And Who Is "Non Grata" Now?

What you do to others might be done to you.

Remember my tiff with Dr. Kim Howells, getting me - for all intents and purposes - declared semi-persona non grata at UK diplomatic events like the Queen's birthday party? (here and also here)

Well, yesterday a had a one-hour meeting with an official of the Foreign Office and he informed me that while I am still off-limits, Howells is...off!

He's not on the official site.

What happened?

This:-

Pontypridd MP Kim Howells is leaving government, after 11 years as a minister, in Gordon Brown's reshuffle. Dr Howells, 61, was a foreign office minister and one of the oldest members of the Labour administration.

He said the prime minister had not explained his decision to him and had told him he was "changing ministers". Dr Howells takes over from Margaret Beckett as chair of the Security and Intelligence Committee, overseeing the work of MI5 and MI6.

...He has regularly made headlines because of his tendency for plain speaking. He once called the Royal Family "a bit bonkers" and described entries for art's Turner Prize as "cold, mechanical conceptual bullshit". He embarrassed himself addressing the Commons foreign affairs committee last year when he mistakenly referred to the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon as being dead. Mr Sharon had been in a coma for more than a year.

Speaking on BBC Radio Wales, Dr Howells said he was "not at all" disappointed to be no longer a minister.

"I've got a new job now and one which I know something about," he said.

Writing on his blog, Newport West Labour MP Paul Flynn said: "The sacking of Kim Howells follows a long series of errors and stumbles... his habitat for years has been the last chance saloon".

You can say that again.

Poor intelligence work with such an unintelligent chairman.