Breaking News Sir Kim Darroch Has Quit As The Uk's Ambassador To The Us.

[anotheoldgit]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7231869/UKs-envoy-Sir-Kim-Darroch-Washington-leaked-memos-trigger-Trump-fury.html

[douglas9401]

I'm sure The Donald had a small hand in it.

[Zacs-Master]

So that's why Boris was being so cagey last night!

[Mamyalynne]

Aye.

[ludwig]

I don't think he had any choice but to resign. The government were right to say they had full confidence in him, because he didn't do anything wrong.

However, if the Americans refuse to deal with him, he can't really do his job.

[anotheoldgit]

Perhaps he has taken this decision to save himself the humiliation of being sacked by Boris when he becomes the Prime Minister?

[ichkeria]

Indeed. Sadly inevitable.
One-up to the leakers.
Apparently foreign involvement hasn’t been ruled out. Although that would imply a less than secure medium of communication.

[ichkeria]

He wasn’t going to be sacked. But the restrictions placed on him meant he would be unable to do his job: ie the sort of thing that caused all the fuss in the first place. So it was the only course of action really.

[anotheoldgit]

ludwig

/// I don't think he had any choice but to resign. The government were right to say they had full confidence in him, because he didn't do anything wrong. ///

Didn't do anything wrong?????

He called the President of the United States, 'inept' and described the current White House as 'uniquely dysfunctional', and got found out.

[Rockrose]

He should’ve stayed

[Zacs-Master]

Oh dear, here we go.

He made those comments as part of his job. The POTUS is not beyond reproach. If we were given access to previous US Ambassador's reports, we'd probably find very similar comments.

[anotheoldgit]

We don't want the likes of him, representing the UK abroad, he's supposed to be a diplomat.

[ludwig]

// Didn't do anything wrong????? //

Yes. He gave his honest appraisal of the situation in the White House which is part of his job.
The only reason you have a problem with it is because you personally disagree with it.

[wolf63]

What he said and who he said it about is not the point.
He had no allegiance to the US or Trump.

The fact that it was leaked is the problem - Civil Servants have to keep silent about many things. Official Secrets.

[douglas9401]

Helluva thing, unemployed through honesty.

[fender62]

probably better to leave, then get the push anyway...still get a nice pension.

[anotheoldgit]

/// If we were given access to previous US Ambassador's reports, we'd probably find very similar comments. ///

But we haven't and if we were, they would have been by previous US Ambassadors and not one in office.

[jim360]

It is the job of an ambassador to report what they see. It is also important that an ambassador can give that report in confidence. And it is certainly important that *we* choose *our* ambassadors to foreign countries, not for them to choose for us.

[jim360]

// ... if we were, they would have been by previous US Ambassadors and not one in office.//

Oh, stuff and nonsense. If a foreign ambassador to the UK right now *isn't* criticising our government then they're failing to do their job well.

[Zacs-Master]

Sir Kim was US Ambassador before Trump was inaugurated.

that aside I think you're (hopefully deliberately rather than the alternative) missing my point. Mrs Mays comment gives you a bit of insight into their role:
“Good government depends on public servants being able to give full and frank advice. I want all our public servants to have the confidence to be able to do that and I hope the House will reflect on the importance of defending our values and principles particularly when they are under pressure.”

[jim360]

Diplomacy is also about what you say to somebody's face. What you say or think about them in private is, or rather should be, your own affair.

The person who deserves criticism here is the leaker, who has destroyed a person's career and undermined the UK's freedom to choose its own representatives.