Gideon Rachman‘s been off to Ditchley for the weekend. Signs of the “new diplomacy” that we’ve been promised by David Miliband appear to have been thin on the ground:
The entertainment … was like something out of a Jane Austen novel. On Saturday night, I found myself listening to an impromptu piano recital in the drawing room. In an Austen novel, it would have been Elizabeth Bennett or some other charming young woman tinkling the ivories. At Ditchley, it was a couple of British ambassadors in black tie, playing a Schubert duet. It certainly made a change from watching “Match of the Day” on a Saturday night.
But, he continues, a certain je ne sais quoi was missing…
I felt the weekend would have been complete if they could have arranged for one of the guests to be murdered. Then – according to tradition – a detective would arrive from the local village. We would all have been interviewed in the library. And the following morning the detective could announce – “It was Sir Andrew Green with the lead piping in the green drawing room.”
