الرئيسية
France is giving Britain a "good kicking", deputy premier Nick Clegg
said in an interview out Saturday, as the spat over each other's
economies rumbled on.
Clegg warned against lurches into xenophobia
and chauvinism, the day after telling French Prime Minister Francois
Fillon to "calm the rhetoric" as Britain hit back at French criticism of
its finances.
The deputy prime minister said it was important to
"keep a level head while others are losing theirs", as he vowed to mend
bridges in the European Union.
The cross-Channel row comes after
Britain clashed with France at a dramatic EU summit last week when
British Prime Minister David Cameron refused to join members of the
eurozone currency bloc in a new fiscal pact.
"We all need to go
away, have a bit of hiatus, a bit of time to have Christmas, to eat some
mince pies or whatever the French equivalent is. Everyone is a bit
tired," Clegg told The Guardian newspaper.
The Liberal Democrat leader said Britain may be getting caught in the cross-fire of the French presidential election campaign.
"There
is nothing more popular in French politics -- it has always been the
case and it will always be so -- than giving 'perfidious Albion' a good
kicking from time to time," he said.
"At the end of the day,
France and Britain have always worked out it is better to work together
rather than shout at each other across the Channel."
The Guardian said Clegg, a europhile, admitted a repair job was needed to fix relations with Britain's European partners.
He
said that "the great genius" of European integration was balancing
Britain's "liberal tradition with the French dirigiste tradition".
"The
danger at the moment is because society is under economic stress,
xenophobia, chauvinism and polarisation increase," he warned.
Taking
a swipe at "the politics of grievance and blame", he said: "Far from
being un-British, I think it is incredibly British -- we are not going
to be allowed to be pushed from one extreme to another.
"We are going to keep a level head while others are losing theirs."
said in an interview out Saturday, as the spat over each other's
economies rumbled on.
Clegg warned against lurches into xenophobia
and chauvinism, the day after telling French Prime Minister Francois
Fillon to "calm the rhetoric" as Britain hit back at French criticism of
its finances.
The deputy prime minister said it was important to
"keep a level head while others are losing theirs", as he vowed to mend
bridges in the European Union.
The cross-Channel row comes after
Britain clashed with France at a dramatic EU summit last week when
British Prime Minister David Cameron refused to join members of the
eurozone currency bloc in a new fiscal pact.
"We all need to go
away, have a bit of hiatus, a bit of time to have Christmas, to eat some
mince pies or whatever the French equivalent is. Everyone is a bit
tired," Clegg told The Guardian newspaper.
The Liberal Democrat leader said Britain may be getting caught in the cross-fire of the French presidential election campaign.
"There
is nothing more popular in French politics -- it has always been the
case and it will always be so -- than giving 'perfidious Albion' a good
kicking from time to time," he said.
"At the end of the day,
France and Britain have always worked out it is better to work together
rather than shout at each other across the Channel."
The Guardian said Clegg, a europhile, admitted a repair job was needed to fix relations with Britain's European partners.
He
said that "the great genius" of European integration was balancing
Britain's "liberal tradition with the French dirigiste tradition".
"The
danger at the moment is because society is under economic stress,
xenophobia, chauvinism and polarisation increase," he warned.
Taking
a swipe at "the politics of grievance and blame", he said: "Far from
being un-British, I think it is incredibly British -- we are not going
to be allowed to be pushed from one extreme to another.
"We are going to keep a level head while others are losing theirs."