Embarrassing.

Unbeknown to me European Union Foreign Ministers were meeting today. Officially the main item on agenda was meant to be problems that Bosnia and Serbia are still having some 22 years after their revolution. However the British foreign minister, William Hague tried to hijack the meeting to get the EU to issue a statement calling for Libya's Colonel Qadaffi to step down. As part of this diplomatic effort Hague claimed that he had clear information that Qadaffi had already fled the country and was heading for Venezuela.

It was a little embarrassing then when the Venezuelans announced that if Gadaffi was heading in their direction he certainly hadn't bothered to tell them. Then the UN Secretary General released a statement confirming that he had spoken to Gadaffi and he was most certainly still in Libya's capital, Tripoli. This forced Britain to announce that it would be removing their people from Libya which is both a sort of diplomatic signal of apology and a lie.

In the UK Libyan ex-pats are said to be planning a demonstration in London calling for the violence to stop. While they're in the capital they may want to pay a visit to the HQ of Defence Systems Limited who are BP's go to guys when they need some African locals massacred. Shell of course tend to use Integrated Risk Management Services.