LETTER: Perfidious Gaul

I was disappointed to see not one but two contributions to The Independent Magazine (8 April) crowing over the evident technical superiority of all things French to things in Britain.

First, the Weasel (Up & Down Canary Wharf) notes that the French have a train that hurtles unobstructed towards Paris, while in Britain the Eurostar must take its chances among the commuter traffic and leaf-strewn leaves of Network SouthEast.

And then we get a series of loving pictures of the Pont de Normandie, a heroic concrete bridge at Le Havre ("A bridge to wonder at"), which contrasts dramatically with the mundanity of our own efforts, notably the upturned tuning forks of the Dartford crossing.

This adulation of Gallic dynamism can go too far. Certainly the French government can make things happen, but at what cost? Ask those communities unlucky enough to have stood in the way of the TGV line.

simon woodford

Harrogate, North Yorkshire