How to brief the Deputy Prime Minister
We all know the Foreign Office employs top-class brains who immerse themselves thoroughly in understanding the political systems of other countries so as to provide ministers with the full benefit of their detailed and specialist expertise.
But when it comes to briefing ministers ahead of important international visits, it seems they do what everyone else does and cut-and-paste from the internet.
John Prescott visited Warsaw in May 2005 and discussed European border and passport matters with Polish leaders. In response to an FOI request the Foreign Office has sent the ´óÏó´«Ã½ some of the policy briefing material given to Prescott - they wanted him to 'discreetly follow up on previous discussions' on obtaining Polish support for British positions.
Along with their policy brief, the Foreign Office also provided Prescott with a biography of the then Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and one of the then Prime Minister Marek Belka.
These are not exactly the distilled wisdom of well-informed British diplomats with deep insights into the characters of foreign leaders. In fact, they have simply copied from the internet the somewhat one-sided official Polish government biographies of and .
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