The Buck Stops Here

The British Establishment has hardly covered itself in glory over the McCann affair.  Integrity has been a rare quality.  There have been some exceptions such as Martin Grimes whose dogs de facto solved the case and Mark Harrison the Missing Persons Supremo who was the one to suggest that the Portuguese hire him.  They have not been well rewarded for their efforts, being the subject of persistent smear campaigns by the McCanns and  their cronies ever since.

One man who has rather flown under the radar of both McCann sceptics and McCann shills has been HM Ambassador to Portugal Sept 2004-August 2007 John Buck.

Buck has tended to get a bad rap from McCann sceptics who have noted his astonishingly rapid appearance in Luz along with the British High Commissioner early on the morning of Friday 4th May.  This came as an unwelcome surprise to Gonzalo Amaral who correctly judged it an ill portend for the political interference that was to hobble the investigation throughout.  However, ambassadors are not noted for making such early morning sortees just for the hell of it. It might be surmised that this was a mission that was initiated by his bosses back in London and indeed it subsequently emerged that this was a 3 line whip couched in no uncertain terms emanating from the Dynamic Duo Blair and Brown themselves.  The McCanns were to be given every diplomatic assistance in dealing with their problem and were to be accompanied by an Embassy staffer at all times.  No wonder that the two, set off hot foot to the Algarve, it was clear that this was going to be given top priority by powers that be.

We might imagine that, just as I did when I started looking at the case, Buck & Co attributed this interest  from up top to the well known hyper sensitivity to all PR matters of the New Labour Supremos.  Here was a highly photogenic toddler, daughter of two archtype New Labour NHS Doctors apparently whisked off to face who knows what presumably sexual horrors. This was a worst nightmare for every parent in the country and was bound to fill the headlines for a few days at least.  Such media interest would of course itself be confirmed by the prompt - too prompt - arrival of an ever growing press corps.  A critical part of an Embassy's role is the assessment and management of media stories connecting the two countries.  Typically an Embassy will employ a couple of relatively junior staff whose role in life is to monitor such stories and write reports which are circulated to relevant departments within Government. An Ambassador would not usually trouble himself with such matters, except perhaps to read briefing papers, but clearly this wasn't a typical story, even if that fact seemed to have been appreciated preemptively as it were.