One a Colossus, the other a catastrophe

Dear Sir,

On Monday 9th July, 2018 we lost two British Foreign Secretaries - one a Colossus and the other a Catastrophe.

The Colossus was Lord Carrington who died on Monday at the age of 99 and was the last person alive who had been personally appointed as a Minister of the Crown by Sir Winston Churchill and thereby his death in effect brought an era to an end.

Lord Carrington was Secretary General of N.A.T.O for four years

However, Lord Carrington is most remembered for his role as Foreign Secretary from 1979 until he resigned in 1982 over the Falklands. The blame for the Falklands in reality lay more with the Defence Secretary, John Nott, who contrary to the advice Lord Carrington gave him several times withdrew H.M.S. Endurance, the patrol ship that was the solitary symbol of Britain's interest in the South Atlantic, which sent the wrong signals to Argentina about Britain's wish to retain sovereignty over the Falklands.

When Argentina did invade the Falklands, Lord Carrington felt obliged to resign because he thought the Foreign and Commonwealth Office should have been more alive to the dangers of an Argentinian invasion and as head of the department he bore the responsibility.

However, the Franks report, conducted after the Falklands war to examine its causes rightly exonerated Lord Carrington from blame.

Lord Carrington was probably the last Conservative senior minister to resign with honour.

What a contrast to the other Foreign Secretary we lost on Monday, the catastrophic Boris Johnson who resigned as Foreign Secretary and who must surely rank as our worst Foreign Secretary in modern times.

Boris Johnson always more interested in Boris Johnson and his future career rather than the department he was responsible for and as a consequence made gaffe after gaffe after gaffe which included joking about dead Libyans, comparing the E.U. to Nazis and quoting an offensive poem about the Empire in Myanmar.

Even in his resignation letter Boris Johnson, as proved by the Channel 4 Factcheck, either lied or should have known he lied. Boris Johnson wrote "If a country cannot pass a law to save the lives of female cyclists - when that proposal is supported at every level of U.K. Government - then I don't see how that country can truly be called independent." In fact the regulations Boris Johnson was writing about were put forward by the European Parliament and backed by 570 M.E.P.s with 88 voting against and he also failed to acknowledge that these laws have been passed. Furthermore he was wrong to write that the U.K. Government explicitly supported it at all levels because they did not and in January 2014 Boris Johnson explicitly complained about the U.K. Government's stance on these regulations.

The worst and most unforgivable mistake made by Boris Johnson was when last November Boris Johnson by not reading his brief correctly, wrongly claimed Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was in jail in Iran, had been training journalists in Iran which both the Thomson Reuters Foundation and her family denied. The next day Boris Johnson could not even bring himself to make a proper apology in Parliament even though as a consequence of his error, Iran used Johnson's remarks to justify new charges against Nazanin Zaghari-Racliffe which may have contributed to her lengthened sentence.

If Boris Johnson has any shred of honour, he should fly out to Iran now as a private citizen and ensure that Iran releases Nazarin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and hold him as hostage in her place. Then Boris Johnson who so loves to quote literature can quote happily to himself in prison the words from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done".

Yours faithfully,

Robert Douglas,

2 Hollycroft,

Congleton CW12 4SH