Entente cordiale

You have to hand it to Cameron and Fox. By (typical of British officialdom) crab-like scuttling into what is a perfectly sensible defence treaty with France, they have managed to make people suspect that there is some kind of sell-out involved and make themselves look like - well - inept and dishonest little shits.

I like the comments of François Heisbourg, a defence expert at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris, as reported in the Washington Post - emphasis added for the benefit of the nationalists out there who share Lord Raglan's view that the enemy is the French no matter who else we may be fighting.

Aside from plans to form a 5,000-member joint expeditionary force, among the most notable cooperative projects in conventional weaponry was a pledge to make the two countries' aircraft carriers compatible for use by each other's warplanes. Such compatibility has been the rule between the U.S. and French navies.

France and Britain also agreed to train their helicopter and transport plane pilots together to save money and to make sure refueling tankers can link up with warplanes from either air force. These have been features of French-German military cooperation for some time.