Paper Monitor
12:59 UK time, Friday, 11 June 2010
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
It says a lot about the British hopelessness at learning languages that the moment one of our politicians demonstrates fluency, we glow with pride.
"I find the famous Berlin air very refreshing," was one of the lines in Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's linguistic charm offensive in Germany.
The Guardian prompted the German foreign minister, Guido Westerwell, to tell the assembled British media: "Nick speaks excellent German."
Following , one unnamed observer in Berlin added: "We're not used to a British politician speaking better German than our politicians speak English."
The Times Foreign Secretary William Hague, who was by Mr Clegg's side, had to use his translation earphones in order to understand what his colleague was saying.
Former PMs (not ex-Paper Monitors, as far as we know) Edward Heath and Tony Blair both spoke French, the Times notes, but it doesn't always pay to be too clever.
Mr Blair, the paper says, has recalled his most embarrassing political moment as the time he said at a press conference in France: "I desire your prime minister in many different positions."
The 
