Diplomatic incident

I do hope the British Foreign Secretary summons the Luxembourg Ambassador for an explanation and does not invite him to sit down.

I suppose asking for him to be recalled and not replaced might be counter-productive and Pooterish.

The American Ambassador in London told the Conservative Foreign and Commonwealth Council lunch at the Carlton Club that,

“He knew he was walking into a trap. He knew this was a set up. Of course he knew, but he’s British. He said: ‘What the hell. I can do this’. 

I thought the people in Luxembourg accomplished something that maybe even Boris couldn’t accomplish — show this is not where [the British] want to be, over there, when they treat us like that — your prime minister! The people who built the greatest empire, the people who held off the Nazis, who contributed so much to the progress of mankind, you can go down a long list — they don’t need a lecture from anybody on how to run their country, and that includes Brussels.”

Of course Luxembourg (a ravishing little place) is not really a country but a minor German princely state, which the Dutch king ruled in his personal capacity rather as English Kings were Electors of Hanover. Half Luzembourg's inhabitants are foreigners, a large proportion of them working for spendthrift EU organisations. I suppose it is reminiscent of The Mouse That Roared, with Luxembourg playing the role of Grand Fenwick but, unlike Grand Fenwick, Luxembourg doesn't have the bomb.

Philip Guedalla said that in Luxembourg you feel a weight lifted from your shoulders because you are in a small country. That ceased to be true when she became one of the Six, the first six EEC members. Now to feel the weight lift from your shoulders you have to leave the EU and go to places like Serbia, Ukraine or Moldova, where people speak freely and think like human beings.