Anyone who has ever worked a job that asked them to interact with the public can sympathize with the British Foreign Office.
Indeed, there are many people to whom I wish I could send a press release like the one the Foreign Office released on May 16, reminding Her Majesty’s loyal subjects living abroad that it cannot get them contact information for Sir Paul McCartney wife.
Here’s an excerpt from the press release:
Over the last year, the FCO handled more than a million consular enquiries and supported some 52,135 British nationals in difficulty abroad.* However, our consular staff overseas continue to receive a number of enquiries that they simply cannot provide assistance for.
Enquiries received by FCO staff include:
- A man who required hospital treatment in Cambodia when a monkey dislodged a stone that hit him demanded help getting compensation and wanted assurance that it would not happen again
- A man asked FCO staff in Rome to translate a phrase for a tattoo that he wanted
- Consular staff in Beijing were asked to help a woman who had bought a pair of football boots that were ‘Made in China’ but were poor quality
Somewhere in the bowels of the British bureaucracy is the anonymous PR hack who wrote this. I salute him. You, anonymous sir, are a hero.
Read the whole thing. It’s worth it.