The occasion had all the trappings of a lovefest. In the northern French city of Lille last week, schoolchildren waved tiny Union Jacks and Tricolor flags. Scottish bagpipers in kilts and bearskin hats played reels and strathspeys, and French military bands blared out God Save the Queen and the Marseillaise. But nothing embodied the spirit of Franco-British cooperation more than a joint announcement by President Francois Mitterrand and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that their governments had approved the construction of a 31-mile-long rail tunnel linking the two countries. For nearly two centuries, rulers, entrepreneurs and engineers have dreamed of spanning the...
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