Why should our children be more like the French?

I’ve no particular beef with the French, gruesomely tortured beef as it would no doubt be, but I’m a little tired of being told we ought to follow their example with our children. Elizabeth Truss, the normally quite sensible education minister, is the latest culprit. She believes that Britain’s nurseries are chaotic, noisy places. Children would be better prepared for school, she feels, if British nurseries were more like French nurseries, in which toddlers wear couture, click their heels whenever an adult enters the room, and never laugh.

I daresay she’s right, just as I’m sure people are often right when they marvel at the flawless behaviour of little French people. But they always seem to be overlooking something pretty major, which is that little French people turn into big French people. And pleasant as the French can be, in a social or catering trade capacity, they do also often give the impression of being unhappy, humourless philanderers, somewhat.