France

Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor of France on this day in 1804. 201 years later, one thing still unites the people of Europe: hatred of the French.

Language, history, cooking and support for rival football teams still divide Europe. But when everything else fails, one glue binds the continent together: hatred of the French.

Typically, the French refuse to accept what arrogant, overbearing monsters they are...

Britons described them as "chauvinists, stubborn, nannied and humourless".

For the Germans, the French are "pretentious, offhand and frivolous". The Dutch describe them as "agitated, talkative and shallow." The Spanish see them as "cold, distant, vain and impolite" and the Portuguese as "preaching". In Italy they comes across as "snobs, arrogant, flesh-loving, righteous and self-obsessed" and the Greeks find them "not very with it, egocentric bons vivants".

Interestingly, the Swedes consider them "disobedient, immoral, disorganised, neo-colonialist and dirty".

Did anyone mention lazy? From the New York Times Tuesday,

A well-meaning government initiative to sacrifice a paid holiday to raise money for the country's elderly threw France into confusion on Monday as employers and workers, government officials and teachers decided on their own whether to obey the call to work.

There's one good thing, though...the latest polls show that French voters may very well vote "non" to the EU Constitution - although one of their main reasons for doing so is questionable, to say the least.

Many French trade unions fear the constitution enshrines an "ultra-liberal" Anglo-Saxon style economic model rather than the French "social" model.

That, folks, is why France will never again be anything more than the second-rate power it is today.