The struggle to give Brittany its own emoji

THE FRENCH foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, is a man of few words and many air miles. When he does comment, it is usually to deplore events in Syria, say, or Iran. But on February 9th the minister let his inner passion get the better of him. The reason? An emoji. “The countdown is on!” Mr Le Drian tweeted excitedly. All Bretons, he urged, should mobilise on social media by tweeting a hashtag, as part of a campaign to secure an emoji for the Brittany flag, known as the Gwenn ha du. “Go on, tweet our #emojiBZH and don’t let up!”