Third-Place Showdown: Why England vs France is a 900-year-old derby

Hello and welcome to Day 38 of this sprawling World Cup.There is a hilarious scene in Yes, Minister when the Right Hoodwinked, sorry, Right Honourable Jim Hacker asks whether nuclear weapons are absolutely necessary. Surely, if push came to shove, the United States would protect Britain from Russia?A flabbergasted Sir Humphrey Appleby declares that Hacker should resign if he holds such unilateralist views, before pointing out that Britain’s nuclear weapons are not intended to protect it from Russia.They are meant to protect it from France.When the LSE-educated Hacker points out that the French are their allies, a beleaguered Sir Humphrey explains: “They are now, but they’ve been our enemies for most of the past 900 years. If they’ve got the bomb, we must have the bomb!”Whatever Sir Humphrey’s faults, the Oxford-educated man certainly knew his history.