William Hague’s interview with the Independent earlier this week was especially gloomy about Bosnia: Mr Hague, who also had extensive meetings with political leaders in a visit to Bosnia last autumn, said he feared the tensions could deteriorate into something worse. He said: "In some form [Bosnia] could break down […]
The British government are not planning on holding an enquiry into their possible complicity in overseas torture: Kim Howells, Labour chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee which scrutinises the secret services, said the issue of UK complicity in torture had been "clarified as far as it can be on […]
There have been strong reactions in ‘Western’ capitals to the latest punishment handed out to Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma, the key effect of which is to stop her running in the next round of national elections. Malaysia too is dismayed. President Sarkozy and the British government are talking […]
HM Embassy in Warsaw: The Embassy EU/Economic team maintains a regular dialogue with Polish Ministries and civil society on EU budgetary issues, to secure the best outcome for the EU. An effective EU must be equipped with a budget that enables it to respond to globalisation – and for this […]
Was HM Government ‘complicit’ in torture? No, says MI6 head Sir John Scarlett. A slightly more nuanced line comes from Ministers David Miliband and Alan Johnson: Yet intelligence from overseas is critical to our success in stopping terrorism. All the most serious plots and attacks in the UK in this […]
A well-turned piece by Carne Ross (Independent Diplomat) taking up the release by North Korea of the two American journalists on the problems facing diplomats as and when hostages are grabbed: Even Bill Clinton’s harshest critic should celebrate this rescue as triumphant and humane. But as the women’s families breathe […]
Update: Welcome Iain Dale readers, although all credit or discredit for what follows goes to the author of the lively passages below, namely Jamie Stokes, "an English person with bafflingly unclear motives for living in Poland". Here is a droll account of a visit to a not very British Embassy in […]
For the actual swearing-in ceremony of so-called President Ahmadinejad in Iran, HM Ambassador Simon Gass brusquely elbowed his deputy Patrick Davies out of the way and attended to represent The Queen. To the displeasure of The Times: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that it had dispatched the ambassador because the […]
My former Deputy from the Embassy in Warsaw, the redoubtable Patrick Davies, opted for a sleepy posting in Tehran after all the turmoil of Polish politics. Imagine his surprise to find himself splashed in the Times – for attending a ceremony at which Iran’s spiritual leader officially endorsed President Ahmadinejad. […]
Foreign Secretary David Miliband has made an extraordinary intervention in the controversy about the Conservatives and Michal Kaminski: "The British public rightly judge politicians by their actions. So far, they haven’t had much to go on with David Cameron. But this reversion to the right-wing extremes of his own party […]
