It’s now been a month since David Lammy last wrote a post for his “Progressive Realism” Substack after he produced two long reads in three days. He started it up in September to “explore” how to reach “progressive ends” with “realist means”…
So far the blog has only managed to achieve some typos like “I am the first Black Britain to go to Harvard Law School” and triggering a diplomatic incident. Lammy praised Azerbaijan’s bloody campaign to reclaim the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh as a “liberation.” Forcing the FCDO to clarify that UK policy – to “urge meaningful dialogue” – had not changed as a result…
Lammy has done a lot to put his mark on foreign policy in a month – thawing relations with China, giving away the Chagos Islands, and “forging a closer relationship” with the EU. Is he not keen to explain himself on his personal blog?
The government has just announced that it is handing sovereignty of the Chagos Islands away to Mauritius. Confirming long-held fears that the British strategic interests were to be trumped by progressive waffle…
The joint announcement states:
“Under the terms of this treaty the United Kingdom will agree that Mauritius is sovereign over the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia. At the same time, both our countries are committed to the need, and will agree in the treaty, to ensure the long-term, secure and effective operation of the existing base on Diego Garcia which plays a vital role in regional and global security. For an initial period of 99 years, the United Kingdom will be authorised to exercise with respect to Diego Garcia the sovereign rights and authorities of Mauritius required to ensure the continued operation of the base well into the next century.”
The Chagos Islands are 2,152 kilometres away from Mauritius itself and have belonged to the UK since 1810. They have never belonged to Mauritius. There goes vital strategic access to the Indian and Pacific Oceans…
Despite claiming that the agreement secures the use of the US military base on Diego Garcia there’s no getting away from the fact that the government has now agreed to hand over a UK/US military asset to a firmly China-aligned country. Massively harming UK interests – you can hear the cheering in Beijing from SW1…
The Foreign Office is blazing into the new government with a whopping price tag on taxi use. An FoI request dispatched from Guido reveals the department alone has spent £140,000 on taxi rides since the election. Whitehall wonks are no strangers to spaffing the cash on private rides…
About two-thirds of FCDO staff turned up to the office according to the last occupancy statistics, before Labour stopped reporting them. Meanwhile PCS, the Civil Service union, continues its relentless push for a “a significant shortening of the working week with no loss of pay” while balloting members for strike action. Nice work if you can get it…
The director of major FCDO procurement adviser and former longtime statutory company Crown Agents sent round a missive this week. It explained that the company is going into liquidation immediately, to close by the 31st at the latest. A complete winding down after only layoffs were announced earlier in the year…
That’s another UK supplier to go kaput thanks to taking on a not-for-profit model under New Labour and allowing itself to be run by a former charity boss – Fergus Drake, former Executive Director of Global Programmes at Save the Children UK. The way is well and truly paved for international companies and US ‘beltway bandits’ to take over the large majority of supply contracts to the FCDO…
The same thing has already happened to the MoD. International competitive bidding is usually a good idea, but it doesn’t make sense to rely only on foreign organisations for strategic support to foreign and defence policy…
Last time Labour bailed out Crown Agents it was a major scandal – no such luck now. Guido hears investors balked at the company’s huge pension liabilities (staff awarded themselves too high pensions) while pleas to Labour landed on deaf ears. No mercy, not even for a member of Labour’s favourite Save the Children mafia…
The government has announced that Andrew Mitchell, who speaks for Cameron in the Commons, “has been given the honorific title of Deputy Foreign Secretary.” Not one of the plebs, promise!
Of course Mitchell was previously only the paltry Minister of State for Development and Africa. DFS – brings a whole new meaning to ‘sofa government’…
Sadiq Khan is splashing out on a TfL fare freeze to buy voters’ favour – it looks like even that can’t convince civil servants to stop using their favourite form of transport: the humble taxi. A Freedom of Information request has revealed that the FCDO, in the last three years alone, has spaffed £5,495,000 of taxpayer cash on taxis. The £2.4 million spent by the department last year is a whopping 208% increase on 2021’s bill. Of that, £232,611 has been spent carting ministers around. It is a long trek from King Charles Street to the Red Lion…
Meanwhile PCS, the civil service union, has announced it will again ballot for strike action imminently, including in their demands “a significant shortening of the working week with no loss of pay.” Can their working week get much shorter?
