Did You Take Offence?

Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions. The language of international diplomacy is largely english these days, but paris produces some grand masters of the great game. France prides itself on its diplomatic traditions, and perhaps with good reason. There was a time when it seemed to me that in every european union meeting, we were out smarted by the french. And i remember sitting here thinking, why? Why is this an nactually, it's a variant of what churchill said.