The only angle I see as making any sense is  this is all done to keep the UK's seat on the security council. There is a push to give Germany and Japan Permanent membership, or to loose the British and French seats and replace them with a European Seat. If this were to happen then the UK would suffer  a blowto its self image. At the moment the UK has its permanent seat on the grounds that it is one of the Five major neuclear powers, however for a large period of time it has been buying its neuclear weapons in. The only countries that replacement weapons could be brought from are the US , every other country would really be discounted for political reasons. Can you imagine how mad the eurosceptics would go if the UK bought its neuclear crak from France? So the UK's status rested on on Keeping the US happy, and George Is just about vindictive enough that he would ban the UK from ever buying neucs from the USA ever again if they had turned him down.

then the Blair government would have been faced with groveling to the French government and that would never have done.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.