As a probably 100% Anglo-Saxon English quarter-Scot with (I hope) a European sensibility, it seems to me that conventional French thinking on questions of national identity, and “republican values” like laicité, is curiously unsupple and unaccommodating. Admittedly, we in the UK are just as capable of pressing the “Where are you from?” questions to a point that reveals the underlying assumption that - basically - black or brown people can’t be “from” here; but equally, how can you understand and respect another’s views and experiences if you don’t know where they are coming from in all the possible senses of the phrase? How can France possibly know how well or ill it is serving its minorities if it refuses to analyse their experiences in their terms (statistically as well as culturally)?

To say “We are all one” in terms of the formalities of citizenship can - does - make it too easy to overlook and devalue any view or experience not already known within the dominant culture: and the ill effects of prejudice and inequality are thereby not dealt with. We had to learn that the hard way through repeated scandals: has France any better prospect of doing so?