The media is full of over-complicated theories as to who might have leaked Kim Darroch’s diplomatic telegrams giving his candid view on the Trump administration. I should start by explaining the FCO telegram system. The communications are nowadays effectively encrypted emails, though still known as “telegrams”: to the Americans “cables”. They are widely distributed. These Darroch telegrams would be addressed formally to the Foreign Secretary but have hundreds of other recipients, in the FCO, No.10, Cabinet Office, MOD, DFID, other government departments, MI6, GCHQ, and in scores of other British Embassies abroad. The field of suspects is therefore immense.
It is very important to note that this is an old fashioned kind of leak which was given to the mainstream media without the documents being published online. It is therefore pretty useless in terms of public information. We haven’t seen the documents, we only know as much as Isabel Oakeshott and the Daily Mail chose to tell us. It is not possible to envision any more untrustworthy or agenda driven filter than that. We can therefore be certain this was not a wikileaks style disclosure in the interests of freedom of information about public servants and their doings, but the agenda was much more specific.
Darroch’s scathing assessment of Trump is no way out of line with the mainstream media narrative and it is interesting – but exactly what I would expect of him – that Darroch shares the neo-con assumption that Trump’s failure to start a war with Iran over the drone take-down was a weird aberration. The leaks neither tell us anything startling nor obviously benefit any political faction in the UK. So what was the motive?
I believe the most probable answer is much simpler than anything you will find in the vast amount of media guff printed on the subject these last two days by people with no knowledge.
Kim Darroch is a rude and aggressive person, who is not pleasant at all to his subordinates. He rose to prominence within the FCO under New Labour at a time when right wing, pro-Israel foreign policy views and support for the Iraq War were important assets to career progress, as was the adoption of a strange “laddish” culture led from No. 10 by Alastair Campbell, involving swearing, football shirts and pretending to be working class (Darroch was privately educated). Macho management was suddenly the thing.
At a time when news management was the be all and end all for the Blair administration, Darroch was in charge of the FCO’s Media Department. I remember being astonished when, down the telephone, he called me “fucking stupid” for disagreeing with him on some minor policy matter. I had simply never come across that kind of aggression in the FCO before. People who worked directly for him had to put up with this kind of thing all the time.
Most senior ambassadors used to have interests like Chinese literature and Shostakovitch. Darroch’s are squash and sailing. He is a bull of a man. In my view, the most likely source of the leaks is a former subordinate taking revenge for years of bullying, or a present one trying to get rid of an unpleasant boss.
Craigh re. “these telegrams…have hundreds of other recipients”,
Tom Tugendhat MP (a man who seems to be openly ex SIS) specifically denied this yesterday – he claims they were not ordinarly DipTel and went to only “maybe 5 or 10 people”. Given his background if you tell me this is a lie I will readily believe you (especially as it seems very unlikely) but do please check – he spoke on Channel 4 news here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekYAPIJs12g&feature=youtu.be&t=426
Tugendhat, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, is seen on a video on this link @14.51 addressing Sir Simon McDonald of the FCO about Darroch. McDonald of course was well known to Craig who writes of him on https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/04/two-smooth-faces-of-evil/ the other face being Regev’s.
Posted at 14:51
Watch: Head of diplomatic service speaks
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-parliaments-48936641
Tugenhadt visited Israel in 2015 – ‘Purpose of visit: to meet academics and defence experts’. The visit was funded by the so called ‘Academic Study Group’. Who they?
He has received many large donations in multiple £thousands. For what purpose may we enquire? Is not the MP’s salary and expenses sufficient? He is also a Bilderberger and attended the meeting last month to the tune of £1,689 paid by the Bilderberg Association. Nice one.
Mishcon de Reya the solicitors of choice for litigants provided him with a Wimbledon ticket and hospitality in 2016 to the value of £746. Anthony Julius ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Julius ) is now the chairman of the firm. He is active against BDS etc.
Tugendhat’s receipts are all neatly recorded on https://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=25374
He tweeted earlier:
‘Verified account
@TomTugendhat
At 1300 today @CommonsForeign is meeting for an urgent hearing with @SMcDonaldFCO to hear about the security of @foreignoffice communications. You will be able to watch it on @ParliamentLive
12:16 AM – 10 Jul 2019
PS He is also a commissioned officer in the Reserves. Of course.
Not wishing to disagree with CM but The Washington Times, ties this with the Steele memos, and reports that the shit of that is finally hitting the fan. Blowback time to the British intellligence chiefs, for their odious lies.
https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jul/8/donald-trump-cuts-uk-ambassador-after-leaked-memos/
It seems to me that a handy scapegoat is needed? An Ambassador no less, to appease the potus.
There may be an ancillary to it with the Tory leadership ‘contest’
Does bojo benefit? He was foreign sec during the time of the memos i believe. If he is such a close friend of potus, surely Donald may be a bit pissed that his mini-me was the primary recipient and didn’t take the opportunity to instantly tell the Ambassador ‘you’re fired!!’
So probably not.
Does ‘utter’ Hunt benefit? probably.
Still, the bully boys of our state may not so easily escape the settling of scores so easily yet! JC to the left of them, a raging bull to the right … time to order more popcorn.
Is it true that Bolton has been banished to inner or outer Mongolia ?
@Dungroanin – How does the Washington Times tie this in with the Steele memos? Do you mean Darroch’s statement that “the worst cannot be ruled out” in relation to Trump’s Russian connections? That was in the Daily Mail when they broke this story.
It’s the key bit. Epithets such as “inept” aren’t. Darroch means that on the basis of intelligence he believes Trump may be a Russian state asset, a conscious traitor.
Personally I think Trump is a pussy. Why doesn’t he formally instruct that Darroch literally be declared persona non grata? He’s the chief executive. He can do that. Do it in a note. He’s all mouth and no trousers! He should tweet himself hoarse and go red in his face until he fills his nappy.
From the article:
‘A second dossier, written by London’s top man in Washington, Kim Darroch, who resigned Wednesday morning, appeared this week in the Daily Mail. Like the Steele papers, the Darroch dossier has been written in segments and is filled with anti-Trump vitriol.’
And
‘As a backdrop, Trump associates and the president have another suspicion about America’s top ally.
George Papadopoulos, as a Trump volunteer in London, encountered at least two FBI spies, professor Stefan Halper and a supposed associate, as he worked in 2016 to try to set up a Trump-Kremlin meeting. He suspects other informants were dispatched to make contact with him, and he believes the British spy service helped.
“The US-UK scandal that is going to hit headlines this week is about the MI6, in coordination with the CIA, running Stefan Halper at me in London,” Papadopoulos tweeted after the Darroch story broke.’
As i say, i suspect someone has been asked to take one for the team! Darroch is supposedly high enough to placate Trump. The timing and route via the Mail pretty much guarantees that is a state run ‘leak’, regardless of which disgruntled staffer may be an originator?
As for the tory leadership ‘voting’ – i believe this is aimed squarely at the local party Chairs to do the ‘right thing’ and hand it to Hunt.
I need more refreshments. NZ turning over India, Wimbledon, PMQ’s, twatterating from Campbell / Adonis…it’s relentless entertainment! Then there is tomorrows semi.
‘
Thanks Craig, as usual you provide another interesting and plausible perspective. Though I suspect he won’t have been the only person ever to call you “fucking stupid” – you have a very independent, indeed cussed streak in you, valuable no doubt as it is allied to a strong personal ethical stance, but it wouldn’t be surprising if occasionally you made someone frustrated enough to swear. (!!) But you are a good judge of character and I’ve no doubt that your assessment is likely to be accurate.
The “Special Relationship” of the UK to the USA. Is there no-one else out there who wants to scream every time they hear this trope? It’s long since passed its use-by-date. It has been the cause of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the destruction of Libya, the increasing Americanisation of the country, its corporatisation and is the excuse for the determination to continue this destructive process. The fact that the present Tory government can continue to recite this mantra ad nauseam, when there is in power in the US the most incompetent, sociopathic, egotistical, childish and ignorant man – a man whom no-one would even ask to run a kindergarten, except maybe more likely to invite him to join the children (at their sufferance) just shows how totally thoughtless this special relationship has become. That the media continue to parrot this and never seem to question its value is part of the same thoughtlessness. A prostitute has a special relationship with her pimp. A dog has a special relationship with his master. A mafia thug has a special relationship with the godfather. So is the UK’s special relationship with the USA – pernicious and warped.
“The “Special Relationship” of the UK to the USA. Is there no-one else out there who wants to scream every time they hear this trope? It’s long since passed its use-by-date. It has been the cause of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the destruction of Libya, the increasing Americanisation of the country, its corporatisation and is the excuse for the determination to continue this destructive process.”
Nail on head, Mr Monro. The United States has only ever had a “special relationship” with one country and that country happens to be – the United States. And this amour propre has led to an astonishing amount of death and destruction worldwide since its birth in the late 18th century and has accelerated exponentially since 1945 almost invariably with the craven connivance of successive british governments of all political hues.
The major damage here is to the ability of ambassadors to send a frank assessment of the situation to their own government, irrespective of the character of that ambassador. It is as if we have a fifth column non the government which would like to carry out ther agenda despite the damage.
Incidentally this also shows the rot and lack of control that this shambolic lame duck government under Theresa May. The long protracted Tory leader election contest is further proof that the Tories have now totally ran out of ideas other than to kick the ball out to the long grass.
The major damage here, SA, is the fact that despite our overgrown public-school ambassador considers Trump to be a moron and the US government inept, the U.K. Government is still prepared to act as the USA’s poodle and carry out its bidding, unquestioningly, be it in acts of piracy on the high seas, waging illegal war. Fuck’em both!
Ingwe
Alas it seems that U.K. part has not only been to be the poodle but also to initiate conflict as in the role in Russiagate and the Skripal affair. We also sent warships to threaten China and want our colony Hong Kong back.
Ingwe, SA. yes, it was we that initiated and convinced the US to overthrow Mosaddegh in 1953.
Pity to read here from Scandinavia…
The verse from from some anthem “Britan’s shall never, ever be slaves” is stinging my mind. It hurts sorely, because that is what you are. Impoverished by your elites, who is out of control, and a general populace indifferent to the on goings, because of lack of power and thereby disinterest in politics.
Your slide down the drain is a perfect example of Tory governments deregulation and dismantling of government companies.
Maybe God will help, you or Trump ? (Silent laughter).
The best thing that ever happened to me, was I was born in Denmark, ergo Scandinavian.
I have to say I would include New Labour under Tony Blair as complicit in the UK’s subordination to the US.
Interesting reports at the weekend that Jeremy Corbyn’s private office is embroiled in a bullying culture of secrecy, as run by “the 4 Ms”. Plus CA change……. Etc
The State broacaster the BBC is airing a programme tonight asking, is Labour anti-Semitic, Panorama 9pm BBC1.
Of course, you won’t see a similar programme from the BBC asking are the Tories Islamophobic.
Of course I’d rather stick rusty needles in my eyes than watch the BBC shit but one thing you can be sure of, is their “evidence” will not be evidence of what they claim it is evidence of and their will be no questioning of this lack of evidence by the BBC communiqué readers, masquerading as journalists.
I imagine it will have the corpulent, nose in the trough former Lord Chancellor, Charlie Boy, continuing to conflate Jewishness and Zionism. Can’t abide his nasal upper class Scottish accent troweling it on, again without any real evidence.
The Lord Chancellor who put the Hutton Inquiry in place of a proper inquest for Dr Kelly thus covering up his likely murder. Dr Kelly was found dead in July 2003. An inquest was opened by the Wiltshire Coroner and then immediately adjourned. The Hutton Inquiry opened in August. The papers from the ‘inquiry’ were sealed away for 70 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutton_Inquiry
Milord Hutton was a NI judge.
‘Lord Hutton represented the Ministry of Defence at the inquest into the killing of civil rights marchers on “Bloody Sunday”. Later, he publicly reprimanded Major Hubert O’Neil, the coroner presiding over the inquest, when the coroner accused the British Army of murder, as this contradicted the findings of the Widgery Tribunal.
Hutton also came to public attention in 1999 during the extradition proceedings of former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet had been arrested in London on torture allegations by request of a Spanish judge. Five Law Lords, the UK’s highest court, decided by a 3-2 majority that Pinochet was to be extradited to Spain. The verdict was then overturned by a panel of seven Law Lords, including Lord Hutton on the grounds that Lord Hoffmann, one of the five Law Lords, had links to human rights group Amnesty International which had campaigned for Pinochet’s extradition.’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Hutton,_Baron_Hutton
Travesties. ‘Where the law ends, tyranny begins’ – to paraphrase John Locke.
Sounds a real thug. Fortunately we’re about to be governed by a corrupt, unprincipled clown whose subservience to Trump will make Blair seem like a stone in Washington’s shoe.
On Mock the Week recently (UK political and news satire TV show) , they had a good snigger at the staged photo of a reconciled Boris and girlfriend holding hands while sitting on garden chairs in long grass. They also showed a photo, allegedly from Daily Mail, of the litter strewn interior of Boris’s Toyota Previa car, cue more snickering.
Then panellist comedian Ed Byrne commented that if Boris becomes PM he envisaged a bike chained to the railings outside 10 Downing Street, a scruffy Toyota parked around the corner and every few weeks, an upper window being flung open by an angry woman and a pile of Boris’s clothes being dumped on the pavement below.
Well I found it amusing.
Re bullying, have a good read
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/07/oxford-bullingdon-club-boris-johnson-sexism-violence-bullying-culture
His girlfriend has been at the Tory HQ expenses trough, allegedly. She maintains it is a sideways smear on the Bullingdon Boy.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1151529/boris-johnson-girlfriend-carrie-symonds-expense-scandal-claims-explained
Excuse the link. They have a Breaking News banner showing that Darroch has resigned (as RoS has noted). I noticed that Hunt supported Darroch yesterday.
@Mary Pau!
‘I have to say I would include New Labour under Tony Blair as complicit in the UK’s subordination to the US.’
Question is, was he buying or selling maybe both, like Macron and Guaido, the chosen ones.
When an interviewer put it to Tony Blair that he was subordinate to the US, he scoffed – made a scoffing sound – said “It’s worse that that” (as if war is an amusing matter and sadism is to be admired), and then he went on to explain that had the US been less keen than they were on invading Iraq, he would have jetted over there and he would have pushed and pushed them to invade, encouraging them to the maximum extent. What he was communicating was that the war was not merely “not illegal” but it was good and right and maybe even holy – oh and that anyone who disagrees can eat boot.
That’s the kind of thing that sticks in the memory. It reminds me of George W Bush making it quite clear that he knew the “weapons of mass destruction” story about Iraq was a lie, as he pretended to instruct that a search be made for “weapons of mass destruction” under his desk. Both he and Blair have no care whatsoever for the deaths of hundreds of thousands or millions of innocent people. They are monsters. They joke about their role in mass murder.
Another illustration is that when someone “citizen arrested” Blair for his war crime, he didn’t simply say that invading Iraq was good – he said let’s do it to Syria next.
I doubt the Blair clip is on Youtube. It should feature in any properly critical film that gets made about the man, as it illustrates his character well. If anyone has a link to it, I will be so grateful if they could post it.
Mary Paul. Can you give us these ‘reports and who they are from please.
Of significance for me, is that Isabel Oakeshott, who is credited with writing the breaking Mail story, is listed on the contact list of the Integrity Initiative (see below). That being the case it is suggestive, I think, that there is a deeper games afoot than a subordinate taking revenge
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/12/british-government-covert-anti-russian-propaganda-and-the-skripal-case/
Accurate headline in the Mirror: “Traitor Boris backs Trump, not Britain”.
Love it.
Any news on which agency is “scrutinising” the Tory leadership election? In other words, who is okaying the vote totals? Who is counting the vote? Who is looking after the ballot boxes? All of that will be “scrutinised” by the said “independent” but as yet unidentified agency. All commentators seem to be as if they’re waiting to hear the name of the winner announced from a balcony. “The prime minister has resigned. Long live the prime minister!” No budding Woodwards or Bernsteins in the wings?
Hasn’t it occurred to anybody the ‘telegram’ might have been intercepted by the NSA? Or even GCHQ? Or a ‘Middle Eastern’ regime’s spy service?
Prediction: there won’t be a trial for breach of the Official Secrets Act in the Kim Darroch case, any more than there will be for the National Security Council leak that Gavin Williamson got sacked for and denied.
But someone may get suicided.
It wouldn’t surprise me if a third country is involved.
If Trump gets Dallased, what Kim Darroch has for breakfast will be studied in minute detail.
The encryption should have been unbreakable. It must have been a human act that did it. Anyway he’s resigned now, so the manoeuvre succeeded.
What if it wasn’t intercepted by anyone? What if it was released with the full knowledge and cooperation of Darroch in an effort to deliberately derail any post Brexit trade deal with the US? Just watch as Darroch falls on his sword but is rewarded later on.
Thought I may see you (Craig) at the conference today… on the picket line obviously along with the ‘Free Julian’ picket.
https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/global-conference-for-media-freedom-london-2019
With no sense of irony at all RT, Sputnik et al were denied access – according to Jeremy Hunt’s office because they practice ‘disinformation’. These people, sigh.
@ remember kronstadt July 10, 2019 at 11:26
‘LIVE: Feed from the ‘press freedom’ event RT was barred from entering…’:
https://www.facebook.com/RTUKnews/videos/371191113585509/?notif_id=1562756603126224¬if_t=live_video
From 64.16, Mr.*unt himself – talk about hypocrisy! Prattling on like a good ‘un about Press Freedom, yet what are his words and actions re the Saudi murder of Kashoggi and of the Julian Assange case?
‘Jamal Khashoggi: Jeremy Hunt meets Saudi King Salman for first time since murder’:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/jamal-khashoggi-jeremy-hunt-meets-13578060
‘Jeremy Hunt asks Germany to lift ban on weapons sales to Saudi Arabia because of impact on arms dealers’:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/jeremy-hunt-saudi-arabia-arms-sales-germany-yemen-war-crimes-nato-a8787866.html
‘Jeremy Hunt: “Julian Assange is no hero, he’s hidden from the truth for years”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW7XnUlHbwU
And he would have no objection to JA being extradited to the US.
They work for us…snickering
‘Building on the experience of the Salisbury incident, the UK has become a global leader in countering disinformation, and recently launched a new training offer for government and public sector officials on spotting and dealing with disinformation, which has also had interest from international governments.’
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-steps-up-fight-against-fake-news
Kim Darroch has resigned from his post.
Of course, Sir Kim Darroch has done the right thing and resigned, cutting short the discovery of the real reason why.
Interesting from Craig about a rude and aggressive man… the BBC told me he was an honourable man… now whom should I believe? ?
Well. Not the State Broadcaster, obviously.
Their ‘Live’ report on PMQs and that resignation.
‘Boris Johnson on Sir Kim: ‘A superb diplomat’
In response to Sir Kim Darroch’s resignation, Tory leadership hopeful Boris Johnson said he regretted the news because “he is a superb diplomat and I worked with him for many years.”
“I think whoever leaked his diptels (diplomatic telegrams) really has done a grave disservice to our civil servants, to people who give impartial advice to ministers,” he goes on.
“I hope that whoever it is, is run down, caught and eviscerated, quite frankly, because it is not right that advice to ministers that civil servants must be able to make in a spirit of freedom should be leaked.
“It is not right that civil servants’ careers and prospects should be dragged into the political agenda.”‘
Mr Tom Watson TUFoI’LFoI concurred.
‘Tom Watson
@tom_watson
This is a personal tragedy for Kim Darroch. It is the inevitable result of a leak organised by dark forces who do down our country, and Boris Johnson’s failure to stand up for our sovereignty. Always personal ambition before country with Johnson.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48937120
…
How about the evisceration suggested by Johnson?
PMQs and ambassador resignation
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-parliaments-48936641
It’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry. Watson wails about “dark forces” organising leaks. Seriously? When he is the current master of Labour’s own Fifth Column, itself known to “livestream PLP meetings direct to the media” as Andy McDonald said just last week?
In my youth there was a category of ex-colonials who were known as ‘whenwes’ as in ‘when we lived our guilded lives in…’ before returning sourly to the slums of blighty (or council house in his case).
Didn’t Somerset Maugham call British colonials ‘second class people in first class places’. Paul Theroux reveals much and provides much amusement about British colonial culture in his book describing his posting to somewhere in Africa with the American ‘Peace Corps’?Forgotten the name of the book but it was one of his early travel books.Am sure Google would reveal.
“Am sure Google would reveal.
“I had a half a thought recently. It was quite good. If you want the other half, approach a US advertising company”.
It doesn’t matter whether Darroch was a “a rude and aggressive man” or not. He was doing his job, his frank (and unexceptionably honest) reports were leaked. The government should have supported him to the hilt, whatever the state of our relations with the US. Johnson, the prospective new PM didn’t. It’s a very bad sign of what he’s going to be like as PM. A weasel, who’ll abandon people at the drop of a hat.
It’s irrelevant what type of man Darroch is. Indeed, if you want to play the brexit mobster’s game, carry on focussing on that.
Thanks for repeating my point. It needed emphasising.
Now Johnson says, regretting Darroch’s resignation:
“It is not right that civil servants’ careers and prospects should be dragged into the political agenda.”
Well, he should have supported Darroch on the TV last night, shouldn’t he?
The most important points are that
1. The British ambassador to the US advised the Foreign Office that Donald Trump may be a conscious Russian asset.
2. This was made public.
Boris Johnson’s girlfriend Carrie Symonds, whom he plans to “install in Downing Street”, was removed from her job for the Conservative party for fiddling her expenses. Her company Final Straw Limited is registered at the same address in Hoxton, N1, at which several phantom companies were registered that the High Court ordered into liquidation for being bogus and vehicles for engaging in systematic fraud.
The fight for who will be the next prime minister isn’t over. It’s hotting up.
Isabell Oakeshott “leaks” another state operation aimed at defaming Trump. She is an Integrity Initiative operative, so is run by British Intelligence and also fronts as a journalist. The leaks are a deliberate state action.
Well done Apple Sauce:
AppleSauce
July 10, 2019 at 08:14
Of significance for me, is that Isabel Oakeshott, who is credited with writing the breaking Mail story, is listed on the contact list of the Integrity Initiative (see below). That being the case it is suggestive, I think, that there is a deeper games afoot than a subordinate taking revenge
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/12/british-government-covert-anti-russian-propaganda-and-the-skripal-case/
The blonde beauty, related to Lord Oakeshott (he was a Labour Party member but is now a LD peer in investment management) was always on the news channels some time back, expounding her take on events. I have not seen her for some time. She simpers somewhat and always looked pleased with herself.
The banner photo on her Twitter shows her in such a scenario.
https://twitter.com/IsabelOakeshott?
She comments on there saying the Washington files conspiracy are wild.
She is being supported by her mates on her Twitter against a critique of her in the Guardian today by John Crace who said ‘The Scottish National party’s Stephen Gethins detected the dead hand of Nigel Farage in all of this. Not least because the only way Isabel Oakeshott, the journalist who got the leaked emails, ever gets a scoop is if he or Arron Banks leave it conveniently to one side for her.’
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/08/ambassadors-trashing-of-trump-gives-mps-chance-to-enjoy-a-bit-of-deploring
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_Oakeshott
She was on Question Time recently and worked with Fiona Bruce to gaslight Diana Abbott over Labour’s postion in the opinion polls.
Yes indeed. She’s a Grade A b*tch.
Good bit of reasoning. Sounds highly likely. But the damage this person has done is immense – who would trust the UK government with sensitive information now?
@ Dave Roden July 10, 2019 at 13:14
Hopefully not the Yanks, so the sooner they kick us out of ‘Five Eyes (+ Isr.) the better, and NATO too for good measure.
I think the Darroch Affair could do some bad for Johnson’s candidacy. He failed to support Darraoch, as by all principles he should have done. So Darroch resigns as ambassador, as he had to. To the Tory electorate, to Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells, to the ultra-nationalists, kowtowing to the demands of the US, even though our supposed ally, is not going to look good. On the other hand a lot of them will already have voted. But still, ultra-nationalists don’t have the same point of view as the Tory Atlanticists who are ready to surrender our interests to the US. The ultra-Brexiter leaders have failed to notice that their own interests are different from the nationalist Brits who are supporting them, who are Britain First. Britain First, if you believe in it, is quite different from what the leadership is willing to do in the way of abasement before the God of Washington. Johnson and the Brexiters have just made quite a serious mistake.
Interesting take in Haaretz this evening: a cautionary tale for Israel.
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-special-relationship-with-no-one-trump-u-k-spat-is-a-cautionary-tale-for-israel-1.7486289?utm_source=smartfocus&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter-daily&utm_content=https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-special-relationship-with-no-one-trump-u-k-spat-is-a-cautionary-tale-for-israel-1.7486289
Interesting how the photos and comments, especially by state propagandist Sir Christopher Meyer, have improved of Sir Kim since he quit.
Good to get a perspective on this affair from a knowledgable source. I did not know what to make of this so
thanks for this insight.
We have two versions of Kim Darroch, a good ambassador who served the UK so well in the EU that he was knighted or a ignorant brute who punished his subordinates.
Apparently he has resigned, so that’s it for his career, hardly likely to offer him another Ambassadorship, anything else for the Civil Service would be diminishing, a job as a M.P. perhaps?
Looks like Boris is going to take all the biscuits.
How many changes of senior personnel has the Trump administration seen? Must be some sort of record.
It was like a revolving door at one point : resignations, firings and people ‘forced out’, diplomats never knew who they’d be talking to from one day to the next. Amazing that Trump can take offence at the turnover being characterized merely as ‘dysfunctional’. I’d wager other countries’ diplomats have used far stronger language than that.
I suppose attention should now focus on Mrs Nigel Rosser of Chipping Norton aka Isabel Oakeshott. She was probably briefed by her paymaster, the Foreign Office, perhaps to sink Boris, in some cackhanded clusterfuck that only MI6 could dream up. However, Nigel Rosser, whom the fragrant Isobel met when they worked on the Evening Standard, is a real piece of work. https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/424811.html He is almost certainly involved, as the Met and MI5 pay his rent; a real diamond geezer.
Not hard to imagine from a child of the wayward Michael Oakeshott who so hated proponents of change from the left or right, and worked to influence most successfully statists like Mad Maggie.
Poor old UK taxpayer keeping this bullying buffoon in ambassadorial splendour to copy and paste
Washington Post and New York Times bits and present it as specialized insider information. Perhaps, the new celebratory inmate of lower Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, will come up with some real leaks on Darroch’s No. 10 mentors.
me. Nice one
Isabel Oakeshott is a gonzo journalist. She isn’t just an observer of events, she glories in participating. On the 8th December 2015 Boris Johnson said “The only reason I wouldn’t go to some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump”, a slur that Donald Trump hasn’t picked up on. Ye the leak was followed by an absurdly childish over-reaction from Donald Trump, followed by Boris Johnson rolling over in support of the President’s petulance, culminating in the resignation of Sir Kim Darroch, which leaves a vacancy with which Boris can try to buy off Farage. It looks choreographed.
Didn’t we have a leak with young Gavin too?
Whatever happened to that inquiry and “the disgraced former Secretary of Defence…” pleading his innocence on the life of his children.
I have not checked but I assume the still are alive.
Darroch like Gavin maybe a victim of the NSA letting GCHQ that they were passing the dirt onto Oakeshott.
Somehow a bell always rings when there is a link to the Integrity Initiative.
I note that senior folk in the FCO are gearing up for more revelations.
Of course, it must be the Russians, it’s always the Russians.
@ Duncan July 10, 2019 at 16:44
Talking about ‘Integrity Initiative’ (Copyright George Orwell), much maligned MP Chris Williamson is trying to get some answers:
‘Chris Williamson MP #GTTO
Verified account
@DerbyChrisW
May 19
More
Through their ‘Integrity Initiative’ project, the Institute for Statecraft − a state-funded charity − conducted a number of shady activities, like smearing Jeremy Corbyn.
This requires a public inquiry. Watch what happened when I visited their London office earlier this year.’
https://twitter.com/DerbyChrisW
To the moderators (please delete this post if and when it becomes superfluous):
I tried to post a comment (admittedly off-topic for the thread) about the Orwellian disappearance of a recent Twitter thread by “Harry Tuttle”, but nothing at all appears to have happened.
Has there been a technical problem, or have I done something stupid, or have I inadvertently triggered a moderation response (without being informed of it)?
Sorry if it’s my fault – it probably is!
This is an excellent and illuminating piece. I heard that Dorroch was called out as a bully when he was a spook in our Japanese mission, but maybe that was someone else. It is certainly true that the Blair/Campbell No 10 politicised the civil service and the new PM should be looking to repeat the mid 19th century work of Northcote Trevelyan. There is a need to cleanse the Augean stables. But it has become stark that both the FCO and HM Treasury have done their utmost to thwart Brexit, and that Sir John Major this morning invoked the judiciary suggests they’re losing this battle. Expect is earned, not just bestowed on some pampered panjandrum.We pay for them after all. Incidentally, Megan is learning what it’s like to be sucking on the public teat.
Somebody needs to explain to these entitlement junkies with their PPE degrees from Oxford exactly what is happening in the world, from Trump via Brexit, the EU populists to Joshua Wong. Otherwikse they’ll be on the wrong side of history.
A former prvately educated recent foreign secretary may well have had copies.
UK Foreign Secretaries. 1997-date.
Hunt/Charterhouse. Johnson/Eton*. Hammond/Shenfield School. Hague/Wath Comprehensive. Miliband/Grammar and Comprehensive. Beckett/Notre Dame High School, Norwich. Straw/Brentwood
(a co-ed independent school). Cook/Aberdeen Grammar School and Royal High School, Edinburgh.
*Boris, Jo and Rachel Johnson all attended the European School of Brussels. There are several so called European Schools for pupils aged 4 – 18. The fees are set out here. Much jargon. Categories etc.
https://www.eursc.eu/en/European-Schools/enrolments/school-fees
Breakdown of pupils into three categories
Category I: Pupils who have to be admitted by the European Schools. These pupils are exempt from school fees.
Category II: Pupils covered by individual agreements or decisions, each entailing specific rights and obligations for the pupils concerned, particularly as regards school fees.
Category III: Pupils who do not belong to categories I & II. These pupils would be admitted to the European Schools in so far as places are available, in accordance with an order of priority listed here. The ordinary school fees fixed by the Board of Governors would be payable for these pupils.
https://www.eursc.eu/en/European-Schools/enrolments/admission
Nicely reported
Jeremy Corbyn’s take on the Darroch issue:
‘Jeremy Corbyn | A Sorry Day’:
https://www.facebook.com/JeremyCorbynMP/videos/2361350107484132/?notif_id=1562773272476837¬if_t=live_video
Clear and to the point. He clearly is not impressed with the Orange Trumpeter. That’s our future PM, or we are really screwed big time.
If anyone’s still not sure, give him the benefit of the doubt. JC4PM!
Craig gets a mention in the Heil’s version of events today Leonard is not the late Scottish poet but the US correspondent for the rag.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7234543/TOM-LEONARD-Sir-Kim-scorned-DID-Trumps-friends-flock-lavish-parties.html