Government love affairs with industrial policy produce unattractive offspring. The world is littered with ill-conceived publicly funded car factories, chip plants and shipyards that merely siphoned cash from productive enterprises. But what if public money produced a non-value destroyer, a market leader in a growth industry, generating jobs, technology and prestige? Even in a global economy with trade rules enforced by World Trade Organisation and other agreements, it would be hard for a government to retreat from funding this success.

That is Europe's position with Airbus. Thanks to a successful amalgamation of legacy assets, Europe's jetliner market share has gone from 15 per cent in the 1980s to over 50 per cent today. More than 3,300 Airbus jets are in service worldwide. Airbus provides 50,000 jobs, representing Europe's ability to compete in high technology manufacturing. But this success has a price - by some accounts Europe has spent $25bn in public resources on Airbus since 1970.