Ensemble, Nous Pouvons Retrouver Quelque Chose

Daniel Hannan writes:

The true France, the France that Francophiles the world over admire, has little to do with the machinations of French politicians and civil servants. The best Gallic virtues inhabit la France profonde not la France officielle. And this true France has made abundantly clear what it thinks of the énarques and technocrats who run both Paris and Brussels.

During the referendum on the constitution — which, it seems periodically necessary to remind our leaders, was voted down by 55 per cent of French voters and 62 per cent of Dutch voters — I found myself addressing a “Non” rally in a rural part of the Camargue. I told my audience a story about one of the most Francophile of British politicians, Harold Nicolson. When France fell in 1940, he was inconsolable. European culture, he felt, human civilisation itself, could not be complete unless France were sovereign. He was, in truth, far more upset about the fall of France than about the coming fall of Britain that many then expected.

Immediately after the Liberation, Nicolson took the first ferry he could. Landing at Dieppe, he leaned down to touch the ground. “Monsieur a laissé tomber quelque chose?” asked a porter. “Non,” replied Nicolson, “j’ai retrouvé quelque chose.”

“If you choose to be Frenchmen,” I told my audience, “If you vote to throw off this racket and be a free people, we shall all feel as Nicolson did”. It produced the warmest cheer I expect ever to receive as a politician. That is true friendship.

Please do not post comments in French, as I don't know how to do accents on Blogger - the ones above have been copied and pasted.