I’ve been Foreign Secretary, I’ve done senior ambassadorial appointments. Let me explain why the Mandelson situation is even worse than it first appears. The Foreign Secretary has a huge amount of power when it comes to appointing Heads of Missions. Head of Mission is the general term for Ambassadors, High Commissioners, and Permanent Representatives to international bodies like the UN. Basically the choice of who the top diplomat is in an overseas post is down to the Foreign Secretary. In almost all cases the choice is from a list of career diplomats, who have years (often decades) of experience, have been vetted, and tested by experience, and have previously held junior diplomatic positions around the world. But the Foreign Secretary can choose someone else. Someone without those attributes. Clearly the Foreign Office system doesn’t like it when the FS does this and almost always advises against it. That’s not to say that choosing an outsider is wrong, just that that the FCDO will make it clear that doing so carries additional risks. And those risks sit with the Minister rather than the Department. Obviously I wasn’t involved with any of the conversations about Peter Mandelson but I know the FCDO well and I know the personalities of the people who would have advised David Lammy about this appointment. They would have reminded Lammy that Mandelson had resigned in disgrace twice before. They would have reminded Lammy that Mandelson had a longstanding relationship with Epstein. They would have reminded Lammy that Mandelson had widespread, complicated, and opaque commercial interests. I have no doubt that they would have reminded Lammy that he and the PM were importing significant reputational risk if they appointed Mandelson. I have no doubt they would have unambiguously advised Lammy against appointing Mandelson to the post. And it is now clear that Lammy and Starmer ignored that advice and appointed him anyway. And now we have no ambassador to the USA, a new Foreign Secretary, an imminent state visit, a damaged relationship with the White House, and humiliation for British diplomacy. But most of all we have a number of unanswered questions about what Starmer and Lammy knew, when did they know it, and why they went ahead with Mandelson’s appointment.
Obviously I've no idea which side of the divide(s) is responsible for the arson, but there is no excuse and it should be condemned by all.
It may well turn out to be wrong (I haven't claimed it as fact) but every other time you've pewked that nonsense on here, its bitten you on the arse when the facts came out.
Starmer and his government Labour scum. Full of corruption, liars, deceit, freebies galore, tax evaders and nonces. ****ing scum like all parties The Lefty Loonies on here will still defend them though.
