'Good riddance', bitter French tweeters tell Les Anglais
Twitter was the go-to soapbox on Friday for the French to vent their anger -- as well as predictable digs at "Les Anglais" -- over the Brexit vote. The hashtag #BonDebarras -- Good Riddance -- spoke for itself, but one user sniped: "Les Anglais are beginning to realise that most Europeans are delighted that they are splitting." Other snarky tweets recalled that Britain had always had an arm's-length relationship with the European Union, having opted out of the euro, the visa-free Schengen zone and the Common Agricultural Policy. "Have they ever really been part of the EU?" one asked. Said another: "They were a pain in the ass when they wanted in, now they're a pain in the ass going out: The English are the cats of Europe." In the midst of the Euro 2016 football championship, with a possible quarter-final showdown looming between England and France, many questioned whether the English side still had a right to take part. "Let's kick out the England team. They don't have visas," one user said. The inevitable references to British cuisine (not) included one tweet posting a picture of Marmite, calling it "a little something the English can keep all for themselves". "The English... vote like they cook, it's diabolical," another said. A photo captioned "Brexit in one picture" showed a table laden with an abundance of European noshes including a French pastry, German sausage and Italian pasta, with a plate of baked beans off in a corner. Using the age-old French term of endearment for the English -- Les Rosbifs, an approximation of roast beef -- another Twitter user wrote: "To celebrate this historic British referendum day I've enjoyed the traditional feast of Les Rosbifs: curry." One tweet stood out as a reminder of why the English and the French have been entwined in a love-hate relationship for centuries. "The English are really a proud and stupid people. You'd think they were French."
