Along with cricket, Coronation Street and carping about the weather, we British enjoy rubbishing the French. Their marital practices form a rich source of entertainment, particularly their acceptance of infidelity – which, we marvel, seems to have its own rules.
This tolerance might, perhaps, derive from the fact that marriages were traditionally arranged for reasons not of passion but of family, inheritance or property. And some romantics might have thought that such a cynical acceptance of a bit on the side would be abolished, if there were no artificial or legal formalities, such as marriage. Well, this month's French capers have put paid to that idea: indeed, the "first lady" is not even the first spouse – the real aggrieved person, you might think, should beSégolène Royal, the mother of François Hollande's children.
So how worrying is it? Kennedy and Clinton weren't bad presidents after all, and look how they carried on; even the saintly Mandela was apparently a ladies' man. The one thing romantics have to remember is that though you might well try to stop your daughter getting mixed up with one, there is no necessary connection between being a good ruler and being a loving and faithful mate.
Katharine Whitehorn writing in the Guardian
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