Went to see a chap from the Foreign Office this morning about my career plans. I’d already sent them my CV before Christmas. Basically the message is that the first tranche of new European Commissioners who start working in May will have only three cabinet members, two of their own nationality and a commission insider, so there is no scope for me there. But come the end of the summer, there will certainly be a Commissioner of the 25 who take office in November (including the 10 who start in May) with Balkan repsonsibilities, and the chap from the Foreign Office more or less promised me British government support as a candidate for that commissioner’s cabinet! But I can’t do much more on this apart from basic networking until August.

Then lunch with a lobbyist, which I’d fixed up at a point when I was more enthusiastic about going down that line than I am now. Still, she managed to reinvigorate my interest a little. But I think I’d prefer the security of being on the inside of the institutions.