Fritain? Brance?

Anthony Eden (l): 'Yes, but what would
we call ourselves, Monsieur Mollet?
Photo: AFP/GettyNews that France and Britain discussed a merger in September 1956 has generated a lot of surprise.

Unbelievable is the tenor of many blogs, but special mention must go to Henri Soutou, professor of contemporary history at the Sorbonne, who, the BBC reports, almost fell off his chair. UK Independence party MEP Godfrey Bloom, who considers it preferable to current arrangements, meanwhile said it would have created a nation of 200 cheeses. (A free trade in cheeses is also something the EU allows, but let's not get too hung up on the details.)

From a historical point of view, it is very interesting - demonstrating how France was originally less enthusiastic than it soon came to be about integrating with its continental neighbours (it had also voted against a supranational European Defence Community in 1954). The papers clarify the extent to which events in Suez were a key turning point for postwar Europe. A few weeks after the merger proposal, France decided it could not rely on Britain and would need new allies.

As this piece from the Economist tells it, Guy Mollet, the French PM who suggested the union, was with German chancellor Konrad Adenauer when the call came from London that Britain was to abandon the invasion. So began a Franco-German commitment to deeper European integration.

The one element not in the papers is what this never-to-be superstate would have been called. You can make suggestions below.