The appointment of Bernard Kouchner as French foreign minister was both brilliant and bizarre. It was brilliant because in bringing Kouchner on board, President Sarkozy managed to co-opt one of the stars of the Socialist Party and one of the most popular men in France. Kouchner is revered because he founded Medecins Sans Frontieres. And also – perhaps – because he is articulate, good-looking and married to a TV star.

But choosing Kouchner was also a bit bizarre because he was one of the few high-profile French public figures to have supported the invasion of Iraq - albeit slightly equivocally and on humanitarian grounds. Given that France led the opposition to the Iraq war and - as Sarkozy himself has pointed out - was vindicated by subsequent events, appointing somebody who made the wrong call seemed odd.

But the experience of Iraq does not seem to have chastened Kouchner. This week he has made the headlines, by saying of Iran - "We have to prepare for the worst and the worst is war." This goes beyond even what George W. Bush has said. His preferred formula is that – “All options are on the table”.

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Tony Blair thinks that the British media are too frenzied and aggressive (see yesterday’s post). But are the French media too passive and respectful of authority?

The question is raised by the current controversy over whether Nicolas Sarkozy was drunk at a press conference at the G8 summit. The suggestion was first made by a Belgian television newscaster and the accompanying video is certainly amusing and suggestive. But no French television station broadcast the footage. And the main French papers also ignored the story, until the Belgian TV newsreader was forced to apologise - a fact which was then dutifully reported in France.

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The British love to think of the French as irredeemably corrupt. But take a look at recent corruption scandals in Britain and France, and it is hard to avoid the impression that it is the French who are taking a tougher line on sleaze than the supposedly upright Anglo-Saxons.

Last month, both the British and French prime ministers were interviewed by the police within a week of each other. But the handling of Tony Blair was noticeably softer than the treatment meted out to Dominique de Villepin. Mr Blair had a gentlemanly chat about the “cash-for-honours” scandal – which involves allegations that the Labour Party essentially sold peerages in return for loans to the party. His interview took place in Downing Street in the middle of the day, and took less than two hours. By contrast Mr de Villepin was subjected to a 13-hour interrogation, ending at three in the morning. He was apparently being questioned about suggestions that he may have attempted to smear fellow ministers in the “Clearstream affair”. (Warning to readers: Do not attempt to understand the Clearstream affair, that way madness lies).

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In a recent magazine interview in which she floated the possibility that her husband might run for a third term as French president next year, Bernadette Chirac said enticingly – “Have you seen what good shape he’s in. My husband’s not senile.”

Yet even this modest claim must be thrown into doubt by Mr Chirac’s efforts to celebrate his 74th birthday, by holding an intimate dinner with Vladimir Putin on the margins of a Nato summit in Latvia.

Where does one start? To invite any Russian president to dinner in one of the Baltic states is tactless. To invite this particular president at this particular moment is crass. To do so at a Nato summit, while pointedly not inviting the American president and the British prime minister, is extraordinary.

While the Americans and the British are clearly increasingly concerned about the direction of Putin’s Russia, Mr Chirac’s admiration for the Russian president only seems to grow. In September he awarded Mr Putin the Grand Cross of the Legion d’Honneur, the highest honour that France can bestow on a foreigner. Previous recipients have included Churchill and Queen Elizabeth II.

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