a part of a privatization scheme:

A plan to privatise the government-owned Port of Dover has provoked “outrage”, not least because the French are front-runners to take control of the facility.

According to the Daily Mail, the port needs money to fund an expansion plan, and selling it off could net £350m for our cash-strapped government. The harbour board expects to receive the go-ahead for the “voluntary privatisation”, which will likely see Nord-pas-de-Calais regional council, which also owns Calais, adding Dover to its roster of ports.

Chief exec Bob Goldfield explained: “The time is right for the voluntary privatisation of Dover. We want to invest around £400m on a second terminal and need to invest in the existing terminal, but are unable to because of public sector borrowing constraints. We want to throw off the shackles.”

I generally oppose privatization, even if it isn’t the French taking over Dover, and the justification, about avoiding “public sector borrowing constraints,” sounds to me like a recipe for a future bankruptcy and taxpayer bailout.

“Throwing off shackles,” in a finance context generally means, “Engaging in dodgy behavior.”

But still the short Frenchman is up there, or down there, having a good chuckle.