Three weeks ago we submitted a Freedom of Information Request for a copy of the EU treaty that David Cameron was supposed to have vetoed. The Foreign & Commonwealth Office have responded today with the following: Dear Mr Parr, Thank-you for your email. I apologise for the short delay in getting back to you. We are not

The Foreign Office has kindly responded to my Telegraph piece from last week, which suggested that they could do more to confront the religious cleansing sweeping the Middle East. In an extended version of a letter he has sent to the paper, the Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt says that his department is doing plenty: ‘Concrete examples include: Iraq, where the Prime Minister and Foreig...

EU finance ministers are to hold a conference call this afternoon to finalise the details of a €200bn contribution aimed at boosting the IMF’s capacity to help ailing eurozone countries. Of this amount, €150bn is to be provided by eurozone central banks. The UK is to be asked for a contribution of around £25bn (€30bn), notes the Telegraph.

Yesterday night's news that a senior FCO official lobbied Oxford University on behalf of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi adds more ordure to the already fetid story of Britain’s role in Colonel Gaddafi’s rehabilitation. The Woolf Inquiry into Saif’s dealings with British universities and businesses found that, 'It was made clear [to Oxford] … that the FCO would appreci...

The half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai has just been murdered outside his fortified compound in Kandahar. Ahmed Wali Karzai was the political kingpin in Kandahar province, formally serving as head of the provincial council. I am told by officials that he was killed by one of his bodyguards at a checkpoint; the killer was then shot dead by other bodyguards. A senior FCO official has said...

The BBC World Service has been reprieved. An additional £2.2m will be spent to preserve the Arabic service, in line with some of the wishes of Foreign Affairs Select Committee Chairman Richard Ottaway and Lord Patten, the chairman of the BBC and occasional consigliere to David Cameron. I don't share the Foreign Office’s sometime view that this is a ‘massive u-turn’, but...

The EBRD, which is headquartered in London, said it had lifted the immunity of four Russian officials following a request from the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO). In a statement, the EBRD said: “The purpose of lifting the immunity is to facilitate investigations by both UK police and by Russian authorities into alleged criminal

The Commonwealth Games ended last week. This probably means that the Commonwealth will not be mentioned in the media for another 4 years. But surely there should be more to the vestiges of the British empire than mere staging of the Commonwealth Games? What does the Commonwealth actually do in this day and age and

A long time ago, I did a degree in modern languages. To try and keep my skills from fading, I follow a few French and German language users on Twitter. And one of these, the French-speaking arm of the FCO let me know a few weeks ago of a planned event at the end of

By John O'Connell, Deputy Research Director at the TaxPayers’ Alliance A few weeks back on ConHome, Paul Goodman outlined the story behind the government’s decision to axe Preventing Violent Extremism grants. This morning, the TaxPayers’ Alliance released research showing that...