Based on empirical results from a survey on the circulation of ideas between the British Labour Party and the French Socialist Party from 1994 to 2015, this article aims to show that the misunderstanding is not necessarily which affects transnational circulation of political ideas but rather what makes it possible. In support of this thesis, the article shows in a first part that the ideological conflict that emerged between New Labour and Socialist Party is not the result of a misunderstanding but rather the fact that it could not be maintain. Far from being unique to this period, maintain misunderstanding and doctrinal ambivalence are a constant in the history of French socialism. We will see in a second part that the willingness of Labou...