I remember a senior American diplomat arriving at the FCO in 1992 and describing just how busy he was helping get US food aid to a Russia left reeling after the abrupt collapse of communism. We genteel Brits were startled when he described himself as ‘drinkin’ from a pressure-hose’. The imagery! Still, […]
Unsated by Steampunk Palin, you want more buxom feisty American women transforming the world against evil men? Swing by this Guardian analysis by Madeleine Bunting of Hillary Clinton’s feminist foreign policy: On countless occasions since arriving at the state department, Clinton has asserted that the rights of women and girls are now […]
You may have missed this fascinating blog entry by Jim Harvey of Allcow Communications, so here it is: I’m not easily impressed, and I’ve often found Foreign Office types to be snooty and dismissive of those of us who work in the ‘Del Boy’ world of sales and marketing, though […]
PM David Cameron made an important statement to Parliament about the latest EU Summit. Full text here (written it must be said in commendably clear language). Though you’d never guess from our snow-infested news bulletins, this was a really important gathering from which, by the usual standards of such gatherings, […]
Update Welcome Browser readers A kind reader sent this comment: … while following the Holbrooke trail on your site I stumbled upon MARS, VENUS AND EXTREMISM … imho a brilliant disentangling of issues as alive today as when you gave the address. Should be framed This prompted me to re-read it – it’s a speech […]
Dick Holbrooke’s sudden death is a blow to American diplomacy. His cleverness, his relentlessness, his raw humour, his skilled psychological pressure-plays and sheer bravura all combined with a sense of boldly wielding power to make him a uniquely formidable force. I have written about my own meetings with on various occasions. See […]
A kind reader has sent me the text of the FCO’s Diplomatic Excellence: Our Reform Agenda for the FCO. I’ll read it closely when heading for Brussels for another round of Speechmaking/Speechwriting training for European diplomats. One odd thing – the version put out on the FCO’s staff website is […]
See my latest DIPLOMAT article here. It recalls the amazing battle between the French and Spanish Ambassadors along the streets of London which left twelve people dead; Samuel Pepys’ diary recorded how London rejoiced at the outcome: ‘indeed we do naturally all love the Spanish and hate the French’. And this: Every […]
A good general rule is that any organisation starting to talk about ‘excellence’ has a serious mediocrity problem. Excellent people and organisations don’t need to worry about excellence. They just get on with delivering it. Alas the FCO has launched a new scheme intended to help its staff claw their way […]
I try to market myself as a public speaker and speech-writer. But I can’t dream of riches like this from mere oratory: Mr Miliband records that he received a “payment of £25,000 for lecture at Sir Bani Yas Forum on Future of Middle East, Abu Dhabi”. … His travel and […]
