The sporting wing of the Bush-Blair agenda

Our regular readers will have noted that we like to use support for Man Utd as at least a symptom of the creeping Oirishness of the Republic of Ireland, mediated through our VIP culture in government and business. But we've come across evidence that it's not just the Republic that has gleefully admitted the Mancunian Trojan Horse. An interesting Wall St Journal article [subs. req'd] looks at how the USA, without much explicit effort, has attained growing influence in French West Africa, driven by a perception that France has repeatedly been on the "wrong" side in the region's internal problems. But note the description of one pro-US hardliner in the Ivory Coast (or, as they'd say in Paris, Cote D'Ivoire):

"We want Ivory Coast to become an English-speaking country," Mr. Ble-Goude says bluntly, wearing a cap of Manchester United, the British soccer team. "So I'm telling my people: Learn English."