‘They vote like they cook, it’s diabolical’
TWITTER was the go-to soapbox on Friday for the French to vent their anger — and digs at “Les
Anglais” — over the Brexit vote. The hashtag #BonDebarras — Good Riddance — spoke for itself, but one user sniped: “Les
Anglais are beginning to realise that most Europeans are delighted that they are splitting.”
Other snarky tweets recalled that Britain had always had an arm’s-length relationship with the EU, having opted out of the euro, the Schengen visa zone and the Common Agricultural Policy. “Have they ever really been part of the EU?” one asked.
Said another: “They were a pain in the ass when they wanted in, now they’re a pain in the ass going out: The English are the cats of Europe.”
In the midst of the Euro 2016 football championship, with a possible quarterfinal showdown looming between England and France, many questioned whether the English side still had the right to take part. “Let’s kick out the England team. They don’t have visas,” one tweet said.
The inevitable references to British cuisine (not) included one tweet posting a picture of Marmite, calling it “a little something the English can keep all for themselves”.
“The English . . . vote like they cook, it’s diabolical,” another said.
A photo captioned “Brexit in one picture” showed a table laden with an abundance of European food, including a French pastry, German sausage and Italian pasta, with a bowl of baked beans off in a corner.
Using the age-old French term of endearment for the English —
Les Rosbifs, an approximation of “roast beef” — another Twitternaut wrote: “To celebrate this historic British referendum day I’ve enjoyed the traditional feast of Les Rosbifs: curry.”
One tweet stood out as a reminder of why the English and the French have been entwined in a love-hate relationship for centuries. It read: “The English are really a proud and stupid people. You’d think they were French.” —