With exaggerated handshakes, beaming smiles and backslapping, Emmanuel Macron and Rishi Sunak heralded a new dawn in Anglo-French relations when they met in Paris last Friday.
The Elysee Palace summit bringing together the French president and UK prime minister was a significant and welcome success. Gone were the frostiness and childish provocations that Mr Sunak’s predecessors often displayed following the 2016 UK referendum to leave the EU.
After those years of petty squabbles in which the UK seemed intent on picking fights with France and France duly reciprocated, it may be premature to suggest – as Mr Sunak did – that the famous entente cordiale of 1904 has been renewed. But here, in the heart of Paris, were two smart former investment bankers keen to show they could do business together.
Amid all the bonhomie and talk of le bromance, it may be churlish to inject a cautionary note that all could be undone by dangers that lie ahead.
The key element of the Paris meeting was a deal on tackling the stubborn problem of small boats carrying unauthorised immigrants from northern France to the shores of southern England. The UK will pay €541 million ($577m) over the next three years to fund hundreds more French law enforcement officers along the Channel coast. The UK will also help with the cost of opening a detention centre in France to handle those hoping to start new lives in a Britain that doesn’t want them.
London, of course, separately has its own plan. A new bill presented by Mr Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman would see migrants who do make the crossing quickly deported and forever barred from obtaining British asylum or nationality. There looms the potential for future discord.
Mr Sunak will not have expected an early sign of the regenerated entente to be enthusiastic acclaim from the French far right. Eric Zemmour, a rabble-rouser whose wild theories of a “great replacement” of Europeans by incoming Muslims makes his fellow presidential contender Marine Le Pen appear almost moderate, congratulated the prime minister for “protecting his people against submersion by migrants”.
Macron harbours deep-rooted loathing for right-wing extremism. And that is precisely how critics regard the Sunak-Braverman policy
For all his unpopularity with the French left, which resents his transition from serving in Francois Hollande’s socialist government to becoming, in the familiar taunt, a “president for the rich”, Mr Macron harbours deep-rooted loathing for right-wing extremism.
And that is precisely how critics regard the Sunak-Braverman policy. Not the “tough but compassionate” solution they claim, aimed at smashing gangs of traffickers and saving migrants from the risk of drowning in perilous seas, but a squalid attack on vulnerable people. From human rights lawyers, charities and lobby groups to senior church figures, the proposed legislation has been condemned as immoral, unjust and unworkable. The UN Refugee Agency sharply rebuked “an asylum ban extinguishing the right to seek refugee protection in the UK”.
Just as the bill was receiving this barrage of hostile scrutiny, along to the rescue came the distraction of synthetic outrage at tweeted comments by the sports broadcaster and former footballer Gary Lineker.
In the explosion of controversy that followed his portrayal of the policy as “immeasurably cruel” and presented in language resonant of 1930s Germany, attention was inevitably diverted from the policy itself. The BBC’s decision to suspend Lineker (before revoking the suspension on Monday) not only led to disruption of weekend football coverage but was denounced as either craven surrender to a howling mob or the result – denied by the BBC – of unseemly government pressure.
What needs to be emphasised over and again is the UK government’s own admission that the legislation may well fall foul of international law. If blocked in the courts, as several observers believe is likely, Mr Sunak will then be urged by hard-right colleagues to solve this legal inconvenience by withdrawing Britain from the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). Mr Sunak insists that is not his intention. Opponents suspect it may be what he does want – an opportunity to use the ECHR as a political ploy to salvage his Conservative party’s dismal electoral standing ahead of a general election due by the beginning of 2025.
None of the main parties of the UK and France are above the temptation to chase right-wing support. For a certain kind of voter, immigrants are a handy scapegoat for whatever ills beset their country.
Mr Sunak’s parliamentary party has grown increasingly more hardline, with old-fashioned one-nation Tories squeezed out or silenced by the shrill polemic of populists. While a handful of Conservatives nobly share reservations about the immigration policy, few modern Tory MPs would fit comfortably into the centrist parliamentary party of Mr Macron.
In a House of Commons discussion of the small boats issue in January, one Conservative backbencher, Jonathan Gullis, responded to disturbing reports of 200 missing unaccompanied migrant children by saying: “Well, they shouldn’t have come here illegally.” The remark is misplaced on the lips of a former teacher. Mr Gullis may be an extreme example of radical Conservative thinking, and it is to the credit of Mr Sunak’s party that there are still members who find his boorish, unsympathetic outlook embarrassing. But plenty do share his sentiments and dearly wish for the UK to distance itself from the ECHR, an institution with lofty origins in defending people’s rights after the Second World War.
In the end, the prime minister may have to choose between restoring respectable conservatism and seeking electoral salvation by appealing to baser human instincts.
For all the friendliness of their current dealings, it is difficult to see Mr Macron or other French political heavyweights seeing departure from the ECHR as anything other than an affront to diplomatic decency. It would also be incompatible with the Good Friday Agreement that brought relative peace to Northern Ireland, compromising another reason for the improved ties.
For now, the two leaders have pressing domestic issues on their minds.
Mr Macron has embarked on a trial of strength with unions vehemently opposed to his cornerstone reform, a plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. He says this is necessary if France is to continue to fund the needs of a population living longer. It may appear to be a mild reform, to be achieved in any case in the gentlest of increments, but it has brought hundreds of thousands on to the streets.
Likewise, Mr Sunak is grappling with a raft of public service pay disputes. Doctors, nurses, ambulance crews, teachers, transport workers and even driving test examiners are among those demanding rises to compensate for the damage to living standards caused by rocketing inflation and years of real-term wage stagnation.
But however slowly, cross-Channel tensions could return, fuelled not by wounded pride after France’s crushing rugby defeat of England at Twickenham but by competing philosophies on humanitarian issues.
Of the two, Mr Sunak probably has more to do if he genuinely hopes the embryonic rapprochement of today can grow into a lasting feature of his political legacy.
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
Usain Bolt's World Championships record
2007 Osaka
200m Silver
4x100m relay Silver
2009 Berlin
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2011 Daegu
100m Disqualified in final for false start
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2013 Moscow
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2015 Beijing
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
More from Aya Iskandarani
KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN MARITIME DISPUTE
2000: Israel withdraws from Lebanon after nearly 30 years without an officially demarcated border. The UN establishes the Blue Line to act as the frontier.
2007: Lebanon and Cyprus define their respective exclusive economic zones to facilitate oil and gas exploration. Israel uses this to define its EEZ with Cyprus
2011: Lebanon disputes Israeli-proposed line and submits documents to UN showing different EEZ. Cyprus offers to mediate without much progress.
2018: Lebanon signs first offshore oil and gas licencing deal with consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.
2018-2019: US seeks to mediate between Israel and Lebanon to prevent clashes over oil and gas resources.
SPECS
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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China
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3.
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UAE
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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The biog
Age: 19
Profession: medical student at UAE university
Favourite book: The Ocean at The End of The Lane by Neil Gaiman
Role model: Parents, followed by Fazza (Shiekh Hamdan bin Mohammed)
Favourite poet: Edger Allen Poe
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Notable cricketers and political careers
- India: Kirti Azad, Navjot Sidhu and Gautam Gambhir (rumoured)
- Pakistan: Imran Khan and Shahid Afridi (rumoured)
- Sri Lanka: Arjuna Ranatunga, Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan (rumoured)
- Bangladesh (Mashrafe Mortaza)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The view from The National
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
more from Janine di Giovanni
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The Settlers
Director: Louis Theroux
Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz
Rating: 5/5
The%20specs
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MATCH DETAILS
Juventus 2 (Bonucci 36, Ronaldo 90 6)
Genoa 1 (Kouame 40)
The specs: 2019 BMW X4
Price, base / as tested: Dh276,675 / Dh346,800
Engine: 3.0-litre turbocharged in-line six-cylinder
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 354hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 500Nm @ 1,550rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 9.0L / 100km
Profile
Co-founders of the company: Vilhelm Hedberg and Ravi Bhusari
Launch year: In 2016 ekar launched and signed an agreement with Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi. In January 2017 ekar launched in Dubai in a partnership with the RTA.
Number of employees: Over 50
Financing stage: Series B currently being finalised
Investors: Series A - Audacia Capital
Sector of operation: Transport
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
The specs: McLaren 600LT
Price, base: Dh914,000
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 600hp @ 7,500rpm
Torque: 620Nm @ 5,500rpm
Fuel economy 12.2.L / 100km
NEW ARRIVALS
Benjamin Mendy (Monaco) - £51.75m (Dh247.94m)
Kyle Walker (Tottenham Hotspur) - £45.9m
Bernardo Silva (Monaco) - £45m
Ederson Moraes (Benfica) - £36m
Danilo (Real Madrid) - £27m
Douglas Luiz (Vasco de Gama) - £10.8m
The specs
Engine: 5.2-litre V10
Power: 640hp at 8,000rpm
Torque: 565Nm at 6,500rpm
Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch auto
Price: From Dh1 million
On sale: Q3 or Q4 2022
PSG's line up
GK: Alphonse Areola (youth academy)
Defence - RB: Dani Alves (free transfer); CB: Marquinhos (€31.4 million); CB: Thiago Silva (€42m); LB: Layvin Kurzawa (€23m)
Midfield - Angel di Maria (€47m); Adrien Rabiot (youth academy); Marco Verratti (€12m)
Forwards - Neymar (€222m); Edinson Cavani (€63m); Kylian Mbappe (initial: loan; to buy: €180m)
Total cost: €440.4m (€620.4m if Mbappe makes permanent move)
Mental%20health%20support%20in%20the%20UAE
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Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
Company%20Profile
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The specs
Price: From Dh529,000
Engine: 5-litre V8
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Power: 520hp
Torque: 625Nm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.8L/100km
Star%20Wars%3A%20Episode%20I%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Phantom%20Menace
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Other simple ideas for sushi rice dishes
Cheat’s nigiri
This is easier to make than sushi rolls. With damp hands, form the cooled rice into small tablet shapes. Place slices of fresh, raw salmon, mackerel or trout (or smoked salmon) lightly touched with wasabi, then press, wasabi side-down, onto the rice. Serve with soy sauce and pickled ginger.
Easy omurice
This fusion dish combines Asian fried rice with a western omelette. To make, fry cooked and cooled sushi rice with chopped vegetables such as carrot and onion and lashings of sweet-tangy ketchup, then wrap in a soft egg omelette.
Deconstructed sushi salad platter
This makes a great, fuss-free sharing meal. Arrange sushi rice on a platter or board, then fill the space with all your favourite sushi ingredients (edamame beans, cooked prawns or tuna, tempura veggies, pickled ginger and chilli tofu), with a dressing or dipping sauce on the side.
Racecard
2pm Handicap Dh 90,000 1,800m
2.30pm Handicap Dh120,000 1,950m
3pm Handicap Dh105,000 1,600m
3.30pm Jebel Ali Classic Conditions Dh300,000 1,400m
4pm Maiden Dh75,000 1,600m
4.30pm Conditions Dh250,000 1,400m
5pm Maiden Dh75,000 1,600m
5.30pm Handicap Dh85,000 1,000m
The National selections:
2pm Arch Gold
2.30pm Conclusion
3pm Al Battar
3.30pm Golden Jaguar
4pm Al Motayar
4.30pm Tapi Sioux
5pm Leadership
5.30pm Dahawi
Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
Honeymoonish
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The Penguin
Starring: Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz
Creator: Lauren LeFranc
Rating: 4/5
Winners
Best Men's Player of the Year: Kylian Mbappe (PSG)
Maradona Award for Best Goal Scorer of the Year: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
TikTok Fans’ Player of the Year: Robert Lewandowski
Top Goal Scorer of All Time: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Best Women's Player of the Year: Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)
Best Men's Club of the Year: Chelsea
Best Women's Club of the Year: Barcelona
Best Defender of the Year: Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus/Italy)
Best Goalkeeper of the Year: Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG/Italy)
Best Coach of the Year: Roberto Mancini (Italy)
Best National Team of the Year: Italy
Best Agent of the Year: Federico Pastorello
Best Sporting Director of the Year: Txiki Begiristain (Manchester City)
Player Career Award: Ronaldinho
