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Nicolas Sarkozy is a Frenchman. But today he is in Englandshire to celebrate a wonderful radio broadcast in June 1940 by General de Gaulle, broadcast from the BBC in London, pleading with those Frenchman left behind in France to be incredibly naughty whilst the Nazis were about. Many of the French were very very naughty. And many still are.

The General had fled his country the day before, and was relatively unknown at the time, and whilst some of his fellow countrymen went weak at the knees at the mere sight of Hitler's moustachioed visage and were willing to become surrender monkeys, the General was declaring himself leader of the Free French and calling to arms the as yet unformed French Resistance. He bellowed out, "the flame of the French resistance must not and will not be extinguished". Unfortunately, a prankster at the BBC enraged General de Gaulle by forgetting to press the record button. I love japes like that. Oh how I wish I could have been there to see the look on his face. His pineapple face. And his womanly hips. I'm sure you're thinking that those are odd things to say. Well those were the criticisms laid at him by the British. I think our reputation as being the wittiest nation in the world came to the fore in June 1940.

General Charles de Gaulle just before delivering his famous speech


Posters displaying his words were put up all over London in the days that followed the broadcast, to galvanise French exiles. It was also the beginning of the 'entente cordiale'. I've never believed in the entente cordiale. If it were such an equal and wonderful partnership then at least one english word would have slipped into it's name.



President Sarkozy has himself said that, 'We are all the children of the 18 June'. That's not how birthdays work Nicolas. It's lucky he's French because it sounds vaguely philosophical when said with a French accent. If you said that in cockney you'd be in a proper pickle.