Update: welcome Iain Dale readers. Loftily principled Edward McMillan-Scott (MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber) weighs in on the Kaminski saga: On July 14, in Strasbourg, I stood and won against a Polish MEP, Michal Kaminski, for the post of Vice-President of the European Parliament, because he symbolised the rise […]
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 […]
Timothy Garton Ash (whom I know and respect of old) bangs on again about the UK Conservative Party’s engagement in the newly formed European Conservatives and Reformists formation within the European Parliament: The farce of David Cameron’s Latvian legion becomes more ridiculous by the day. Last month, I deplored the […]
In the UK most political letters announcing the writer’s resignation say what they have to say, perhaps with a feigned or even real sentence or two of respect, then stop. Some go into some vital policy detail, albeit in thinly coded and very general terms. See Geoffrey Howe’s letter to Margaret […]
A question is asked re my previous (peevious?) posting on the Foreign Secretary’s visit to Poland: On david’s grandfather, are you sure he fought with the red army? Are you referring to ralph’s father samuel? Good question. How do I know? I wasn’t there. But rummaging around through Google finds […]
My first thought on the Foreign Secretary’s Warsaw speech was that the opening ‘historic passages’ were clunky. This is what happens. The speechwriter is pretty familiar with the broad rhetorical lines of policy on EU issues. But knows nothing about Poland or the UK’s relations with it. So s/he does […]
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband has visited Poland. Various Foreign Secretaries have swung through Poland for commemorative or other events. But straightforward bilateral visits by British Foreign Secretaries have been few and far between in recent years. None in my time from 2003-2007 (although Jack Straw took part in the […]
My successor as HM Ambassador in Warsaw is in the Daily Mail being asked about the FCO’s policy to ‘promote’ Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual And Transgender (LGBT) rights. This question was put: Asked whether he would raise the rainbow flag at the British embassies in Iran or Saudi Arabia, Mr Todd […]
The symbol of Warsaw is a mermaid, even though Warsaw lies some way from the sea. Here is my successor HM Ambassador to Warsaw Ric Todd in a sandpit showing a playful mermaidish mode. Separately, the Embassy has been hosting a reception for gay rights activists as a gesture of support […]
Undeterred by doing worse than the British National Party in the 2005 election result in Blackburn, former Ambassador Craig Murray is back on the campaign trail. He is running as a local lad independent candidate in the North Norwich by-election, under the slogan "honest people can fight back". And he is going […]
