Changes at the top

Not exactly a household name, Kim Darroch, CMG, currently Director General EU in the FCO, has been appointed head of the European Secretariat in the Cabinet Office and the Prime Minister's EU adviser in succession to Sir Stephen Wall who was due to retire from the Civil Service next month.

Darroch joined the FCO in 1976 and has served in Tokyo, Rome and in the UK’s permanent delegation to the EU in Brussels. In the late 1980s he ran the private offices of three successive ministers of state, including Cook’s. He has been Director-General for EU Affairs since 2000.

From a review of his activities on the web, the man seems entirely comfortable on the platform with Europhile speakers, and is an open supporter of the EU constitution. There is every indication, therefore, that we have another ardent Europhile from the FCO, alongside Blair, to keep him on the straight and narrow.