Why are the French and English so hostile to each other? Entente cordiale? Don't think so!
The sang froid was palpable at the Calais Jungle this week as, with a Gallic shrug, the mini-pelles arrived effectively to shovel the Channel emigration border over to Kent. Why do they hate the English so much? You only had to see the fury in Hollande's face that the UK had the temerity to reject all that he and Merkel had manoeuvred so artfully in their favour! His face captured perfectly the distrust that has haunted Fr:Eng relations for 8 decades. As I wrote in Vichyssoise, even De Gaulle - who was welcomed by Churchill in London during the '40s Vichy era - did a volte-face 20 years later with a categoric Non to the UK's entry to the EEC. We seem to be connected yet divided by old historic hatreds.
Brexit or no, the French and English are geographic neighbours. Isn't it time they shook hands? Wish our neighbour here would shake hands with us......
Showing posts with label Calais Jungle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Calais Jungle. Show all posts
Sunday 21 August 2016
For 2 weeks in Rio the Olympic flame has shone brightly. Superb athletes from most nations have shaken hands in friendship and goodwill...
But in Europe it's chilled, despite the summer heat. No handshakes in the banlieues of Paris, where over the last 3 months, 13000 newly-arrived immigrants speaking Arabic, Pashto and Farsi were quickly handcuffed and served deportation orders. NE in Calais it's worse, the Jungle now completely out-of-control. SW, on the outskirts of Marseilles, wild fires rage. And, France's Hollande - in his government-funded Lanterne holiday residence, several kilometres from the gleaming Elysée Palace - is also in a rage. Terrible terrorist atrocities have necessitated the deployment of armed guards everywhere. Alarmed, many Communes have cancelled the very summer attractions that boost his ailing country's vital tourist income. And, following Brexit, the 2017 French elections loom, with the scheming Mme Le Pen poised to strike, along with most of the French workforce it seems!
...... but the lights in Paris are flickering alarmingly.
But in Europe it's chilled, despite the summer heat. No handshakes in the banlieues of Paris, where over the last 3 months, 13000 newly-arrived immigrants speaking Arabic, Pashto and Farsi were quickly handcuffed and served deportation orders. NE in Calais it's worse, the Jungle now completely out-of-control. SW, on the outskirts of Marseilles, wild fires rage. And, France's Hollande - in his government-funded Lanterne holiday residence, several kilometres from the gleaming Elysée Palace - is also in a rage. Terrible terrorist atrocities have necessitated the deployment of armed guards everywhere. Alarmed, many Communes have cancelled the very summer attractions that boost his ailing country's vital tourist income. And, following Brexit, the 2017 French elections loom, with the scheming Mme Le Pen poised to strike, along with most of the French workforce it seems!
...... but the lights in Paris are flickering alarmingly.
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