@Ionus,
We do get along actually. We put up with de Gaulle during the war until it was safe for him to return, there was Suez and now there's this Libyan thing which I'm not sure what to make of.
I have an inherent suspicion of the savers of life. It is so popular you see because if you're saving lives you're a good bloke and you can do it with other people's money, and, heaven forfend, make a profit. So it catches on and we all end up saving each other's lives with each other's money and if there's not enough lives to save to go round, polar bears, bats and sundry other species which are threatened with extinction are wheeled out if they are photogenic enough.
We are very good friends in fact. They can nearly see our best jokes and we can nearly see their's. Neither of us can see anybody else's jokes and have no expectation of anybody else seeing ours.
I am perfectly sure that I couldn't sensibly debate with Francis in French so it is to his credit that his half-assed attempts to debate in English with an Englishman are better than anything I could do reciprocally.
It is easy to debate in English with Americans. I have it on the highest authority that Americans not only don't listen to what is said in a debate but don't expect anybody to listen to what they say either. My authority was making a compliment on American good manners and politeness. It's an ideal etiquette suitable for sophisticated socialisation in those circles where nobody has any interest in learning anything from anyone else which is a cultural given and is better dealt with in that manner than by sitting moping in a room muttering to oneself drinking unmediated alcoholic beverages.
America is where canned laughter was invented so that the audience would know when to laugh.
