Another service the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi and Dubai are opting out of.

https://www.gov.uk/government/world-...ry-services--2

I honestly don't know what they do now other than produce visas and have garden parties?

They don't even do visas anymore, they have outsourced that as well.

So, just parties then.

Never been invited to one and even the queen invited me to one of hers. So what exactly do they do?

We went to one in AD for Australia Day. In spite of there being an apparently very well-stocked bar, no-one was drinking. So I trudged over 100m of grass in sky-high glittery shoes to get a drink, to be told that we had to wait until after the royal family had left. Then had to trudge back. In front of everyone.

Not one of my finer moments

At least you didn't trip over (or did you?)..

Not until after the bar had been open for a while

British Embassies and the FCO exist to provide outdoor relief for those members of the upper classes who have fallen on hard times and are forced to WORK for a living. (Gawd. what a howwid pwospec! !

and to promote British businesses .

To sell guns and aeroplanes to dodgy Arab regimes ?

and any other regime around the world , that's what the British are good at.

That once splendid imperial race has descended to the level of a gang of Levantine Gun-runners !

Levantine gun runners are much more fun to party with.

The real art is to sell to both sides of the same conflict.

Lord of War is a great film.

is that the one based on the life of Victor Bout the Russian arms dealer now incarcerated in the U.S. on trumped up charges ?

Not an expert on the upper classes but the amount of tax they pay (even if disproportionate) pays for a lot of chavs to sit at home and have babies, medicine and housing.

N.