DAY 233 - REMICH TO LUXEMBOURG: 15.5 MILES (31,400 STEPS)

12 December, 2011

15.5 (Total: 2317.3 miles)–31,000 (Total: 4,981,601 steps)

My decision to add in Luxembourg was very much last minute, for a couple of reasons; The Grand Duke, Henri is a member of the International Olympic Committee and I thought that this might help leverage support for Luxembourg to be a leading implementer of the London 2012, Olympic Truce and secondly, it was one more country, the thirteenth visited, leaving only two more, Belgium and Holland to complete the ‘3000 miles, 15 countries in 300 days’ line for the walk. There is a long way to go to achieve that, especially a very tough six weeks after New Year in which I must do 600 miles, but it seemed as good a target as any.

My plans to visit Luxembourg may have been last minute, but the response of the British Embassy was virtually instantaneous. No sooner had I advised the FCO in London of my change of plan, a week before arriving in the country, than Her Majesty’s Ambassador, The Honourable Alice Walpole was on the phone offering to put together a programme and to offer hospitality during my stay at the official Residence and Petra Kiefer, the Press Officer was putting together a press release. Moreover, on my walk in from Remich Alice Walpole called to ask if she and her son, Inigo could come out and join me for the last five miles—I was of course delighted.

As it approached 2:30PM, the time when the Ambassador’s car was supposed to draw up I suddenly had a desperate call of nature, but dared not answer it for fear that standing behind a tree in a fluorescent jacket might not be quite the first impression one would like to make on my gracious host. With great fortitude I resisted, mind over matter and just as well as with impeccable timing the Ambassadorial limo resplendent with Union flag drew up and three bright young energetic people leapt out: Inigo, George Bush, an Intern at the Embassy, and Alice Walpole.

As we walked in and introduced each other, I wished that I had managed just a few seconds research as in doing so I would have realised that Alice was a descendent of the first British prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole; that I had served in the House of Commons with Alice’s mother, Judith Chaplin a wonderfully gifted no-nonsense, common sense politician whose service was tragically cut short and whose death stunned fellow members of the 1992 intake, as she had been tipped as the first of our group to make it into the Cabinet and that I was currently serving in the House of Lords with her father, the Crossbench peer, Lord Walpole. I must admit that it does make you feel old when you know the parents of HM’s Ambassador.

It was good to have their company, not least for navigating my way into the city. George Bush was terrific from the start and I could see what Alice, a former FCO recruiter, saw in him; he just seemed to instinctively be in the right place and offering to do the right thing at the right time—taking pictures, guiding us in on the route and carrying my rucksack! We all arrived at the Residence just in time for tea—how very English, but it was great to feel at home. After a quick briefing about the programme for the next couple of days it was upstairs to get changed for the first reception.

The British Ambassador’s Residence in Luxembourg is a grand build in a prime location and some of the bean counters at Head Office are no doubt looking at the value of such a large residence in such a small country. Well they should think twice and thrice, because this Residence was less a comfortable home for the ambassador and more an international conference centre. Scarcely a minute seemed to pass without comings and goings, mostly business related. Luxembourg is a very strategic country, it is the wealthiest in Europe for a start, around double the per capita income of the UK; it is also a major centre for global financial services and has very close ties with the City of London and it is home to the Council of Ministers for the European Union and the European Court of Justice. Moreover, when rationalising we don’t want to set off alarm bells, if Marks & Spencer’s is having financial troubles then it doesn’t close its Baker Street branch first, for so to do would be to panic investors. The same goes for Residences and Embassies. There is a general view out there that the British government has the balance just about right in responding to the current economic crisis; if we start downgrading our presence in prime locations and moving into serviced offices in out of town business parks, then people are going to think that we are in worse trouble than we are. It might be appropriate for Greece, Ireland and Portugal to downsize to demonstrate they are taking their fiscal situation seriously, but not the UK. Our Residences and our Embassies are our shop window and our diplomats our front line sales executives, we need them both more than ever in order to ‘Keep the British End Up’ as Bond may say.

After we had glad-handed all the guests and Alice had given a terrific speech, it was all hands on deck to work with Françoise, the multi-talented chauffer, cook, cleaner and handyman to clear the glasses and dishes and get the place ready for the next day’s events. We then retired exhausted to watch the news which was leading on a wonderful exchange between Cameron and Miliband at PMQs’ in which Cameron came out with one of the best lines I have ever heard from the despatch box; when questioned by Miliband on disagreements with Clegg over the use of the British ‘Veto’ he responded, ”No one should be surprised that the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives occasionally differ over Europe—it’s not as if we are brothers.” Miliband should have sat down at that point, but he came back for more and got it. This is what great leaders, athletes and performers do—they make moves that would be audacious and brilliant on the training pitch whilst in the equivalent of a World Cup Final. If Miliband was leading the Conservative Party he would be facing a leadership challenge over Christmas, the Labour Party are more collegiate and less ruthless when it comes to leaders, which is why they have found themselves in Opposition for so long—let’s hope they don’t change….