If France could lead the world with Minitel in the 1980s, surely Europe can free itself from Silicon Valley’s shackles now? | Alexander Hurst

Back then, France punched above its weight when it came to tech. The EU needs it to rediscover its taste for the cutting edge In the 1960s, France became the third country, after the US and Soviet Union, to independently place a satellite (Astérix) into orbit, and the only country to send an animal into space and – crucially, for Félicette the catstronaut – bring it back alive. A decade later, the Franco-British Concorde flicked passengers across the Atlantic in three and a half hours and the...

By Alexander Hurst