Some rather disobliging words have been written by former Foreign Office Minister Chris Mullins in his memoirs about an allegedly garrulous senior British diplomat :

‘a fifty-something, chain-smoking (what is it about ambassadors in this part of the world) woman’ who is ‘oh, so noisy’.

So, of course, the media have been busy tracking her down.

Footling non-story, other than the fact that the new FCO Rules on what former diplomats might say in public about their careers give special emphasis to avoiding being destructive of the confidential relationship between ministers and officials.

Does that rather sound principle apply to former Ministers’ gossipy memoirs too?