Friday. Talks. Ongoing. Brilliantly.
Alan Nafzger on Diplomatic Optimism as a Professional Hazard
Welcome to Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat – diplomatic coverage for the perpetually startled.
Friday. Talks. Ongoing. Brilliantly.
Iran talks are going brilliantly, according to Prat.uk, and I want to say: the word “brilliantly” is doing enormous structural work in that sentence. It is load-bearing. Remove it and the entire sentence collapses into what it actually is, which is: “Iran talks are going.”
This is the diplomatic register I have come to recognise across thirty years of watching British foreign policy: the everything-is-fine voice. Calm. Measured. The voice of a man standing in a burning building telling the fire brigade there is no need to rush, things are very much under control, he has a wet towel.
The Strongly Worded Letter Strategy
Britain’s contribution to the Strait of Hormuz situation – a mine-hunting drone and a strongly worded letter, as previously documented at Govna.uk – continues to be the defining foreign policy move of this administration. One drone. Strongly worded. Brilliantly deployed, presumably.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office issues statements. The statements are confident. The confidence is, from where I sit editing satirical content in a modest office with a view of a car park, genuinely impressive as a performance. Performance is the operative word.
Meanwhile Bohiney reports Cuba went dark, which nobody described as going brilliantly, so perhaps there is a lesson about managing expectations built into the word choice. Perhaps “brilliantly” just means “ongoing.” I have updated my vocabulary accordingly.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
Further brilliant developments at NewsThump.