Conversation of the week

From The Telegraph (here):

“FOR you, Dave, the World Cup is over,” said Angela Merkel. “Now the triumph of our glorious team, die deutsche Fussballnationalmannschaft, is inevitable. I think, maybe, you should learn from that.”

“Well, we’ve got a very young team, Madam Chancellor,” said Dave. “I’m sure we’ll do better next time.”

“Oh, Dave … Dave,” said the most powerful leader in Europe, almost regretfully, as if talking to a small boy so pathetically stupid that he could not be blamed for his painfully obvious failings, “are you not aware of what Gary Lineker once said?”

“Was it something about Walker’s crisps?”

“No, Dave, it had nothing to do with mass-produced schnackfoods. Herr Lineker observed that football is a simple game in which 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and in the end the Germans always win. Exactly the same principle applies to European Union politics. Twenty-eight member states pursue their own national interests and in the end we Germans always get what we want.”

And don't mention the war ...