Entente Amicale

The last few days have been full of news about the visit of the French president to Britain. There has been a healthy amount of cliche-jockeying, principally about what the Entente Cordiale now looks like (is it this, this or this?), and plenty of froth about the president's wife, although only a little in the way of explanation for the choice of venue for talks between Mr Sarkozy and Mr Brown.

But all in, your humble Stationmaster is surprised and pleased by the generally moderate and approving tone of coverage. British media attitudes towards France seem to veer from the frosty to the xenophobic, all for no substantial reason. So it's been impressive and encouraging to see a new innovation in British foreign policy, a real sense that we are moving on from the muddled and awkward Blair-Chirac years, and taking a sensible and positive attitude towards our venerable neighbour.