Our entente cordiale was a mainstay in the past, and it will remain so in the future.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Speaks on US-EU Summit with Herman Van Rompuy and President Jos�� Manuel Barroso | The White House

Britain and France, whose alliance dated to the entente cordiale of 1904 and two world wars, drew opposite lessons from this humiliation.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne

The 1904 Entente Cordiale brought an end to centuries of regular wars, and the two countries have been allies ever since, most notably in the two world wars.

BBC: French-UK defence treaty born of necessity

What is clear is that the plucky efforts by John Varley, chief executive of Barclays, in talks primarily with the Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin, to establish some kind of entente cordiale between bankers and ministers are close to collapse (see my assorted notes on all this from November 14 onwards).

BBC: Slim chance of bank bonus deal