Here at The Corner (National Review Online’s popular stream of consciousness in the USA) is a piece by John O’Sullivan that picks up some of my ideas but comes down in favour of gracefully letting Mr Assange stew in his Ecuadorean juice:

With those two points in mind, why not try the following approach: First, make it clear to all of Latin America but especially to Ecuador that Britain fully accepts its diplomatic ability to shelter Assange in its embassy even as London disapproves of its exercising that ability on behalf of someone accused of rape. Second, publicly withdraw, disavow, and if necessary apologize for the earlier suggestion of forcible entry. Third, surround the embassy with police. Fourth, carry on regardless indefinitely…

Assange permanently around the place would be not merely a nuisance but a damned nuisance. He might try to stay in the headlines, but he would gradually sink to page eleven below the fold and the final item on the nightly news (if that). The crowds gathering for his speeches would gradually shrink ( though we should make publicly clear to Ecuador that the U.K. fully accepts its right to give a balcony-platform to the Australian asylee). He would become the Great Bore of Knightsbridge…

For Assange Addicts as we all are these days, here is a businesslike Guardian editorial that calls a spade a spade:

This champion of radical transparency hasn’t helped Swedish prosecutors with their inquiries. There was his remark about people being jailed for exercising freedom of speech, "There is unity in the oppression. There must be absolute unity and determination in the response", and yet taking shelter in a country that, according to Reporters Without Borders, shut down six radio stations and two TV stations in just one fortnight this June.

No doomed cause can exist without our old favourite ex-Ambassador Craig Murray weighing in wildly. Here is again, watching the Assange balcony scene safely from within the Ecuadorean Embassy.

And another former diplomatic colleague turned pundit Brian Barder helpfully reminds us how not to write a sane FCO policy submission.

Tomorrow I have an interview with the Voice of Russia radio on this fascinating subject.

Truly, Julian Assange is the gift that keeps on giving for weary ex-diplomats.