I've always contended that the Foreign Office has been a disaster abroad - look at the major decisions we made in the 20th century:
** wrong on Saudi Arabia and much else in the Middle East
** misreading the tea-leaves on Hitler
** not understanding post war Europe
** believing in some kind of special relationship with America? Why?
** agreeing to the partition of Greater India
** messing up most of Africa
** blind support of Israel after WW2
** no policy on Soft Diplomacy
and so on
This past month demonstrates that unless the Foreign Office is broken up, we will continue to lose any influence we have in the world. It needs a root and branch reform.