Leaders in driverless cars

THE inquiring progressive mind, scanning Europe for new thinking on the left, would not instinctively turn to France. No eager throngs gather for debates at the headquarters of the Parti Socialiste. No French intellectual review churns out required reading on how to remodel social democracy for the 21st century. If anything, under President François Hollande, France seems to be stuck chasing old ghosts and replaying its own history—a modern remake of the 1983 U-turn, when François Mitterrand jettisoned hyper-taxation and accepted the free market.

Yet the election in Britain of Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s new retro leader, has the disconcerting consequence of making French socialism look like a bold step forward. Not that the Socialist Party machine itself has changed much. Its sectarian cliques still wage yesterday’s wars over platters of fruits de mer at seaside conferences. And the left’s intellectuals, including Thomas Piketty, an economist now on occasional loan to Mr Corbyn, remain preoccupied with denouncing austerity and modelling a more progressive tax system. Yet peer into a tiny corner of the government under Manuel Valls, the centre-left prime minister, and one finds an effort to think ahead that could resonate beyond France. Nimble minds are asking how to arm the left for a world hurled sideways by disruptive technology and automation.