Tempting as it is to disagree on sight with everything written by Jonathan Steele in the Guardian, I did think about this one arguing the case against the International Criminal Court indicting the President of Sudan. Spared as I am from knowing the slightest thing about Sudan, what might I offer […]
Back from Brussels to an email from former colleague FCO Craig Murray: Your blog has been discussing me rather a lot lately. May I very politely suggest that you really might look at the book if you are going to give quite such detailed views? It is, of course, only […]
More from a reader on Craig Murray and all that: On the subject of Craig and the FCO, I haven’t read his book, or all the documents, but I understand some nasty and unsubstantiated allegations featured prominently. What’s your view on what they mean? To me the whole saga suggests […]
A reader not unreasonably draws attention to a link in my previous post to a fascinating original FCO document reporting a conversation with Craig Murray. He wonders whether diplomats who ‘temper’ their reporting themselves create the impression that others who report more passionately are the only FCO people with a conscience. In […]
My former colleague Craig Murray posts at some length about Andrew Mackinlay MP including the allegedly shocking FCO libel against him that he frequented Warsaw strip clubs. This, says Craig, shows the perfidy of how MI6 and the FCO in alliance with New Labour are attacking Andrew Mackinlay for his robust […]
Nelson Mandela was finally released from prison to global acclaim on 11 February 1990. Despite being First Secretary (Political) at our Embassy in Cape Town at the time, I missed it. My friend and colleague John (now Sir John) Sawers was there in the thick of the action, and was probably […]
In a neat example of government ‘spin’ in action, David Miliband’s speech today about Europe is being trailed in this morning’s Guardian. Once upon a time it was a good enough result to get the speech reported after it had happened. That being unreliable, Labour have taken to a high art […]
President Kaczynski of Poland says that ‘for now’ he will not sign the EU’s Lisbon Treaty. The BBC report describes Kaczynski as "a conservative who has long opposed the reform treaty". But what about this? "I really want ratification." One way or the other, President Kaczynski is good at saying […]
This sorry Swedish story attracted fleeting global attention. A school in Sweden confiscated a boy’s party invitations being handed out to his friends as two classmates were not invited: "Two people in class had not been invited, and that is not allowed. The ones who were not invited felt sad […]
Serving as HM Ambassador in Belgrade from 2001-2003 I had the task of advising London on how best to handle the aspirations of demands in Montenegro for independence from Serbia. At the time European capitals were just getting over the NATO bombing campaign aimed at ending Milosevic’s appalling rule over Kosovo. So […]
