According to the BBC, which uncovered recently declassified documents, France's Head of Council Guy Mollet proposed in 1956 to United Kingdom's Prime Minister Anthony Eden that the two countries be merged. The latter wisely discarded the proposal, but The Independent had a little fun imagining what the hypothetical nation could have achieved :
Fifty years on, we might have blended the best of France and the best of Britain. On the other hand, we might have shared our faults. France might have had our public transport and health systems. We might have had the ramshackle, French university system. We might have had French rates of unemployment. They might have had the London Tube, instead of the Metro.
We both might have ended up with French TV, British hospital waiting lists, the French police, British estate agents, French trades unions, British school dinners, French plumbers and Scottish joie de vivre.
Well, I guess the thought of it is equally scary from this side of the Channel (try to imagine a nation that shared French humour, British food, French musicals...). And we certainly would not have accepted too much mockery at our auld friends the Scots.
Furthermore, I do think that the world is a better place having both views on the world, both attitudes. Admit at least that it would be far more dull than it is today. Take for instance the United Nations Security Council Meeting on the 14th february 2003 : in this moment of history, I think that the very spirit of both nations is summed up. Let me refresh your memory :
So let me be glad that history has let us retain our identities, though it could have easily been the other way at times :
Labels: France, United Kingdom
