Just when you were thinking that I am a lone voice among former British diplomats lamenting the plummet in intellectual coherence and standards within the New Labour FCO, here is another one. He has sprung into action after seeing this strange article by David Miliband in the New Statesman in which […]
Here is what is said to be (and looks like) extracts from an FCO memo warning of hard times ahead as Cuts come along: We know that next year will be a lot tougher than this year. This is partly because we just have less money (like all Departments we […]
Edging back to normal life again after three days running around bewinter’d Poland. What a pleasure to be in a country able to cope sensibly with snow. Far from snow is Haiti. Ben Macintyre blames the French for brutalising Haiti into paying ruinous reparations for its temerity in wanting to espouse […]
I am off to icy Poland for a few days. If I find time to write here, I will. Otherwise browse back through the archives – plenty to read which you may have missed. Other than that, behave yourselves. And read this – how the Gordon Brown Treasury has utterly […]
Guido rightly lambasts the Fabian Society for their erstwhile adoration of the pseudo-science of Eugenics – the corrupt ideology beloved by snooty middle class intellectuals which was a sort of cross-breed of über-Darwinianism with Nietzschean/Germanic ideas of Supremacy. See also the merciless analysis of this odious ‘progressive’ doctrine and its highbrow supporters […]
Today a belated Seasons Greetings card made it to my door. It came from ‘all at Binani House’. It had been addressed to me at the Britsh Embassy in Belgrade. To judge by the envelope it indeed reached the Embassy and was processed in Security (zdravo Zorane!) then forwarded back […]
As the UK general election hoves into view, here’s a free tip to would-be MPs. Do not sit in the warm and make disobliging remarks about a rival candidate who is outside in the cold, busy shaking hands with voters. The more so if you seem to disparage the area’s iconic […]
Leading communications expert Max Atkinson points up the value of adding memorable or lively touches in a speech, eg by finding a noteworthy link to past events: … occasionally a quick search can yield a fantastic dividend. When the Challenger shuttle disaster prompted Ronald Reagan to scrap his 1986 state […]
Most societies have some sort of organised physical and psychological reserves ready to help them through disasters. Haiti is an exception, a place impoverished financially and institutionally for reasons going back deep into history (notably French history). Only a massive military-style humanitarian intervention can make a difference in Haiti, and […]
Welcome Iain Dale readers I was helping someone the other day with some well-chosen words for a senior private occasion of some 100 people. The task? Suggesting ideas for the seemingly simple task of opening the proceedings and introducing the main speaker(s). Of course … not so simple. The words […]
