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Matthew Parris

Freedom of information killed ambassadors’ valedictory dispatches. Could blogging bring them back?

Tom Fletcher’s love letter to Lebanon offers hope for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s lost literary form

22 August 2015

9:00 AM

22 August 2015

9:00 AM

‘All I ever tried to do was hold a mirror up and show you how beautiful you really are. Shine on, you crazy diamond.’

I have just read one of the finest ambassadors’ ‘valedictory’ dispatches ever composed, except it isn’t one: it had to be posted on the internet, and was, last month.

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