In response to my pieces earlier today about the FCO’s language training policies, this trenchant message has arrived from a reader (edited a tad for anonymity purposes and published here with the author’s consent):

I read your blog and comments about the Telegraph’s article on the FCO’s foreign language abilities (or lack thereof). As a recently retired 37-year veteran of the Office a qualified FCO Mandarin speaker I had to smile at the article. Once I had passed the exam (in 2006) I wrote to various departments at the FCO offering my services and begging them to use me, either in London or overseas. But to no avail. No one ever wrote back. The same is true of the Masters in International Relations degree I obtained recently – no one in London replied or engaged in any sort of discussion at all. But then again, the "grade-ism" of the Office is famous and as I was a mere [xxx] rank aged 55 now, no doubt I was regarded as either past it or not quite the right sort they wanted. I must say, the Office certainly made it easy to take the decision to take early retirement. My long suffering wife and children were wanting me to leave for years. Add to that the general betrayal of the rank and file members of the Diplomatic Staff by their "betters", and there’ll only be further stories of the diminution of a once great organisation.