7 December 2019
It was just a matter of time before a senior British diplomat got so sick of representing the UK government of Boris Johnson that she resigned. Yesterday, CNN broke the story that Alexandra Hall Hall, the lead counsellor at the British Embassy in Washington for Brexit questions, had just handed her letter of resignation to her head of mission. ‘I would,’ she wrote, ‘prefer to do something more rewarding with my time than peddle half-truths on behalf of a government I do not trust.’ She added, no doubt having in mind the illegal closing of parliament by prime minister Johnson, a ventriloquist’s dummy for his unscrupulous consiglieri Dominic Cummings, that disregard for core values at home made it difficult for a diplomat to promote democracy and the rule of law abroad. It is well known that her views are widely shared in the British Diplomatic Service. This news comes against the background of recent confirmation that stressed staff in the civil service generally are at breaking point over Brexit. The full story of Hall Hall’s resignation can also be read in the Guardian.