Post-Brexit tensions see French and British publics turn against each other

According to a new study, political tensions between France and the UK are leading to citizens in both countries taking correspondingly negative views of each other.

Post-Brexit tensions over fishing rights, migrants crossing to the UK, trade and foreign policy disputes have increasingly seen both governments hurl insults and barbs at each other.

According to data from YouGov's EuroTrack survey, in August, 33 percent of French people said they had an unfavourable view of Britain. By November, this number had risen to 42 percent.

At the same time, the number of French people with a positive view of Britons fell from 53 to 46 percent.

The British have also correspondingly taken an increasingly hostile view towards France, with the percentage of people seeing the country unfavourably climbing from 31 percent in August to 40 percent in November. Conversely, the number holding a favourable view fell from 56 to 47 percent over the same period.

Images of French police watching migrants setting off from beaches on flimsy dinghies heading towards England has given the impression that authorities in Paris are turning a blind eye to the migrant crisis.

Record numbers of migrants have recently crossed to England from the French coast.

Some British politicians have even raised the spectre that France is attempting to blackmail the UK in a bid to wrangle more money to police its borders against migrants heading to the UK.

Earlier this year, the French threatened to cut off the electricity of the largest island between England and France, known as Jersey, resulting in London sending two armed vessels to monitor the situation.

One British government official at the time said that even the Nazis didn't threaten to cut off the electricity to the island when they invaded during World War II.

The dispute arose after Jersey officials exercised their post-Brexit powers to choose how many French fishing vessels could enter the island's waters.

French bitterness towards the British also extends to the recently announced security alliance between Australia, the UK, and the US (AUKUS), which resulted in Paris losing a multibillion-dollar defence contract.

Paris lashed out at the UK for its part in the deal accusing London of becoming a vassal of the US.

The British Prime Minister responded to French anger by urging Paris to "Prenez un grip" (get a grip) and "Donnez-moi unbreak" (give me a break) - a humorous choice of words that only further ruffled French feathers.