"We Called It 'Grandstanding'"

When a clever Brit comes after you, watch out. Luckily, erstwhile Thatcher ally Michael Portillo is taking aim not at America, but at France, which he thoroughly excoriates in no uncertain terms for its unreliability, perfidy and baseless moral vanity.

He's really got their number:

The French believe that what they say is at least as important as what they do. They spin grandiloquent phrases and strike postures. Rhetoric is away of life and if you point out it is divorced from all strategic reality that is thought to be nitpicking.

It's a must-read.