French wonder what’s in Britain’s pants

Twenty three years after Jacques Chirac wondered whether the redoubtable “housewife” Margaret Thatcher wanted his “balls on a plate”, reproductive organs are once again on the Franco-British menu with less than entente cordiale comments made by France's Europe minister, Pierre Lellouche. According to the Guardian, Monsieur Lellouche considers that the British Conservatives' Eurosceptic stance is "castrating" Britain’s position in the EU. Not content with bewailing the contents of the United Kingdom’s trousers, he further terms David Cameron approach to the Union "autistic". The minister’s bullish comments came on the day that Tory leader David Cameron outlined a new EU stance in the wake of the full ratification of the Lisbon treaty, in which he pledged that a future Conservative government “would seek to strengthen British sovereignty and repatriate a series of powers over social and employment legislation”. "It's pathetic,” fulminated the former advisor to ex-President Chirac. “It's just very sad to see Britain, so important in Europe, just cutting itself out from the rest and disappearing from the radar map”. On the BBC, William Hague, shadow Foreign Secretary, denied that there was anything wrong with the UK’s equipment. "I don't think you will find that's representative of the reaction in Paris or other European capitals," he offered.