|
| I need you, baby |
|
|
| Wednesday, 09 April 2008 | |
|
While ‘our’ President meets ‘our’ Queen, as I type, he hopes to cement an entente which is “friendly”, more than just cordial. In his interview with James Naughtie on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme, just before he set off for London – “France’s seventh city”, as he quipped – he uttered the word “trust” at least three times. This reminded me of Clair Whitmer’s ‘US Guys’ column this month, where she observes that a study, ordered by the French government, shows no one can be happy if they cannot trust. The president’s emphasis that trust is needed between Britain and France suggests he may have looked closely at the study which finds what many of us expats, not only the Americans, have suspected for a while. For some reason – many books have been devoted to theorising why – French relationships are clouded by mistrust. Sarkozy is anxious to stress what Britain could give to France and Europe, rather than what France could give to Britain (like nuclear power? high-tech innovation? cheap second homes?). His main thrust is that France “needs” Britain and Europe needs Britain. He is keen to underscore the similarities between the two countries rather than the much-trumpeted differences. Sarkozy says he loves London and often goes there and that the French love British music, films, books etc. After all, his step-daughter Judith Martin lives there, along with 300,000 other enterprising, dynamic, mostly young French people, escaping from the ridiculous handicaps still crippling France’s “champions”, as Jean-François Copé called employers on F2’s ‘Les Quatre Vérités’, the day after the elections in March. It is precisely this which Sarkozy hopes to change. But as Copé said, change is what the French mentality mistrust the most. And all the while, precious trust is a dwindling commodity, as banks fess up to ever huger losses after hiding the reality from worried shareholders. And, for the “deflated” reader with a plunging pension on this page, perhaps Sarkozy will manage to convince Britain that Europe needs it to be “an actor rather than a spectator” and that the euro is a safer bet than the pound. Either the British media are out of reach of the presidential arm, unlike their French confrères, or they have bigger libel budgets. Never mind Bling Bling's doubtful style, the accolade for bad taste surely goes to ‘The Sun’ for welcoming the French First Lady to England by publishing a nude photo of her! by Miranda Neame |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
