Karen Pierce

But also, uh, the other thing that struck me, and it comes back to a bit about my point on, um, on, on, on reading the, the, the newspapers in the morning and then reporting back, is that because of his seniority and because of his skills, he would be in a very strong position to say to the British government, to the Prime Minister himself no doubt, but to, to, to ministers and to others, uh, "This is what I see going on in the States.

This is what we've got to do if we want to influence President Trump." And, um, much though, uh, an outstanding, uh, career diplomat, um, like, uh, his predecessor, um, Karen Pierce, uh, with whom I've, I've worked, uh, many times, um, could, would, would've, would've done an outstanding job in that position.

There is clearly something about a former very senior minister, uh, uh, from, from the same party as the, as the current government, uh, being able to say in a political language, which a, uh, the very best, um, uh, career diplomat would, would not use, uh, in the same way with that experience, being able to say, "This is what we need to do." And it's that two-way element.

It's not just he, he'll be great at the cocktail parties in, um, uh, in, in Washington or have a great, um, relationship with, uh, President Trump or whatever.

Okay, we could go with these people.

Karen Pierce is not a mom to a current wrestler, though.

Yeah.

I feel like

Uh, it's not so much the new faces.

They're pretty familiar, but, uh, my understanding is the final two for the foreign office, uh, permanent secretary are Karen Pierce, who was formerly our woman in Washington, no nonsense, slightly flamboyant, uh, h- high flyer who's been at the foreign office for sort of 40 odd years.

She's been posted in the Balkans trying to act as Britain's sort of link man there between the various warring nations.

She is someone who has been very much tipped to the top job before- She's perhaps, uh, less interested in some aspects of the job than others, but she's obviously a well-respected diplomat.

So it's very interesting, I think, what Ed Miliband wants in terms of his top mandarin, whether he sees it more as a development role, cham- championing it in terms of international aid and climate change.

And I think, so some people in the foreign office therefore think he'll go for Lindy Cameron.

Karen Pierce is obviously the one with the higher public profile.

Um, so I think that the interviews which are currently going on this month, uh, will very much be an interesting tell about where the department wants to go in the future, coming at a time when the institution's morale is so low.