Mon Dieu!
6:32pm Thursday, 19th August 2004
An abiding image I have of this year's Euro 2004 was of adverts ITV ran ahead of the England-France football match, showing the archetypal Frenchman in stripes carring onions and cheese and looking thoroughly dislikable.
Now I know there's no point invoking mock outrage, because to be sure, none of this is hardly shocking, but this, combined with the fact that the celebrations marking the Entente Cordiale earlier this year were recognised to be a damp squib, seem to provide us with some warning-signals: our relationship with France could be a whole deal better.
American civil society organisations have been trying to restore US-French ties after the diplomatic disaster that was the lead-up to the Iraq war. Whilst organisations like The British Council are re-thinking the UK's relationship with France - the time has come, it seems, for proponents of public diplomacy to put forward the case for carving out a different sort of relationship with our closest neighbours.
An abiding image I have of this year's Euro 2004 was of adverts ITV ran ahead of the England-France football match, showing the archetypal Frenchman in stripes carring onions and cheese and looking thoroughly dislikable.
Now I know there's no point invoking mock outrage, because to be sure, none of this is hardly shocking, but this, combined with the fact that the celebrations marking the Entente Cordiale earlier this year were recognised to be a damp squib, seem to provide us with some warning-signals: our relationship with France could be a whole deal better.
American civil society organisations have been trying to restore US-French ties after the diplomatic disaster that was the lead-up to the Iraq war. Whilst organisations like The British Council are re-thinking the UK's relationship with France - the time has come, it seems, for proponents of public diplomacy to put forward the case for carving out a different sort of relationship with our closest neighbours.
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