Rwanda joined the Commonwealth on Sunday, becoming only the second country which was not formerly a British colony to be admitted to the group.
Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has lobbied hard for his country to join the Commonwealth as part of a policy of moving towards the Anglophone world and away from the influence of France. (Source: The Telegraph)
Aside from the fact that perhaps Britain will now be expecting hoards of Rwandans queuing at Calais for asylum, didn't anyone tell these bright sparks that Napoleon is now in charge of the UK? Duh!"FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy prompted an angry response after he turned up at the Commonwealth Summit. Dr Danny Sriskandarajah, director of the London-based Royal Commonwealth Society, said the visit had sparked fears Mr Sarkozy was trying to muscle in on the 53-member club.
French officials said their leader was in Trinidad and Tobago to discuss climate change before next month’s summit in Copenhagen. But some countries questioned his longer term motives, as sources said he wanted to align the 56-member Francophone group of French-speaking nations with the Commonwealth. He hopes that would give French businesses better access to markets in India and elsewhere.
Dr Sriskandarajah said: “If Sarkozy’s aim is to bring the Francophonie to the Commonwealth, lots of countries will resent that. “If there is an attempt to try to make this a British club interacting with a French club, that will be received very badly.
“We had a fantastic chance for the Commonwealth to have its own voice on a range of issues, including climate change, and all of a sudden that’s diluted by having Sarkozy and co coming on board.” Sunday Express
Yes, the French are as obnoxious as ever, especially with their short arse repulsive little dictator in charge! They have always been jealous of the British... slimy, despicable little fu*king toe rags!
What the fuck are we doing in the EU????
"What the fuck are we doing in the EU????"
ReplyDeleteFuck all, that's the problem, unless you count giving up all our fish stocks and so forth.
Sue,
ReplyDeleteNot all of the French are obnoxious, only short ones that think they have power. At least that is my observation on this side of the Catalan border. Quit a number of the old people around here consider themselves Catalans living in France - we even have a Free Catalan movement. Another thing Sarko is not very well liked around here and I think it's in response to being controlled from Monpellier.
As an aside to your other post, we need an association of european free democracies.
We should be welcoming Rwanda to The Commonwealth, as a counterweight to the EU and UN it is an invaluable institution; Israel applied to join once, as did some people claiming to represent the Palestinians.
ReplyDeleteSarkozy though should have been told to piss off back to his francophone which, unlike Britain and The Commonwealth, is specifically about promoting French interests in its former colonies.
I know all French are not obnoxious :) It was meant as a generalising of the historical "relationship" between us and them. There has always been some animosity.
ReplyDeleteWe need to get out of the EU and expand our relationship with the commonwealth and our natural cousins in the US, Australia, NZ etc...
He does remind me of Napoleon though :)
General De Gaulle was really doing Britain a great favour when he vetoed British membership to the EU. Too bad we were too stupid to take the hint at the time. Perhaps he was motivated by chauvinism, but that chauvinism would have done us a lot more good than the 'good intentions' of the British ruling class that got Britain into the EU.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Commonwealth, the late Enoch Powell was right to oppose it. It should be wound down. Although I am all in favour of keeping strong sentimental ties with nations that still have the British monarch as head of state, many of the Commonwealth nations are republics or have their own monarchs and are not our responsibility. They would leave the Commonwealth themselves if the British government stopped giving them aid and clamped down on immigration from such countries.