Review Foreign Office secrets spilled

Tom Fletcher enjoys the witty diaries of a permanent under-secretary

treasure trove of anecdotes, account of her toxic a model that was to re- Behind Diplomatic Lines: from getting the interactions with the emerge under Blair. In my Relations with Ministers giggles in a meeting with the indecisive and nit-picking experience, leaders arrive in Patrick Wright, Chinese, to worries that bugs makes more No 10 planning to delegate Biteback, £25.00 will betray ’s recent PM/ foreign policy, but end up unvarnished names for spats look tame. She likes centralizing. The room occupied by the Commonwealth leaders. ambassadors, especially those The Wright era is more Yes, Foreign and Commonwealth When a French ambassador who are tall, unbearded and Prime Minister than The Thick Office permanent under- is asked if he can be addressed handsome. But she finds the Of It. But more recent PUSs secretary is an intimidating by his first name, he replies FCO itself unimaginative, will recognize the churn and place. Surveying the same St ‘pourquoi?’ A Bucharest obsessed by compromise, turf battles; the trench warfare James Park lamps that Grey ambassador’s Christmas and lacking in ideas − a view with No 10 over policy, watched going out on the eve card suggests Romania will echoed privately by at least and with the Treasury over of the First World War, the remain dull. It arrives the day three subsequent PMs. She resources; insecurity, fanned austere office is periodically Ceausescu falls. constantly overturns Wright’s constantly by the media, over revamped by new incumbents There are surprises too – carefully laid plans for the Special Relationship; but never loses its sense of who knew that the FCO got ambassadorial appointments. ambassadors going AWOL history and intrigue. 80 per cent of the changes it Charles Powell, Thatcher’s or getting kidnapped; scraps On the wall outside are wanted to Thatcher’s 1988 beloved private secretary over grand residences (though photos of the diplomats who Bruges speech, the seminal for foreign affairs, looms Thatcher was pro); suffocating have held the office. All are text for Eurosceptics today? largest over the memoirs. paperwork; junior ministers white men with grey hair in A paper promoting the As he accumulates power, fretting over the relative sizes their late 50s. Patrick Wright enlargement of the European his instructions to the FCO of their offices, portfolios and is the one who looks as though Union − a policy later pursued become more acerbic and column inches; perennial he is having the most fun. with vigour by brutal, and his Conservative leak inquiries; parliamentary Wright’s fascinating diaries − is seen as ‘unorthodox leanings more obvious. He grillings over expensive IT cover his time as permanent and controversial’. Wright even − gasp − appears in failures; pesky media stories under-secretary − a title I even draws on the long photos with the PM. The about FCO pointlessness; and once heard translated as discontinued ‘PUS’s monthly mandarins try to pack him off overstretch. Recent PUSs Everlasting Junior Typist telegram’, a message to to Switzerland, then Madrid. might also recognize his − from 1986-91. When the diplomats kept secret from The Cabinet Secretary nearly worries over lack of process ministerial door is closed, ministers. resigns when that fails, and around decisions − the PUS can be a licensed Thatcher is unpredictable, Wright is convinced that this Thatcher’s sofa got as much heretic, impertinent irritation dotty and autocratic. She fight with Thatcher − they use as Blair’s. and devil’s advocate. If they stops the traffic around the spend an hour on it with her There are successes along appear too close to ministers, world, but he is appalled by at one point in 1989 − is the the way. Wright is allowed they will be seen as weak. If her ‘Germanophobia’, that final nail in Howe’s coffin. to refurbish the FCO after not close enough, they will be leaves the prime minister Wright fights off plans for Douglas Hurd’s ceiling dismissed as irrelevant. feeling ‘a dagger to my heart’ a No 10 foreign affairs unit, collapses. He is able to This is, of course, a period after reunification. She persuade the satirical TV – including Britain’s entry to comes out on the wrong side ‘The enemies show to drop an the European Exchange Rate of history on South Africa. Ayatollah Khomeini puppet, Mechanism, the First Gulf Douglas Hurd at one point of the 90s and kills off the proposal for War and the fall of Thatcher characterizes her cabinet a Europe Minister. But he and the Berlin Wall – that has agenda as parliamentary were easier can’t help but feel that the been heavily recorded. But affairs, home affairs and status of the PUS is in decline. his diaries are worth the wait, xenophobia. to find on a Predecessors accompanied informed by self-deprecating Thatcher’s relationship map or kill in monarchs on their overseas humour, a keen eye and with the FCO is famously trips, but he only travels deft touch. He deploys a tempestuous, but Wright’s a Bond film’ with the Foreign Secretary

46 | the world today | february & march 2018 Review Foreign Office secrets spilled

Tom Fletcher enjoys the witty diaries of a permanent under-secretary

right about the need for more imagination and ideas − the answer to global challenges GETTY IMAGES is rarely an international conference. What diplomacy represented in Wright’s era − states, hierarchies, authority − is becoming weaker. And the challenges it confronts are becoming greater − look at the sabotaging of the US State Department. Yet the implications of diplomatic failure are more ominous than ever, and digital technology will make it harder to retain the trust of those diplomats present, and will create new scrutiny of what they do. So the FCO needs to retain the magnetic sense of collective purpose that inspired Wright – it has committed public A painting of the Foreign Office in 1910 when much of the map of the world was coloured pink servants and a global network that are the envy of most (no longer the case). Access appalling discrimination UN Security Council. The diplomatic services, and a to the PM starts to dry up, against homosexual enemies of the early 90s were national brand high in the bar the occasional scolding. diplomats. He and Major easier to find on a map or kill league table for two essential Resources get scarcer, are sad to ‘leave a career in in a Bond film. But Wright 21st century strengths: and Wright notes that his tatters’ when a 38-year-old offers a timely reminder of creativity and soft power. But budget is the equivalent officer reveals he is gay. The the need to step back from the that network is stretched, and of Wandsworth Council − story is more poignant in the press of the immediate. He it is working hard to become something more recent PUSs light of Sir ’s captures a debilitating sense less male and pale. would dream of. recent interview about the of neediness, with diplomats Wright’s diaries will Diversity is the most challenges of being a closet constantly searching for entertain and challenge a new striking difference. Wright homosexual in the FCO of this titbits of positive feedback generation of diplomats. For was PUS just over a decade era. Wall was Major’s private from the PM or the press. him the key to diplomacy after the FCO had lifted secretary at the time. Happily He rightly decries the idea is common sense. These its ban on married women. today Britain has a growing that foreign policy is about memoirs add a sense that it Elspeth Howe, wife of the number of homosexual woolly and meaningless ‘good can also be glorious fun. foreign secretary and a ambassadors, and the rainbow relations’. Perhaps the FCO powerful advocate for equal flag has flown over the FCO. can cultivate the French dash Tom Fletcher is a Visiting opportunities, and the What lessons could the he envies, and get better at Professor of International Foreign Office minister Lynda FCO of tomorrow draw? calculated risk, execution of Relations at New York Chalker fight valiantly to get Perhaps most importantly, policy and accountability, University, former UK more women in senior roles, Britain’s decline should including for mistakes − ambassador, foreign policy but with limited success. not be assumed – Wright Thatcher complains that ‘you adviser to three UK prime Meanwhile, Wright starts bets in 1987 that we won’t never accept you might have ministers and author of the process of dropping the last another decade on the got it wrong’. Maybe she was ‘The Naked Diplomat’

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