I do not agree, really, but I am charmed.
We are suffering from the ruinous competition of a rival who apparently works under conditions so far superior to our own for the production of light that he is flooding the domestic market with it at an incredibly low price; for the moment he appears, our sales cease, all the consumers turn to him, and a branch of French industry whose ramifications are innumerable is all at once reduced to complete stagnation. This rival, which is none other than the sun, is waging war on us so mercilessly we suspect he is being stirred up against us by perfidious Albion (excellent diplomacy nowadays!), particularly because he has for that haughty island a respect that he does not show for us. [Emphasis added]
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
What I find curious is the “perfidious Albion” part. Everybody has their own cultural stereotypes, so for me learning that for several cultures the British were associated with perfidiousness was a complete shock.
In the Russian-speaking cultures. we always associate the British with this kind of ridiculous earnestness that is incapable of any kind of guile.
Ah, but the expression goes way back. Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfidious_Albion
More Wikipedia to enlighten us all – the text is from the Candlemakers’ Petition, a satire by Bastiat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Bastiat