France could seize on the chance of a British 'no'

Brussels

FORMER French President Charles de Gaulle's personal credo was that, great as Britain was, the nation was never ready to be European, hence his rejection of the first British efforts under the two Harolds - Macmillan and Wilson, prime ministers in the 1960s - to join the Common Market.

More than half a century later, former French Prime Minister Michel Rocard, an Anglophile whose father served de Gaulle in London, says it is time for Britain to go. He heads a long list of French politicians and commentators who are waiting - or even hoping - that Britain will leave the European Union.