"Show us the money", says Hague

Former trade officer and Private Eye reader, Ian Wood, alerts us to a recent article.

"Foreign Secretary William Hague's real mission at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is overseeing the transformation of Britain's overseas embassies and consulates into little more than sales offices for UK companies who need help to compete abroad. Sound familiar?

I quote:

     The game was given away at a recent board meeting of Trade and Investments,

     the business promotion body run jointly by the FCO and the Business, Innovation

     and Skills Department.

     

     Discussing a new "commercial task force", the FCO Director-General, Europe

     and Globalisation, reported that under the new FCO internal business plan, the

     entire FCO asset (sic) would be deployed in support of commercial work. The whole 

     of the Foreign Office, in other words, will be directed primarily at winning

     contracts for British business.

    

Fittingly, the piece ends with the Private Eye comment: "Sod global harmony, show us

the money".

 

All very heartening if true. Where is DFAIT in this debate?"

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Thanks, Ian. I can only add: What took them so long? Brussels has assumed responsibility for every other function that used to justify their expensive network of diplomatic missions. - jl