Should ex-diplomats be allowed to write embarrassing, best-selling books when they retire?
David Rix Lewes We should hang on to free speech. Embarrassing people may be distasteful but long may it remain permissible. The Government has used the controversy over breach of trust created by one such book to introduce draconian rules concerning not merely the writing of books by senior officials once they retire, but what they may say in public until they die. The FCO has undertaken to revise the rules. Did you find that being a woman held you back in the masculine world of international diplomacy? Tina Ludlow Via email The honest answer is yes, to some extent. When I joined the FCO in the 1960s, female officers were required to resign on getting engaged. There were parts of the world to which the FCO did not send women, which included the Middle East but went much wider. I was frequently the first woman to hold posts to which I was appointed. Things were much the same in the diplomatic services of other countries. Much, but by no means all, of this disappeared while I was in the
