A sturdy piece by Harry Phibbs who got to the point about David Miliband’s misplaced informality and linked it to Blairish ‘anti-stuffiness’ before I did:

In a triumph of style over substance, Blair declared a moral crusade against stuffiness in our domestic affairs. Not being addressed as Prime Minister was key to the decision-making process – of a piece with summit meetings on sofas without notes being taken and interruptions to strum on a guitar or change Leo’s nappy.

Why does it matter how people address each other? Thus:

Calling someone ‘Mr Smith’ or ‘Mrs Smith’ reflects a mindset, a self discipline in the way we regard them, a proper sense of distance and respect.

A revolting habit developed latterly in the FCO and DFID of senior officials archly referring to Ministers by their first names ("Of course I needed to put this submission to Clare, as she and Robin were not sure what Gordon expected of Tony"). In DIFD it reached the point of formal papers being addressed to Clare (Short) – maybe the gruesome practice continues under current management.

It is not easy to put one’s finger on precisely why this sort of thing is annoying and stupid.

But perhaps it reflects a sense of treating public life as a sort of post-modern lighter than air team-building exercise, an arrangement rather like a group of friends running a mediocre bowls club, where all they have to do is to sort out their own modest business. It plays down to vanishing point Seriousness and Responsibility.

One further point. In my experience dealing with successive waves of Ministers and MPs visiting the countries where I was posted, ‘Old Labour’ and Conservative visitors would not make this sort of protocol mistake. Instead it typically was the cynical yet bright-eyed New Labour types who wanted to project a sense of close friendship and solidarity – whether the subject of their informality liked it or not.

Most readers of this blog (I impertinently assume) do not know too much Polish. In Polish most adult people address each other via a strict third person form, even when they have worked as colleagues for years: "Would Madam Maria care for some coffee?" "I can not agree with Sir’s assessment of this situation."

This seems bizarre, contrived and old-fashioned when one embarks on learning the language.

Yet it does create a real sense of people treating each other as responsible adults with a higher expectation of mutual good manners accordingly, albeit perhaps at the price of a certain wider collective pomposity.

So, Memo to next government:

Bring back formal titles and traditional courtesies in senior affairs of state. This, by the way, includes making arrangements for senior visitors to government buildings to be met swiftly and politely – another area where FCO performance has crashed in recent years.

Oh, and before attempting to chat to foreign leaders as if they were a friend in a pub, do try to think about the fact that, astounding as it may seem, they may well not be at one with our oh-so-modern comradely British ways.