Entente Cordiale

[Xollob]

On television last night I saw Tony Blair engaged in furtive conversation with Jacques le Lad at the European summit, and it didn't look like they were using an interpreter.
Is Tony a closet French speaker, or can Chirac speak English when he thinks no one is looking?

[bernardo]

Neither.  Jacques Chirac is well-known to be a fluent English speaker, and Tony Blair is well-known to be a fluent French speaker.  There's nothing secret about either, and they have both spoken in each other's languages publicly many times.

[jno]

Blair speaks French and Chirac speaks English; nothing closet about either of them. Both are well known to be keen on Europe, though both are constrained by domestic voters who aren't and who are shocked at the thought of speaking two languages.

[jno]

sorry, crossed with bernardo there

[Loosehead]

Yep, apparrenty TB spent a couple of years working in France in his student days and is a fluent French speaker. Which is of course completely out of order, does'nt he realise that for at least 2 centuries it has been the job of the British Prime minister to murder the French language by ham fisted attempts at it! Reference, Heath, Wilson etc!

[Xollob]

Many thanks for the answers. I have never heard Tony speaking French, nor have I heard Jacques parling anglais. I have obviously underestimated both.
I'd still be interested in learning what language they speak during their t�te-�-t�tes.

[Loosehead]

That's easy, they speak Politician a sub dialect of the bovine guano!

[bernardo]

One incident was a few years ago when Jacques Chirac was in Jerusalem (or somewhereish) and the local Israeli security police (or whoever they were) were getting a bit heavy-handed with some peaceful Palestinian demonstrators.  Chirac started lecturing them in English and was telling them to calm down a bit.  I don't remember the exact details of who/where, but it was shown on the news at the time.  It may even have involved Yassir Arafat being jostled (or whatever).

[maxi29]

I was going to ask this question too. What intrigues me though is *what*language they speak and how do they decide. Does Jacques speak in French and TB answer in English (or vice versa)? Do they speak in the host's language or in the guest's? Do they agree to speak in on language on one day and the other on another? Is there a power struggle over the language?
Any lip readers on here who knows what they're saying? :-)