French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced that the wearing of bow ties in public spaces is to be banned.

The Loi Papillon comes into force immediately with a fine of £700 for anyone caught wearing a bow tie in public, except for public carnivals and fetes nationals. Fines, however, would be doubled for wives who force their husbands or sons to wear bow ties in public.

Sarkozy yesterday underlined France’s new hardline stance against the bow tie by declaring that the “noeud papillon is a sign of British subservience that is not welcome in France. The bow tie alienates non-bow tie wearers, and it looks kind of stupid.”

The law is backed by the parliamentary majority UMP, whose leader Jean Aimarre, who claims that the bow tie is “the very embodiment of property”, adding “have you ever really looked at a man in a bow tie? How silly does he look? If anything, the bow tie is a plot against France, and we need to eradicate it by force.”

“This law sends a clear message that we will not allow men to make fools of themselves.”

The French Socialist Party said that it agrees that bow ties are “un-French” and “emasculating”, but stressed that it could not possibly come to an agreement on what to do about it, as it was still fighting about who should have the last biscuit. Socialist leader Ophelia Couilles told the Daily Shame: “yes, it’s bad, but there’s only one Bourbon biscuit left and we’re all squabbling about it so leave us alone for a couple of years, will you?”

Expatriate Dandy Sir Francis de Powell III of Cornwall, the only man to wear a bow tie in France, is said to be “outraged”, and is considering alternative attire.