At first, the grey, austere Mr Jospin seemed scarcely more likely to warm the cockles.
Tragically, picking cockles in Morecambe Bay, with its racing tides and quicksands, is also perilous.
ECONOMIST: Why did 19 Chinese cockle-pickers drown in Morecambe Bay?
Raking and schlepping cockles is attritional work, but lucrative (for their bosses, if not for the Chinese).
ECONOMIST: Why did 19 Chinese cockle-pickers drown in Morecambe Bay?
Now that would represent a triumph for bonds which would warm the cockles of Great Uncle Alfred's heart.
One part of Pat's Bar still recalls his youth in County Galway, minus only the jars of cockles and mussels.
Warm weather has claimed the highest number of cockles, with up to 20% on the densest part of the beds suffering "post-spawning heat-related stress".
While this was perhaps the mullahs' greatest reason for rejoicing this week, three additional developments no doubt also warmed the cockles of their hearts.
Also, on about 1% of the beds "there is a very unusual infestation of barnacles which appears to have caused a high mortality (75%) of cockles".
But Scotland defended with a ferocity that would have warmed the cockles of ex-flanker Robinson's heart and Australia failed to keep their nerve when it mattered.
Mussels will be on the menu for the next few weeks, before cockles, sprats and spinach will be added to the diet, which is rather more up-market than its usual fare of jellyfish.
He warmed up his audience with rugby references, warmed the cockles of Labour hearts with his take on last week's Budget - "the best George Osborne hoped to do was not to screw it up like he did last year" - and went on the attack over growth predictions that fell flat, borrowing predictions that have soared.
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