FOREIGN OFFICE CAN BE RELIED ON TO GET THINGS WRONG

OF all our institutions and quangos the one most relied upon to fight for the failure of Brexit and the reversion of the UK back to its now-accustomed position of subordination to the EU bosses in Brussels is the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. This is the body, claim the Remoaners, that really knows what it is talking about with its generations of expertise. Oh yeah?

In 1938 when I was being born, the FO under Lord Halifax advocated a concordat with a certain Herr Hitler. In 1946 it was instrumental in securing the banning of the Poles from the victory parade for fear of upsetting Joseph Stalin. In 1947 it was angrily hostile to the birth of Israel. Yet in 1956 it connived with Israel and France in the disastrous invasion of Egypt at Suez.

In the Six-Day War of 1967 it told anyone prepared to listen that Israel did not stand a chance. In 1969 it was passionate in its support for the brutal military junta of Lagos which was starving to death the children of Biafra.

In 1982 it advocated a modus vivendi with General Galtieri of Argentina. (A bizarre tendency to dictators?)

For 50 years it has been passionate for the EU and the transfer of great swathes of British sovereignty from London to Brussels, ensuring our subordination to the government of the EU.

For decades it has offered the British serried ranks of old school ties, high erudition, exquisite manners and the determination to get every major issue wrong.