Paul Carmichael wrote:
> Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
>
>> Some 35-40 years ago, when Edward Heath was a very pro-EEC Prime
>> Minister, Harold Wilson was Leader of the Opposition (and of the Labour
>> Party) and Jeremy Thorpe was Leader of the Liberal Party, the three of
>> them were having a conversation in French with the then Prime Minister
>> of France (probably Pompidou), with only Thorpe and Pompidou doing any
>> real participating, the other two nodding their heads and say "oui,
oui"
>> from time to time. After a while Thorpe said, "you know, these two
>> idiots don't understand a word we're saying", at which Pompidou laughed
>> and the other two continued to beam and nod their heads.
>
> Let's not make the mistake though, of calling someone an idiot just
> because they don't understand a largley irrelevant language.
>
> However, I'm not saying they weren't idiots.
Their idiocy lay not in their not knowing French, but in pretending they
did
when they didn't.
--
Les
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