Nice - A skeleton in the cupboard of the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair's senior spin doctor rattled this weekend.
In his youth Mr Alastair Campbell spent a year in the south of France writing for soft porn publications. At yesterday's briefing on a summit that has dragged on into record overtime, one bored journalist decided to bring it up.
Mr Campbell had attacked the largely eurosceptic British media for having turned up in Nice "salivating" about the prospect of problems for the British government and ready to "gorge" on a feast of bad news stories. Was he not referring to his own French past? a British journalist enquired.
Mr Campbell composed himself to field questions about how long the summit would last. "The last time I was here I stayed for a year and it was a lot more fun," he said.