The Inglish lorve to shoot thsemseves in ze foot, writes Clouseau le Chien. Not ones to get emotional about anything, they do when it comes putting ze Queens' head on coins.

They do not, like the Americans, start crying every time they see their flag being hoisted. Nor do start goosestepping when they hear their national anthem being played, like some of our ozer neighbours.

When it comes to the Euro however, zey become even more red than they were in their last holiday on the Costa del Sol. Beetroot is perhaps a better description. It iz now, when the economy begins to sour, that you will begin to see ze real point of ze Euro. It is not a question, as some would have you believe, of America or Europe, but one of keeping money supply as far away from ze whims of politicians and their electoral concerns (do they have any other concens?)

I remember when our Patrie, the République Française, tried to prevent this from being the ze case. Remember their appointment of Jean Claude Trichet? The Président of the time (you know who) insisted that the appointment of head of the European Central Bank must be a Frenchman.

The "Fritz," as De Gaulle used to call zem, did not agree.

A compromise was eventually reached whereby Wim Duisenberg would be the Central Banker for a half term and Trichet for the second half. Unfortunately for Chirac, Trichet turned out to be a rather good banker who was immune to political meddling.