Airstrip One

Rapprochement - 12th June 2003, 22.38

Having warned throughout the run up to the war that Blair remained as wedded to Europe, with all that entailed for Anglo-French relations, it came as no surprise to view the chumminess of Chirac and our Glorious Leader as they indulged in a "lavish" dinner.

Apart from the rift over Iraq, there has been very little evidence of a military or diplomatic rift between Britain and France. In 1940, intonations of "a common destiny" sounded Churchillian; now the echo portends a future of diminished democracy and freedom.