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Warm beer and boules |
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Written by Damian Elwes
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"Warm beer and boules": That was a recent headline in the UK Independent. It summarised in four words the possible cultural mix that would have emerged if, a half century ago, Britain and France had merged or if France had joined the Commonwealth. Too crazy to think about? Well, actually not quite. Recently released government papers show that during the developing Suez crisis in 1956 Guy Mollet, the French socialist Prime Minister, made exactly the two suggestions I’ve mentioned. The Brits dismissed the idea almost immediately and, of course, a year later the French had joined the new European Economic Community, precursor of the EU. What reports of this historical curiosity missed is that in 1940 Churchill had made a similar proposal, inviting France to accept dominion status within the Commonwealth. De Gaulle snorted a very quick "Non ..."
One remark by Guy Mollet (a former teacher, by the way) that there would be “no difficulty in accepting the headship of Her Majesty the Queen”. Likely he was right. The French have always been fascinated by the British Royal Family and this was illustrated again by the success of Stephen Frears's film The Queen. A million people went to see it here during its first two and a half months on release. As Paris-Match respectfully put it, it offered “a subtle and complex portrait of an admirable woman”.
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