This is the Guardian.

Today, 2021 was a year when the UK's relationship with France hit rock bottom.

We look back at how it steadily unraveled.

France is reporting that President Emmanuel Macron called Boris Johnson a clown in private

conversations with advisors. Patrick Winter, you're the Guardian's diplomatic editor.

How would you describe the state of relations between Britain and France at the moment?

A dire to be blunt.

Angelique Wissophis, the Guardian's Paris correspondent, has been watching from the other side of the

channel. When things do get really bad, you can measure that on a scale of cliches coming out

to do with history. And recently, those cliches have been everywhere. The former French ambassador

to the UK has claimed relations have never been so bad. Not since, she said, Waterloo.

Other weekend, Britain's Brexit Minister David Frost resigned. And the French government

urged the UK to use his departure as an opportunity to reset and rebuild that trust with both France

and the EU. And the stakes couldn't be much higher. Because what started as a bitter rift over Brexit

has now become a crisis that is costing lives.

When 27 migrants drowned in the channel last month, Britain and France jumped to blame on another.

Now their ongoing political feud looks more like a human tragedy.

From the Guardian, I'm not Jean Ickbarl. Today in focus, how did things get so bad between Britain

and France?

Angelique, if you didn't know anything about what has been going on in recent months,

you might be forgiven for imagining that Boris Johnson was a bit of a francophone.

He seems to know the French national anthem by heart. And his grandmother is actually French.

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