Network Myanmar, a lively source of information on Myanmar (previously known as Burma) welcomes the FCO announcement that the UK diplomatic presence in Myanmar is going to be increased (a bit), but then does a goodly job by pointing out one by one all sorts of errors on the Myanmar-related part of the FCO’s website.

Thus:

When last viewed over the weekend 8-9 May 2011, the website contained only a statement of support by the Foreign Secretary William Hague for sanctions recently renewed at the EU Foreign Affairs Council, a video by the Campaigns Officer at the Burma Campaign UK which is already 14 months old and has attracted less than one comment a month and none for the past three months, and a Country Profile on "Burma".

The full demolition job is here. Worth a look in the context of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee’s well-founded concern that FCO expertise and technique have been dumbed down.

Such sloppiness occurs because there really (really!) has been a serious erosion in FCO Technique, to the point where not only are hard facts not systematically stored and retrievable, the discipline of checking facts and even the very idea that accuracy is vital have all slipped far below an acceptable level. 

Hence this prime example of lame post-modern sloppiness available for all to see. Not on some minor internal text but up there on the FCO website, the very place where tip-top British precision and analytical rigour should be displayed to an admiring world.

My solution?

Sack (a) the person who posted that text, and (b) the person who supervises the people who run the website. That will show everyone else that William Hague means business – and that incompetence at both junior and senior levels alike is zero tolerated.