Letter: Tongue-tied

The BBC's approach to the covering current state visit by President Sarkozy of France seems to be that, whenever proceedings are taking place in French, the live sound will cut out in favour of a commentary in English which is likely to consist of general observations not related to what is being said, let alone a translation of it. Is it any wonder the British have a reputation as poor linguists ?

BRIDGET M STEVENS

Ettrick Road

Edinburgh