Colonisers no

Colonisers, no.)Jean le Pommelec, mayor of the village of Plussulien, south of Saint-Brieuc, said: “This is the work of a group of separatist extremists who want to kick all French people out of Brittany, never mind the English.”Nonetheless, he and other local people suggested that the scribbled messages were a useful reminder that the influx of British residents – while overwhelmingly positive in its impact on rural life – had to be managed carefully “I do have one criticism,” he said. This was not a phrase which would have occurred to apolitical, rural Bretons. The slogan reflected the romantic links between Breton and Irish nationalism.Some of the graffitti says: “Brits out.” Others read: “Anglais int?? oui Colons, non.” (Integrated English, yes. Gendarmes and local mayors in the C? d’Armor d?rtement, on the north Breton coast, dismissed the messages as the work of a “marginal group of Breton separatists”.The choice of the words “Brits out” – associated with scrawlings on the walls of Belfast and other towns in Northern Ireland – was significant, they said. It prompted the local newspaper, Ouest-France, to suggest yesterday that the Entente Cordiale was turning sour.Local people, both French and British, were at pains to tell The Independent that the graffiti should not be taken too seriously. But it seems that not everybody in the region finds the idea of Anglo-French cohabitation quite so cordial.A rash of graffiti has been appearing in northern Brittany in recent days complaining about the influx of British housebuyers.

The messages, scrawled on estate agents’ walls or by the roadside, scream “Brits out” or instruct “English colonisers” to “integrate” or go home.The graffiti appears to be the first symptom – apart from occasional grumbling – of a French backlash against the permanent, British, middle-class immigration which has gathered pace in Brittany, Normandy and south-western France in recent years. On her visit to Paris last week to mark the centenary of the Entente Cordiale, the Queen spoke glowingly of the new phenomenon of two-way emigration between Britain and France.
Nowhere is this trend more evident than in Brittany, where thousands of British people have bought homes – as much to escape their own country as to embrace the Gallic lifestyle. And as subsequent events have shown, it is getting more awkward all the time for everyone concerned.So What Do You Do All Day? 11.20pm tonight, BBC2. Because the moment our Prime Minister threw his weight behind Romanian accession in 2007 he in effect committed us to lifting visa restrictions before then.

“We assure our friends in Britain that we don’t want to create problems for them but we want to give more opportunities for Romanians,” he said.But never does he betray much doubt that there is only going to be one outcome to the problem “I’m sure we’ll succeed to overcome this issue soon .. I’m very optimistic.” As well he might be. Squaring this circle looked an awkward business for Mr Quayle on the day I spent with him. He said: “We’ll be able to lift visas for Romania as soon as possible, as Tony Blair said to you in March.”But the problem is we have to get the figures down for the number of Romanians that work illegally in Britain, don’t obey the immigration rules or seek asylum, political asylum, which is really economic asylum. Now those figures have come down a bit but they haven’t come down far enough and so … I hope we can just step up our co-operation here among the relevant authorities.”Mr Nastase nodded and smiled and pointed out, in the nicest possible way, that whether you had visas or not was unlikely to have any impact on the number of asylum-seekers. Pictures of the two of them together adorn the latter’s offices, as lovingly as any on the family mantelpiece. And the ambassador bathes in the reflected glory of the Prime Minister’s friendship.

Mr Nastase’s door is rarely closed to Mr Quayle and was certainly wide open on the day the BBC were in town.And despite the sweetness of the mood music between the two at the meeting we filmed, it was left to Mr Quayle to raise the subject of visas. As must Adrian Nastase, the Romanian Prime Minister, most of his government and, for that matter, most Romanians.
It is impossible to overstate the importance of the issue Romanians are not allowed to visit the UK without a visa This they thoroughly resent. And Tony Blair is accorded hero status for the backing he is giving the project. A year ago he said full EU membership for Romania was “the right thing not just for Romania but for Europe”.As far as I know there is not yet a statue of him, or a road named after him, but neither can be far away His closeness to Mr Nastase is obvious. And applying is inconvenient, as the scowls of the applicants testified when they saw us filming them queueing on the icy pavement in January.But, most importantly, it is about national pride. Romanians cannot feel they belong to a family of civilised nations until they can move freely among them.