In January 2014, news broke that French President Francois Hollande had been having an affair with the actress Julie Gayet. The details were very Parisian — he’d been taking his moped to her apartment, where his security detail would deliver croissants after their liaisons dangereuses.
I was working in Paris at the time, and the reaction in France was also typically Gallic.
Monsieur Le President had a right to privacy and, well, at last there was some intrigue surrounding the technocrat critics had dubbed “Flanby” after an unexciting caramel pudding. In a country known for its insouciance for philandering politicians, his approval ratings actually went up.
It wasn’t until Mr Hollande visited Britain that month that he got his first real interrogation over the affair. Standing alongside then-prime minister David Cameron at an RAF base in the Cotswolds, a reporter from the London press pack asked Mr Hollande about the “very sensitive subject”.
“Do you think your private life has made France an international joke?” the Daily Telegraph correspondent asked.
Mr Hollande, of course, ducked the provocative question, which generated chortles from the Brits, whose journalists rightly pride themselves on taking a much more combative stance than their deferential peers in France and on US news networks.
At the time, I too chuckled.
But the incident has been replaying in my mind with less mirth as I watch on from the US, my adopted home, as my native country lurches from one self-inflicted catastrophe to the next.
The smug assumption of 2014 that Britain could somehow be the arbiter of which other nations are a “joke” has come full circle as the world laughs at a poorer, colder and smaller UK, untethered from the world stage after Brexit and now on its third prime minister since Mr Cameron.
Asked at a Singapore summit hosted by the Milken Institute last week whether the UK is behaving like an “emerging market”, Jeff Gardner, a senior portfolio strategist at Bridgewater Associates, gave a withering assessment.
“Maybe not so much an emerging market, because I think that might be an insult to emerging markets,” he told the panel to laughter.
He is hardly the only one to mock Britain.
Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers said the UK was "behaving a bit like an emerging market turning itself into a submerging market".
“Between Brexit, how far the Bank of England got behind the curve and now these fiscal policies, I think Britain will be remembered for having pursued the worst macroeconomic policies of any major country in a long time.”
Twitter wags were quick to pile on too, depicting Mr Kwarteng as a “Kamikwazi” pilot bent on his own destruction. The Economist ran a leader entitled: How not to run a country.
Predictably, Ms Truss on Monday was forced into a U-turn, conceding that now is not the best time to plunge Britain more into debt and further devalue the pound.
It is not clear if Ms Truss is clinging to the disproven voodoo economics playbook that unfunded tax cuts for the richest somehow “trickle down” into better conditions for the rest of us, or if she is trying to implement early 1980s US economic policies in a 2020s post-pandemic, post-Brexit Britain.
Ms Truss already knows about U-turns, having been against Brexit before she was for it, pro-republican before she was a monarchist, and so on. She perhaps honed her reverse-driving skills under Boris Johnson, who abruptly changed course on dozens of policy proposals.
Since the latest reversal, the pound has recouped some of its losses after it nearly hit parity with the dollar last week.
Britain's woes should be considered in the context of the gloomy global economic picture, and Brexit coincided with the pandemic and many worsening global crises over which the UK alone has little say.
But after lurching from a bodged departure from the EU, to three years of infighting under Theresa May, to the moral and intellectual abyss of Boris Johnson's tenure, Ms Truss and her Conservative Party may have run out of room for manoeuvre. They are now polling 33 points behind Labour, and the Brits have a winter of discontent ahead as inflation remains stubbornly high, energy bills are set to soar again and a recession is all but certain.
It must all be très drôle for Monsieur Hollande and his now-wife Madame Gayet. Presumably they are chuckling over their croissants.
A new relationship with the old country
Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates
The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:
ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 2 The Contracting Parties shall encourage education, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two States in accordance with arrangements to be agreed. Such arrangements shall cover among other things: (a) the promotion of mutual understanding of their respective cultures, civilisations and languages, the promotion of contacts among professional bodies, universities and cultural institutions; (c) the encouragement of technical, scientific and cultural exchanges.
ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.
ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.
DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.
Signed
Geoffrey Arthur Sheikh Zayed
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Fast%20X
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CHELSEA'S NEXT FIVE GAMES
Mar 10: Norwich(A)
Mar 13: Newcastle(H)
Mar 16: Lille(A)
Mar 19: Middlesbrough(A)
Apr 2: Brentford(H)
MATCH INFO
Fulham 0
Aston Villa 3 (Grealish 4', Hourihane 15', Mings 48')
Man of the match: Jack Grealish (Aston Villa)
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
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Brief scores:
Liverpool 3
Mane 24', Shaqiri 73', 80'
Manchester United 1
Lingard 33'
Man of the Match: Fabinho (Liverpool)
Results
Stage 7:
1. Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto Soudal - 3:18:29
2. Sam Bennett (IRL) Deceuninck-QuickStep - same time
3. Phil Bauhaus (GER) Bahrain Victorious
4. Michael Morkov (DEN) Deceuninck-QuickStep
5. Cees Bol (NED) Team DSM
General Classification:
1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates - 24:00:28
2. Adam Yates (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers - 0:00:35
3. Joao Almeida (POR) Deceuninck-QuickStep - 0:01:02
4. Chris Harper (AUS) Jumbo-Visma - 0:01:42
5. Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-Nippo - 0:01:45
