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ppauper
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July 5th, 2005, 1:16 pm

chirac, schroder, and putin hammed it up last night for the celebration of Königsberg's 750th birthday:(didn't I see this sketch on Mad TV ?)Quote Chirac: 'The only thing the British have ever given European farming is mad cow'Anglo-French tensions heightened last night after Jacques Chirac delivered a series of insults to Britain as London and Paris fought to secure the 2012 Olympic Games and faced fresh disagreement at the G8 summit.The president, chatting to the German and Russian leaders in a Russian cafe, said: "The only thing [the British] have ever given European farming is mad cow." Then, like generations of French people before him, he also poked fun at British cuisine."You can't trust people who cook as badly as that," he said. "After Finland, it's the country with the worst food.""But what about hamburgers?" said Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, referring to America."Oh no, hamburgers are nothing in comparison," Mr Chirac said.Mr Putin and Gerhard Schröder, the German chancellor, laughed. Mr Chirac then recalled how George Robertson, the former Nato secretary general and a former defence secretary in Tony Blair's Cabinet, had once made him try an "unappetising" Scottish dish, apparently meaning haggis."That's where our problems with Nato come from," he said.Mr Schröder and Mr Putin laughed again.Unfortunately for the leaders, all of whom will be guests of Britain at the G8 summit opening at Gleneagles tomorrow, the remarks were recorded by a journalist without their knowledge and published in the French newspaper Liberation.No 10 reacted with disbelief, saying it would not respond to such undiplomatic comments. British officials were particularly angered by the mad cow remark, saying that France had exacerbated the BSE crisis by refusing to accept British beef after it had been declared safe.Mr Chirac, Mr Schröder and Mr Putin were meeting to prepare for the G8 summit and celebrate the 750th anniversary of Kaliningrad, formerly Königsberg, which was annexed by Russia in 1945. Lorraine Millot, the Liberation reporter who overheard them, said Mr Chirac spoke in French and his counterparts in German. At least three interpreters were present.Miss Millot said she also heard Mr Chirac say it was not his fault that he had been half an hour late for the Queen at a royal banquet to mark the centenary of the entente cordiale in November. He said "the British did not respect protocol".The Prime Minister, in Singapore to push London's bid for the Olympics against the favourite, Paris, was said to be furious when told of the comments. But officials said that, as the holder of the G8 and EU presidencies, he was determined to retain the moral high ground."There are some things that are just not responded to," his official spokesman said.Mr Blair's relations with Mr Chirac were already at a low ebb after rows over the Common Agricultural Policy and Britain's EU rebate compounded deep disagreement over the Iraq war.Mr Blair is likely to use the Gleneagles meeting to make a fresh pitch for reform of the CAP. He will argue that, while it helps to prop up French agriculture, it harms developing nations by denying them the chance to compete with subsidised EU farmers.
 
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ppauper
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July 5th, 2005, 1:20 pm

the brits react:QuoteChirac's reheated food jokes bring Blair to the boil Take one unpopular president, a brace of struggling statesmen and a couple of global summits. Heat up a hoary national stereotype, leaven with wit, sit back and watch "les rosbifs" simmer.Jacques Chirac stirred the pot at a meeting in Russia on Sunday when he joked to Vladimir Putin and Gerhard Schröder that the British could not be trusted and worse food was only found in Finland.The French president declared that the only thing the British have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow disease, the French daily Libération reported.Mr Chirac then reportedly said: "You can't trust people who cook as badly as that. After Finland, it's the country with the worst food."His jibes may have amused Mr Putin and Mr Schröder, but they are unlikely to have pleased members of the Paris 2012 bid team lobbying the International Olympic Committee in Singapore. Mr Chirac's absence while Tony Blair has been working on London's behalf has been noted, but Paris officials have excused it by insisting that the president would arrive in time for the final presentation on Wednesday, which Mr Blair will miss.As a Michelin-starred Scottish chef put the final touches to his French-inspired menu for G8 leaders at Gleneagles, Mr Chirac recalled how the former Nato secretary general George Robertson, a Scot, once insisted he try a Scottish speciality, believed to be haggis."That's where our problems with Nato come from," he said.The chef advising on the menu, Andrew Fairlie, who trained under Michel Guérard in France, describes his cooking as "unashamedly French but with a Scottish twist".French aides said the quotes attributed to Mr Chirac did not "reflect the tone or the content" of the meeting in Russia. But Mr Blair made what appeared to be a reference to Mr Chirac's outburst when asked if Gleneagles would be an anticlimax after Singapore."I won't say the G8 summit would be an anticlimax to it because that would be undiplomatic and I know when I go there I will be in the presence of very diplomatic people," he said.British chefs were less restrained. "Bollocks," said Antony Worrall Thompson. "Chirac doesn't get out enough."Our beef is the best in the world ... indeed, don't mad cows taste the best ?QuoteAll the langoustines they eat are Scottish. So I'd serve him langoustines followed by good Aberdeen Angus beef and then give him a heart attack with some sticky toffee pudding."Meanwhile Egon Ronay, the food critic, said: "A man full of bile is not fit to pronounce on food."And today German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said he was looking forward to a "decent steak" at this week's G8 summit in Scotland.I understand he's getting it fedexed in from the continent ?QuoteSchroeder refused to discuss Chirac's reported remarks at a news conference. "No word from me on these secret talks," the chancellor said. He also responded cautiously when asked whether he was looking forward to the food at the G8 summit, which opens Wednesday in Gleneagles, Scotland."I'm no fan of salmon, and I hope I will get a decent steak - I'm sure I will get one," a smiling Schroeder said. "Beyond that, I don't know English - or Scottish - cuisine well enough that I could really talk as an expert."
Last edited by ppauper on July 4th, 2005, 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
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migalley
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July 5th, 2005, 2:13 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: ppauperJacques Chirac stirred the pot at a meeting in Russia on Sunday when he joked to Vladimir Putin and Gerhard Schröder that the British could not be trusted and worse food was only found in Finland.I wonder what the Finns did to piss Chirac off...
 
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htmlballsup
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July 5th, 2005, 2:25 pm

Probably something to do with pickling fish.....Personally I think he's due a dose of food poisoning after that one.....
 
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mikebell
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July 5th, 2005, 2:26 pm

Heheh... trolling on the world stage.
Last edited by mikebell on July 4th, 2005, 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
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Cuchulainn
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July 5th, 2005, 2:55 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: mikebellHeheh... trolling on the world stage. Don't see either USA or China in either of these scenarios?
 
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mdubuque
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July 5th, 2005, 5:12 pm

I'm not sure that the USA and GB are holding all the cards here.I'm not at all sure the situation in Iraq is under control. In the event of maximum chaos occurring there (assassination of al-Sistani or a dirty bomb inside the Green Zone for example) the USA is highly likely to come begging to Germany and France and Russia for assistance.Matthew
 
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Marsden
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July 5th, 2005, 6:08 pm

It has been difficult for me, on an occasion or two, not to go back into the kitchen in a British restaraunt and show them how to cook a steak. It's sad that cattle are killed for the way beef is prepared in Britain (exception: Yorkshire pudding). I think it all goes back to the Celtic era when their idea of high dining was to fill rock-lined pits in the ground with water and then drop rocks taken from a bonfire into it long enough to boil a bull carcass.
 
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ppauper
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July 16th, 2005, 12:41 pm

QuoteWe're better than the British, says ChiracPresident Jacques Chirac celebrated Bastille Day yesterday by insisting that France had no need to "envy or copy" Britain.Whether the point of comparison was food, health, education or science, France was in far better shape than its old rival, he said.Mr Chirac, embattled by a run of crushing defeats and record low ratings in the polls, had clearly decided that the best form of defence was attack."I have a lot of esteem for the British people and for Tony Blair," he said. "But I do not believe that the British social model is a model that we should copy or envy."In his annual Bastille Day television interview he did concede that unemployment was lower in Britain than in France, where it is running at more than 10 per cent. But in public health and tackling poverty the French were "much better placed than the British", he said.France put a higher percentage of its national wealth into education and scientific research than Britain, Mr Chirac added - "So I don't envy their model."His remarks were in stark contrast to recent comments by his popular interior minister and bitter rival, Nicolas Sarkozy, who extolled the "Anglo-Saxon model" Mr Chirac so reviles.Mr Sarkozy even dared to ask out loud whether it was "France that is wrong and the world that is right".Mr Chirac's response was not only a rebuff to Mr Sarkozy but also part of a concerted campaign to restore French pride at a time of national soul-searching and gloom.His tub-thumping included French cuisine, which he said undoubtedly played a part in the nation's exceptionally high life expectancy.An interviewer, referring to Mr Chirac's recent disparaging comments about British food, asked whether he really did consider it the world's worst. "No, no, I did not say that," he replied, a factually correct answer as far as it went, as he had put British cooking second from bottom, above Finland.Next in Mr Chirac's litany of praise came his country's birth rate, the highest in Europe with Ireland's, and its status as the world's "second agricultural power".He reiterated his refusal to make "the slightest concession" on the Common Agricultural Policy, which the Prime Minister argues is in need of urgent reform because it takes up 40 per cent of the EU budget. Behind all Mr Chirac's macho chest-beating hides a man struggling to salvage his reputation. More and more, the French are wondering how he can carry on as president for two more years when the polls show that fewer than one person in three trusts him.Asked whether he was worried that France was tired of him, Mr Chirac said: "It is up to the French to decide, not me." He said he had carried out his duties as he thought best. He even left his options open about running for a third term in 2007, saying that he would respond "at the appropriate time".Mr Chirac's international credibility has suffered serious damage since French voters' rejection of the European constitution, his bruising clash with Mr Blair over Europe and the failure of Paris to win the race to hold the Olympic Games in 2012. But he remained bullish."When I am outside France, I absolutely do not feel on the defensive," he said. "I feel sure of myself."The president played down reports that Mr Sarkozy had tartly suggested scrapping the traditional July 14 interview because most people would be "at the beach".The annual television appearance was "without doubt of interest," Mr Chirac ruminated. "It is always good to launch debates."Before the interview, the president and guests, including Sir John Holmes, the British ambassador to France, observed two minutes' silence in memory of the victims of the London bombings last Thursday."No country is sheltered from terrorist attacks," Mr Chirac said.He was flanked at the Bastille Day military parade on the Champs Elysées by his guest of honour, President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva, of Brazil.Thousands of people lined the streets as French jet fighters roared over, leaving a trail of red, white and blue, followed by Brazilian Tucano aircraft trailing the yellow and green of Brazil's flag to mark the year of "Brazil in France".Security was tight to ward off any possible terrorist attacks, with more than 5,000 police officers patrolling the capital.