Howard Davies on French plans that could cost UK dear

Howard Davies and Maria Zhivitskaya say critics of a new law allowing foreign-language instruction are fighting lost Proustian battles. Almost 20 years ago Jacques Toubon, who was then the minister of culture in France, passed a law that mandated the use of French in all government publications and in the advertisements and websites of commercial bodies. The law has been widely ignored, although a couple of American companies have been fined for egregious breaches. Toubon himself has passed into history as a figure of fun, once famously greeted by a group of French students singing “Happy Birthday, Mister Allgood”. Read more...