political commentator * author * publisher * bookseller * radio presenter * blogger * Conservative candidate * former lobbyist * Jack Russell owner * West Ham United fanatic * Email iain AT iaindale DOT com
Monday, May 07, 2007
Les Citoyens de la France, C'est Moi, Tony
This has probably put the cause of Anglo French relations back by decades. Quelle domage!
David, what accent? The horrendously English one he is using?
Bonjour, mes amis. Je m'appelle Tony. Jeudi, je vais quitter ma poste ici en Angleterre. Pour moi, la guerre est finis. Tant pis. Conaissez-vous que j'aime bien l'Europe? Et les Francais aussi. Le fromage, le vin, les filles, les grands salaries du gouvernement. Si je signer la constitution europeenne (dans autre nom) avant de partir, et refuser de donner la choix au peuple du Royaume-Uni, puis-je devenir President de L'Europe? Que dites-vous, mes bots?
I would like to know why the left were willing to subvert the political process in the run up to 1997.it was most likely europe imo.there has to be a tangible goal rather than an amorphous 'it's our time' aspiration.
It's been leaked that Blair spent two days with a French coach and camera crew prior to the French election making two versions of this speech. One to cover the event of Sarkozy's win, the other to cover Royal's.
What bugs me about this is why itt was that important and what his game is. Though of course we know what Blair's game is. He wants a tradable legacy, money and revenge via treacherous betrayal of England and Wales aka the EU Constitution. What a traitor.
the fact that the three main candidates in this election fell over themselves to talk about Blair and his policies is proof enough that he is respected in france, and certainly by sarkozy
Run the film and move the slider slowly backwards through various frames and you can then see Blair attempting to mimic his crude, theatrical stereotype of the French - and his coach through a series of cartoon, Johnny onion characterisations. I think the French will laugh their socks off at this.
Tony Blair proves once again what a ham actor he is, trying to do his poor man's Kenneth Williams impersonation.
The frightening thing is that if you didn't know Blair was the sort of man who would lie to start a war, going by this video clip alone, you might actually think he was a decent chap.
Can someone please explain what is happening. I think I may have been in a serious accident and have lost my memory.
Why has the Chancellor of the Exchequer gone missing, the Prime Minister speaking French and someone in charge of Scotland who does not think it is part of the UK?
Allo C'est tony félicitations Ségolène /Nicolas (please edit) avez-vous une maison de vacances ? je suis a bit skint a ce moment les enfants avez cleaned me out, et Cherie avez acheté une autre éléphant blanc property wise. je suis fucking désperate pour un autre vacance.
'Allo a Facebook francais! C'est Tony et enchanté de faire la connaissance de tous! Voici ma femme. OK, oubliez la femme!
Je cherche un metier en France. Je suis beau (ou mes amis me dissent je suis beau!) et acteur! Pas tres intelligent, mais avec charisme! J'ai besoin de - ahem - des monnaie et vacances!
C'est Tone@pmsoffice.com! Merci! Voici mon photo!!!!!
I think it was very impressive, and the insecure and jealous French will be extremely flattered by this gesture. After all, English is now the lingua franca of the developed world. For Blair to make the effort to speak the dead language of France will really improve his standing on the continent. Maybe Blair really does want to be the President of the EU.
I live in France. The French, who largely gave England their English language, appreciate any and all efforts by English speakers to talk to them in their own language. So well done. He didn't have to do it...
The French insistence that people speak their language is a manifestation of everything that is wrong with France - inward looking and self-obsessed.
The majority of the French want reform of other manifestations of this attitude. They may not realise it but when the underlying problems are sorted they will stop being so insistent on the language issue.
If this ordurous effort by le petit Tony sets back Anglo-French relations by some years, then unwittingly he may be doing us all a favour. For is it not the unlovely sucking up to the EU, wghich means France and Germany, which has so crippled this country over teh past decades?
While I have no real personal anomosity to the French people as such, I loathe their left-wing, interventionist, molly-coddling regime where you can't sack a French worker without months of bureaucracy and at huge cost. i deplore their weak economy, I despair at their constant promotion of a European super-state (only derailed at the last minute by the narrowest of margins by the people in their now infamous referendum).
In my view France has agreat deal to answer for in the direction that europe and the EU has takemn in the past years. Any distance we can start to put between us is good as it signals that teh new regimes may choose to work apart rather than cosying up together.
No sign of ciourse of independent thought from 'Middle Manager' 'Dave' who is probably even now penning his trite little pensees on how much he loves charcuterie to welcome in Sarko.
I haven't listened to the Blair Speech because there is something toe-curlinigly cringeworthy about Englishmen with a smattering of O-level French trying to pass themselves off as fluent Francophones, but then I suppose nobody in France listened either.
Casual Observer- I don't agree with you that the French welcome foreigners' attempts to speak their language. They expect nothing less than perfection, and if you make a mistake, they do not, as Anglophones do, try to figure out what you meant. They simply go into uncomprehending shock andget a frightened, furtive look about them.
Hard at Work - I knew there was something niggling at the back of my mind, and that was it! The speech pattern. Those, as you note, relentless little bursts of sincerity.
Anonymous 10:36 - ditto.
Why don't we all bore the readership by writing sentences in a language we speak (in your case, it looks like Japanese - so bloody what? and we think will impress other people who we don't even know? Yawn.
"When you blissfully trot out such tired stereotypes, perhaps their negative reaction to you is no surprise... ".
"Blissfully" (wha'???) "trot out ... tired stereotypes"? Do you live in France? Have you lived in France? Do you speak perfect French?
Negative reaction to me? Haven't you always found that the reaction of the French to strangers is almost always mannerly? I have.
I didn't say they reacted to a mistake in their language made by a foreigner with dislike, or distaste. I said they react with a panicky sense that they cannot understand and rather than try to figure it out,as Anglophones do, they shut down in a panic. I do not know why this is.
As it happens, I like the French very much and am still in touch with neighbours from my village, and friends from a nearby town, although I left three years ago. But they have correct French drilled into them from year dot and someone making an error in their language seems to throw them.
Actually Verity the Japanese speaking Anon lived in France for seven years. Your French is not as perfect as you think(several mistakes in your short passage, I almost thought it was parody), as no doubt others will testify. I have lived in several other countries and can tell you that if you make mistakes in ANY language it is hard to understand. The French are actually relatively good at understanding their language when it is spoken badly.
And why would an Anon want to show off about anything? Maybe you just aren't as bright as you think...
Oh, God, another anonymous! It's like an infestation that came over from Guido's. Crawlies.
In my experience, having been going to France since I was a teenager, and of having lived there for three years, in a village where no one speaks English, MY EXPERIENCE is, French people close up when someone makes a mistake in their language.
Anglophones are relaxed and try to figure out what the speaker wanted to convey; French people freeze,not out of rudeness, but because they just can't bounce back. I used to meet a couple of friends twice a week to chat for an hour in English and an hour in French, and whereas I could always figure out what they intended to say when they came out with a totally jumbled sentence with tenses thrown in at random, they would freeze when I got something wrong - not out of unkindness - the three of us were there to learn - but just because somehow their French brains shut down.
Anonymous, who is also the boring Japanese speaker, writes: "Your French is not as perfect as you think".
Did I say anywhere in my post that I thought my French is perfect? Did you understand that that was the point of my post? I was referring to when I MADE A MISTAKE????
Actually, "Anonymous", for yes! It is he!!!! - I don't give a crap where you lived for seven years.
"The French are actually relatively good at understanding their language when it is spoken badly."
No,they are not. This is my point. The French are not rude. Sometimes, their brains freeze and shut down out of shock.
So lofty, insecure, angry little Japanese speaker, which of us is right?
Anglophones - don't know about the Japs as I've only been to Japan three times but wasn't enamoured. It is a testosterone driven, rather creepy, society, so I am sure you adore it. Anglophones all over the world are, forgive my bad French - the ne plus ultra in understanding what foreigners are trying to say in their language.
Spanish speakers have the same talent as Anglophones; they can quickly compute what you thought you were saying and respond to it.
I do hope you understood that my post regarding Tone's Facebook was done in joke French.
In any event, I have noticed that Iain Dale's Diary is becoming nastier and more verbally violent against women. Very many angry men posting here. Don't like uppity women. Many, many anonymouses - unless it's one very verbose anonymous and we must allow for that possibility.
In any event, I'm sick of the violence on Iain Dale's Diary over the last couple of months in particular and don't want to mix around with you angry people, emasculated by your own government.
I mentioned above on this thread
Too many angry men on this place, and I know that I would not like you if I met you in person. The pleasure of posting on a blog is, you know that you would love to meet many of the posters over a drink.
I noted above after 4:26 p.m. that there is too much anger and misogny here.
Verity - very long, and based on your last efforts, not worthy of reading. Proof that quantity does not necessarily bear any relation to quality. In fact I doubt a single person read that effort. And if they did I would suggest they have their head checked.
Some poor sod will have/already has the misfortune to be married to that. Makes you grateful for small mercies really.
53 comments:
Assez bon je crois ... Qu'est-que-ce la probleme?
I think that translates as "Macedonia, Eight Points...."
Is it me, or does speaking with an accent actually amplify his annoying mannerisms?
Blair’s final gimmick. Seriously though, they should really have got John Prescott to deliver this speech.
You shouldn't speak French to the French for the same reason you shouldn't give money to beggars - seriously.
I hate to agree with Chris Paul, but I think it was indeed good enough.
I don't like his prissy, hissy little voice, but it wasn't totally ghastly. He is after all, an actor manqué.
And obviously, it was written for him, but sadly, it wasn't that bad.
Translation
"see you next week when we cn both ignore our electorates and sign the EU treaty that none of them wants"
David, what accent? The horrendously English one he is using?
Bonjour, mes amis. Je m'appelle Tony. Jeudi, je vais quitter ma poste ici en Angleterre. Pour moi, la guerre est finis. Tant pis. Conaissez-vous que j'aime bien l'Europe? Et les Francais aussi. Le fromage, le vin, les filles, les grands salaries du gouvernement. Si je signer la constitution europeenne (dans autre nom) avant de partir, et refuser de donner la choix au peuple du Royaume-Uni, puis-je devenir President de L'Europe? Que dites-vous, mes bots?
Merci. Vote ami Tony.
ON BBC parliament they're showing the 1997 General Election result.
Blair is just about to do his "things can only get better" choreography.
It is amazing how the BBC reporters were convinced that Downing Street "had been thrown open to the General Public for the first time in many years"
of course they were all labour party workers and their families.
The point is the media were convinced - was this the media's bias or brilliant spin?
I still can't tell!
PS in those days the PM drove around in a 6 year old car!
Anonymous 8:35 - Funny!
Ah, that furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which announces that an English is about to talk French.
RS
J'ai pensee que M.Blair parle bien le Francais. Et puis. Tout devient clair.
He's no better at it than any other Englishman.
xqpLabour's Director of Communications for their failed Welsh Assembly campaign is NOW denying having the job at all!!
Even though everyone knows he did have it! Check the link, his name is Leighton Andrews AM.
Leighton is a former Lib-dem Parliamentary candidate. He may be doing the chicken walks again soon:
http://blamerbellbriefs.blogspot.com/2007/05/you-my-friends-signify-nothing.html#comment-5897649491349458224
merde (about as far as my French goes!)
Considering how unpopular Bliar is in France, I should think Sarkozy is less than ecstatic at this endorsement from our dear leader.
I would like to know why the left were willing to subvert the political process in the run up to 1997.it was most likely europe imo.there has to be a tangible goal rather than an amorphous 'it's our time' aspiration.
Encul moi!
Even my French is better than that, and the last time I tried to speak Frog, I kept switching into Zulu.
It's been leaked that Blair spent two days with a French coach and camera crew prior to the French election making two versions of this speech. One to cover the event of Sarkozy's win, the other to cover Royal's.
What bugs me about this is why itt was that important and what his game is. Though of course we know what Blair's game is. He wants a tradable legacy, money and revenge via treacherous betrayal of England and Wales aka the EU Constitution. What a traitor.
Auntie Flo'
Clerihew from early 1970s:
Remarked Edward Heath
Baring his teeth
"If I may so speak,
Set un mowmon istoreak"
anon 9.44
the fact that the three main candidates in this election fell over themselves to talk about Blair and his policies is proof enough that he is respected in france, and certainly by sarkozy
Les deux videos (en anglais et en français) ne dites pas la même chose! Alors! Quelle dommage!
Run the film and move the slider slowly backwards through various frames and you can then see Blair attempting to mimic his crude, theatrical stereotype of the French - and his coach through a series of cartoon, Johnny onion characterisations. I think the French will laugh their socks off at this.
Auntie Flo'
Tony Blair proves once again what a ham actor he is, trying to do his poor man's Kenneth Williams impersonation.
The frightening thing is that if you didn't know Blair was the sort of man who would lie to start a war, going by this video clip alone, you might actually think he was a decent chap.
Will he be doing pantomines next?
Ordovicius - why not? He's a horse's arse, after all.
"He is after all, an actor manqué."
but ee seenks, Mlle (sans)Veritee that ee eez ze organ grinder!
"Leighton is a former Lib-dem Parliamentary candidate."
He was a comrade of David Aaronovitch in the NUS Executive. Says it all really.
Can someone please explain what is happening. I think I may have been in a serious accident and have lost my memory.
Why has the Chancellor of the Exchequer gone missing, the Prime Minister speaking French and someone in charge of Scotland who does not think it is part of the UK?
Allo
C'est tony
félicitations
Ségolène /Nicolas
(please edit)
avez-vous une maison de vacances ?
je suis a bit skint a ce moment les enfants avez cleaned me out, et Cherie avez acheté une autre éléphant blanc property wise.
je suis fucking désperate pour un autre vacance.
Re your Twittering, Iain: isn't the Maxwell biopic with David Suchet on the -- ahem -- BBC?
'Allo a Facebook francais! C'est Tony et enchanté de faire la connaissance de tous! Voici ma femme. OK, oubliez la femme!
Je cherche un metier en France. Je suis beau (ou mes amis me dissent je suis beau!) et acteur! Pas tres intelligent, mais avec charisme! J'ai besoin de - ahem - des monnaie et vacances!
C'est Tone@pmsoffice.com! Merci! Voici mon photo!!!!!
I think it was very impressive, and the insecure and jealous French will be extremely flattered by this gesture. After all, English is now the lingua franca of the developed world. For Blair to make the effort to speak the dead language of France will really improve his standing on the continent. Maybe Blair really does want to be the President of the EU.
I live in France. The French, who largely gave England their English language, appreciate any and all efforts by English speakers to talk to them in their own language. So well done. He didn't have to do it...
The French insistence that people speak their language is a manifestation of everything that is wrong with France - inward looking and self-obsessed.
The majority of the French want reform of other manifestations of this attitude. They may not realise it but when the underlying problems are sorted they will stop being so insistent on the language issue.
If this ordurous effort by le petit Tony sets back Anglo-French relations by some years, then unwittingly he may be doing us all a favour. For is it not the unlovely sucking up to the EU, wghich means France and Germany, which has so crippled this country over teh past decades?
While I have no real personal anomosity to the French people as such, I loathe their left-wing, interventionist, molly-coddling regime where you can't sack a French worker without months of bureaucracy and at huge cost. i deplore their weak economy, I despair at their constant promotion of a European super-state (only derailed at the last minute by the narrowest of margins by the people in their now infamous referendum).
In my view France has agreat deal to answer for in the direction that europe and the EU has takemn in the past years. Any distance we can start to put between us is good as it signals that teh new regimes may choose to work apart rather than cosying up together.
No sign of ciourse of independent thought from 'Middle Manager' 'Dave' who is probably even now penning his trite little pensees on how much he loves charcuterie to welcome in Sarko.
Quelle domage (?) Is this a subtle dig at our great leader or a cock up?
I've no idea.
Quel dommage
I haven't listened to the Blair Speech because there is something toe-curlinigly cringeworthy about Englishmen with a smattering of O-level French trying to pass themselves off as fluent Francophones, but then I suppose nobody in France listened either.
verity - boring in any language.
Atta toki, sore wa ichi ban warui hi deshita. Shinde kudasai ne.
He actually carries his relentless short burst style quite well in French.
Surely dommage. Or did Blair right your blog as well Iain?
Petain coup.
Javelin 08:20, read the comment before yours from Casual Observer at 07:20 because you are talking complete bollocks.
Sure, you are rolling out a meaningless and inaccurate stereotype in order to make a point, but it is bollocks all the same.
Casual Observer- I don't agree with you that the French welcome foreigners' attempts to speak their language. They expect nothing less than perfection, and if you make a mistake, they do not, as Anglophones do, try to figure out what you meant. They simply go into uncomprehending shock andget a frightened, furtive look about them.
Hard at Work - I knew there was something niggling at the back of my mind, and that was it! The speech pattern. Those, as you note, relentless little bursts of sincerity.
Anonymous 10:36 - ditto.
Why don't we all bore the readership by writing sentences in a language we speak (in your case, it looks like Japanese - so bloody what? and we think will impress other people who we don't even know? Yawn.
Verity,
Perhaps they just didn't like you.
When you blissfully trot out such tired stereotypes, perhaps their negative reaction to you is no surprise...
Like you above Verity. What a bore you are.
There's a lot of misogyny on blogs. I wonder why.
Apres Moi Le deluge
Wonder if Sarkozy will refuse to come to London and refuse to be photographed with Blair, as Chirac used to.
Yes - he really wants to be the first President of Europe.
Chad dijo...
"Verity,
"Perhaps they just didn't like you.
"When you blissfully trot out such tired stereotypes, perhaps their negative reaction to you is no surprise... ".
"Blissfully" (wha'???) "trot out ... tired stereotypes"? Do you live in France? Have you lived in France? Do you speak perfect French?
Negative reaction to me? Haven't you always found that the reaction of the French to strangers is almost always mannerly? I have.
I didn't say they reacted to a mistake in their language made by a foreigner with dislike, or distaste. I said they react with a panicky sense that they cannot understand and rather than try to figure it out,as Anglophones do, they shut down in a panic. I do not know why this is.
As it happens, I like the French very much and am still in touch with neighbours from my village, and friends from a nearby town, although I left three years ago. But they have correct French drilled into them from year dot and someone making an error in their language seems to throw them.
Actually Verity the Japanese speaking Anon lived in France for seven years. Your French is not as perfect as you think(several mistakes in your short passage, I almost thought it was parody), as no doubt others will testify. I have lived in several other countries and can tell you that if you make mistakes in ANY language it is hard to understand. The French are actually relatively good at understanding their language when it is spoken badly.
And why would an Anon want to show off about anything? Maybe you just aren't as bright as you think...
Il est un vrai con, oui?
Oh, God, another anonymous! It's like an infestation that came over from Guido's. Crawlies.
In my experience, having been going to France since I was a teenager, and of having lived there for three years, in a village where no one speaks English, MY EXPERIENCE is, French people close up when someone makes a mistake in their language.
Anglophones are relaxed and try to figure out what the speaker wanted to convey; French people freeze,not out of rudeness, but because they just can't bounce back. I used to meet a couple of friends twice a week to chat for an hour in English and an hour in French, and whereas I could always figure out what they intended to say when they came out with a totally jumbled sentence with tenses thrown in at random, they would freeze when I got something wrong - not out of unkindness - the three of us were there to learn - but just because somehow their French brains shut down.
Anonymous, who is also the boring Japanese speaker, writes: "Your French is not as perfect as you think".
Did I say anywhere in my post that I thought my French is perfect? Did you understand that that was the point of my post? I was referring to when I MADE A MISTAKE????
Actually, "Anonymous", for yes! It is he!!!! - I don't give a crap where you lived for seven years.
"The French are actually relatively good at understanding their language when it is spoken badly."
No,they are not. This is my point. The French are not rude. Sometimes, their brains freeze and shut down out of shock.
So lofty, insecure, angry little Japanese speaker, which of us is right?
Anglophones - don't know about the Japs as I've only been to Japan three times but wasn't enamoured. It is a testosterone driven, rather creepy, society, so I am sure you adore it. Anglophones all over the world are, forgive my bad French - the ne plus ultra in understanding what foreigners are trying to say in their language.
Spanish speakers have the same talent as Anglophones; they can quickly compute what you thought you were saying and respond to it.
I do hope you understood that my post regarding Tone's Facebook was done in joke French.
In any event, I have noticed that Iain Dale's Diary is becoming nastier and more verbally violent against women. Very many angry men posting here. Don't like uppity women. Many, many anonymouses - unless it's one very verbose anonymous and we must allow for that possibility.
In any event, I'm sick of the violence on Iain Dale's Diary over the last couple of months in particular and don't want to mix around with you angry people, emasculated by your own government.
I mentioned above on this thread
Too many angry men on this place, and I know that I would not like you if I met you in person. The pleasure of posting on a blog is, you know that you would love to meet many of the posters over a drink.
I noted above after 4:26 p.m. that there is too much anger and misogny here.
Verity - very long, and based on your last efforts, not worthy of reading. Proof that quantity does not necessarily bear any relation to quality. In fact I doubt a single person read that effort. And if they did I would suggest they have their head checked.
Some poor sod will have/already has the misfortune to be married to that. Makes you grateful for small mercies really.
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