INTERESTING that after that fateful dinner at No 10, one of the more acerbic comments of the EU Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, was that English as a language was finished in Europe and he would no longer be using it to conduct business.
Clearly, he is not a fan of the Eurovision Song Contest. The majority of the entries were sung in English, as was the conducting of the proceedings by the hosts in Ukraine and the introductions and links. Gone are the days when every country’s entry was sung in their own official major language.
Apparently, his instructions have not filtered down or been taken seriously by most of the songwriters, performers, producers and presenters from the rest of Europe. It would appear to be still the lingua franca of choice most used by most people from different countries. The UK may have only done medium well with their own entry but the language triumphed over all others, despite Mr Juncker’s apparently determined anti-British stance. Even he might be forced to admit, c’est la vie.
STEPHEN BENNETT Grafton Road, Keighley
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