I’m not really a political sort of person, and I have what I consider to be healthy disregard for anyone who aspires to be a politician. But I feel I must comment on the latest antics of the French President M. Chirac. Ever since his recent stroke he has been acting a little strangely. The country was burning in the riots of last Autumn and what did we here from the Palais de l’Elysee? Nothing. Now the streets are awash with revolting (in every sense of the word) students and again a deafening silence from M. Chirac.

But during the week, he excelled himself. At a meeting of the EU in Brussels he left because one of the French speakers at the meeting had the cheek to speak in English.

M. Chirac has never hid his dislike for his cousins from across the channel. He takes every opportunity to deliver subtle and not so subtle snubs. That may be fair enough – after all everyone has their own prejudices.

More worrying is his naïve campaign to restore the French language to its rightful place as the #1 language of Europe and maybe the world. Millions are to be spent on an international all French language 24 hour TV News service that no one but the French will watch (and given that it might yet not be available in France, that begs the question as to who exactly will watch it). There is to be a French language only internet search engine to rival Google. Cabinet ministers have been forbidden to speak anything other than French when meeting visiting dignitaries in France. French Radio stations have to play at least 40% (possibly more) music that is in French. The list goes depressingly on.

Despite his best efforts, the official language of the EU is now English as it also is at Airbus (which the French always seem to mistakenly regard as a French company).

Anyway, getting back to M. Presidents latest tantrum. He walked out of the meeting because he claims that “the world shouldn’t be built on one language”. What this means of course is that the world shouldn’t be built on English. If it was a case of an Englishman getting up and addressing the meeting in French, would M. Chirac have done a runner? Like Hell he would have.

I've read elsewhere that there were deeper political reasons behind the protest. Whatever! I don’t really worry too much about theses things, but it has crossed my mind that if the President of one of the strongest nations in Europe is acting like a spoilt 5 year old, then what chance has Europe got of ever really uniting.