It is two years since Lord Simon McDonald stepped down as head of the UK's Diplomatic Service but the job somehow remains part of his daily life.
From the Foreign Office-style lanyard that hangs around his neck to the radio interview he had conducted on the day we met about the track record as foreign secretary of current Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, Lord McDonald remains imbued with his lifelong vocation as a public servant.
It is fitting then that his new memoirs are titled Leadership: Lessons from a Life in Diplomacy. The book is published at a teachable moment for the UK. It can be read as a manual for what must change and how that can come about.
When it is suggested to Lord McDonald that he moved beyond an expected footnote in the UK history books this summer with an intervention that was the likely trigger for the resignation of Boris Johnson, he gives a little shrug. “I'm astonished because all I felt I was doing was to stick up for the facts,” he tells The National in his new surroundings of Christ's College at Cambridge University, where he is master.
As he writes in the book, Lord McDonald's letter to set the record straight on a scandal, the latest of many, surrounding Mr Johnson on July 5 was followed on July 7 by the announcement the prime minister would resign. In a nutshell, Mr Johnson had been briefed by Lord McDonald when foreign secretary that one of his junior ministers had accepted a reprimand for mistreating a foreign office official. The same minister, Christopher Pincher, fell foul of the expected standards again this summer and Mr Johnson rejected accusations he had known of the earlier transgression.
Carefully, Lord McDonald sets out the reasons he felt both compelled and obliged to take stand. As with his book, his recollection of the events demonstrates an instinct to support and assist his former colleagues.
“Basically, nobody serving is allowed to speak up for the civil servants,” he says. “But somebody's got to do it — there's stuff that's going on that is wrong.
“I know what's wrong and I can set the record. I can put out the facts.”
The July Downing Street briefings defending Pincher denied there had been formal complaints during his Foreign Office posting, much less the investigation and the sanctions he had accepted. “I was able to state yes there were formal complaints, yes they were investigated, yes they were upheld and Mr Pincher apologised,” he recalled.
“The most persistent line from the No 10 press office was that the prime minister had known nothing. And then they tried 'well he'd known in the most general terms and these are minor unfortunate, informal allegations, that had been resolved'. And I felt that was a mischaracterisation.”
After 10 months of rolling controversy for Mr Johnson, including the notorious “partygate” saga over celebrations held while the country was in coronavirus lockdown, the Pincher affair was enough to deliver the coup de grace for the prime minister. As Lord McDonald notes from a newspaper editorial at the time, Mr Johnson succeeded in killing off a third prime ministerial career in succession, this time his own.
I put it to Lord McDonald that as a new author he is in the enviable position of being in the news. That morning he had told Times Radio that Mr Raab's behaviour, while he was foreign secretary, had been unacceptable, leaving staff “scared” to enter his office. Mr Raab followed Mr Johnson as foreign secretary when the latter resigned in 2018.
If the minister or senior official is exonerated, well then the more junior, failed complainant is in an even more vulnerable position
Lord Simon McDonald
For Lord McDonald, the lessons of his near four decades-long career provide a valuable guide to why the system needs to fully catch up with “new norms in society”.
The complaints system that he uses to point out why the politicians must correct their course is, he believes, “too brutal” and in effect broken. Evidence must cross a certain threshold. The investigation is then forensic and often stacked in favour of the defendant. And it most likely that the complainant will be junior to the person accused.
“At the end of this investigation, if the minister or senior official is exonerated, well then the more junior, failed complainant is in an even more vulnerable position,” he says.
“I think that behaviour which was previously accepted or at least tolerated, is no longer so and people want to be treated with respect at work. In a way it's a shock it has taken Westminster and Whitehall so long to see that as a reasonable expectation.”
Lord McDonald mentions two examples from after he took over in 2015 as permanent secretary at the Foreign Office of how hard it was to keep the system on track. An anonymous letter made claims about a colleague identified as X while a formal complaint was lodged against another colleague, Y. Both were senior, both formidably ambitious.
Lord McDonald had an informal chat with X, who fobbed off the allegations by objecting to the complainer's anonymity. Meanwhile, the complaint about Y was taken out of his hands by the head of the civil service, who then proceeded to declare the process unsatisfactory. Lord McDonald was clearly uncomfortable about the outcome in both cases, even as he notes he remains a friend of X.
“Neither learnt anything positive from their episode; both would be stronger officers if they had,” he writes. “At the least, I was complicit in their failure to learn.”
Early in his career Lord McDonald was posted twice to the UK embassy in Saudi Arabia. It was a formative experience, not least because of the influence and charisma of senior colleagues in the embassy. One in particular, Sir Stephen Egerton, was flamboyant and charismatic. It was Sir Stephen who coined the abiding advice to incoming ministers: “You can ignore the Middle East if you want but you must be surprised if the Middle East doesn't ignore you.”
I ask if the atmosphere in today's Foreign Office, particularly as standards change, could accommodate his old mentors.
“I was in Saudi Arabia twice. The first time there was just a string of leaders in the embassy and only later on did I realise they were the best that the Foreign Office had to offer,” he said.
“The best of these characters can flex and learn. I think big characters can still operate. But there's a danger here. If you're a big and effective character are standards in other areas of life allowed to be lower?
“Most of the effective leaders I have seen and worked for did not need those flaws in order to deliver.”
Leadership: Lessons From a Life in Diplomacy (Haus Publishing, £20), by Simon McDonald, is available now.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs: 2018 Nissan Patrol Nismo
Price: base / as tested: Dh382,000
Engine: 5.6-litre V8
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
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Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha
Starring: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shantanu Maheshwari, Jimmy Shergill, Saiee Manjrekar
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Rating: 2.5/5
The Land between Two Rivers: Writing in an Age of Refugees
Tom Sleigh, Graywolf Press
BMW M5 specs
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.
The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.
When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to hotels or large sites like former military bases.
Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Specs
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Types of fraud
Phishing: Fraudsters send an unsolicited email that appears to be from a financial institution or online retailer. The hoax email requests that you provide sensitive information, often by clicking on to a link leading to a fake website.
Smishing: The SMS equivalent of phishing. Fraudsters falsify the telephone number through “text spoofing,” so that it appears to be a genuine text from the bank.
Vishing: The telephone equivalent of phishing and smishing. Fraudsters may pose as bank staff, police or government officials. They may persuade the consumer to transfer money or divulge personal information.
SIM swap: Fraudsters duplicate the SIM of your mobile number without your knowledge or authorisation, allowing them to conduct financial transactions with your bank.
Identity theft: Someone illegally obtains your confidential information, through various ways, such as theft of your wallet, bank and utility bill statements, computer intrusion and social networks.
Prize scams: Fraudsters claiming to be authorised representatives from well-known organisations (such as Etisalat, du, Dubai Shopping Festival, Expo2020, Lulu Hypermarket etc) contact victims to tell them they have won a cash prize and request them to share confidential banking details to transfer the prize money.
* Nada El Sawy
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
The five types of long-term residential visas
Obed Suhail of ServiceMarket, an online home services marketplace, outlines the five types of long-term residential visas:
Investors:
A 10-year residency visa can be obtained by investors who invest Dh10 million, out of which 60 per cent should not be in real estate. It can be a public investment through a deposit or in a business. Those who invest Dh5 million or more in property are eligible for a five-year residency visa. The invested amount should be completely owned by the investors, not loaned, and retained for at least three years.
Entrepreneurs:
A five-year multiple entry visa is available to entrepreneurs with a previous project worth Dh0.5m or those with the approval of an accredited business incubator in the UAE.
Specialists
Expats with specialised talents, including doctors, specialists, scientists, inventors, and creative individuals working in the field of culture and art are eligible for a 10-year visa, given that they have a valid employment contract in one of these fields in the country.
Outstanding students:
A five-year visa will be granted to outstanding students who have a grade of 95 per cent or higher in a secondary school, or those who graduate with a GPA of 3.75 from a university.
Retirees:
Expats who are at least 55 years old can obtain a five-year retirement visa if they invest Dh2m in property, have savings of Dh1m or more, or have a monthly income of at least Dh20,000.
Abu Dhabi race card
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5.30pm: Maiden (PA) | Dh80,000 | 1,400m
6pm: Liwa Oasis (PA) Group 2 | Dh300,000 | 1,400m
6.30pm: Arabian Triple Crown Round-2 (PA) Group 3 | Dh300,000 | 2,200m
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup (PA) Handicap | Dh70,000 | 1,600m
7.30pm: Maiden (TB) | Dh80,000 | 2,200m
Volvo ES90 Specs
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Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
War 2
Director: Ayan Mukerji
Stars: Hrithik Roshan, NTR, Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana
Rating: 2/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Analysis
Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
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Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
