“SUMMITS made simple: a guide for reporters”. First find Jacques Chirac. Next invite him to comment on the British position. Bingo. You have yourself a story. That begins: “Europe was divided tonight after President Chirac said . . .” That’s how I was taught to report gatherings of international leaders. Whether at a Nato, EU or G8 summit it’s advice that has never let me down. Thus it was this week in Istanbul. And two weeks ago in Brussels. And the week before that in Georgia. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose as they say. Well, not quite. In my early summit-watching days France’s President caused trouble from a position of strength. These past few weeks he’s looked like a man losing the argument and the plot.

Story 1: Chirac attacks Britain for thwarting Europe’s ambitions in the haggling over a new constitution. Story 2: Chirac bullies the EU’s new member states to back his candidate for president of the European Commission. Story 3: Chirac insists Nato should play no role in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Three good stories. Three defeats for Chirac. Three causes for celebration by Team Blair. Until now they have held back from crowing for fear that the French Government, like its football team, might at the last minute snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Not any more.

Chirac is “raging at the dying of the light”, one senior figure told me this week after a long month of summiteering. My source hoped that this old man would soon “go gentle into that good night”. Blairites date the French President’s defeats and rages to what they call “le row”. This is not the fight over Iraq but the spat a couple of years ago over the Common Agricultural Policy. Mr Blair told the President that he couldn’t call for compassion to Africa while also refusing to reform the CAP. Chirac complained that he had never been treated so rudely. It was the first of several Blair victories over Chirac.

The more honest of the Prime Minister’s friends admit that this owes as much to John Major’s negotiation as their own. It was he who first fought for EU expansion against French resistance. He predicted it would alter the character of the EU and Nato. It has. Chirac risks appearing to be on the wrong side of history.

We may be celebrating the Entente Cordiale but, thanks to the British, he’s not all right, Jacques.

• “He was a Maoist like you.” So said Jack Straw about the new President of the EU Commission to Andrew Marr, the BBC’s political editor, on the plane back from Istanbul. Marr confessed that he had flirted with Chairman Mao when he was in short trousers. Then he responded by reminding the Foreign Secretary of his embarrassing student past. I forget whether he was in the Communist Party or a Euro-Communist or wouldn’t have dreamt of being in either. He, on the other hand, forgets nothing. As we disinterred colleagues’ pasts Jack Straw confessed that he still keeps in his office a copy of Quite Right, Mr Trotsky! — a book that examines in painful detail every facet and faction of the Left.

  This had me thinking that a programme that examined the painful pasts of commentators and politicians alike could make watchable TV (at least for anyone who watches BBC Parliament for fun and who likes to laugh at outdated haircuts and views). Having mentally reviewed my own past this is an idea which, like my old photos and pamphlets, will stay in the attic firmly under lock and key.

• If you had had one chance to ask a question of Mr Blair or President Bush on the day of the handover of power to the Iraqis, what would it have been? Compare the choices of two journalists who got that chance in Istanbul. A 26-year-old Iraqi from the Iraqiya television station inquired of Mr Blair: “The Iraqi people are living in the middle of hell. There are no public services, no security. What can be done?”

  Contrast this robust inquiry with the gentle lob thrown at President Bush by his favourite network, Fox News. “Now the coalition has gladly and willingly returned sovereignty to the Iraqis, I wonder if there is any sign that this has changed the views of your more sceptical Nato brethren, any evidence that the critics are now persuaded of the view that it was in fact a liberation?”

  I left the news conference rather more confident of the vibrancy of the Iraqi media than of America’s.

  Nick Robinson is Political Editor of ITV News

  nick.robinson@thetimes.co.uk

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