The BBC website currently has the following headline: Iraqi al-Qaeda commander ‘seized’ Why the inverted commas around the word ‘seized’? There is nothing in the ensuing story to explain why, unless the idea is to imply that the Iraqi forces who say that they have done the seizing are lying or […]
Reader Robbie has sent in a pertinent comment on my post about Objectives, Targets: Not sure I agree with you on the wider point about targets … Given the size and complexity of modern public service delivery, no Minister can reasonably be expected to have a strong sense of what […]
On my Foreign Office travels I have picked up a goodly selection of ‘European’ languages to add to my distant A-Level French and Latin and O-Level German and Spanish. First, back in 1981 I learned lot of Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian (then called ‘Serbo-Croat’). After that I reached a reasonable standard in Afrikaans – […]
Type “South Africa peaceful transition” into Google and over a million hits appear. There are references aplenty to statements such as this: South Africa’s peaceful transition to democracy was indeed a miracle that captured the imagination of people all over the world. Wikipedia has been spotted proclaiming that the post-apartheid Government of South Africa have made […]
Back in 1979 when I joined the Service the FCO effectively enjoyed a brilliant and droll monopoly over most of Whitehall for communicating quickly with foreign governments. If eg the Trade Department wanted to send a message to its opposite numbers in Japan, this is roughly what would happen: […]
