The Foreign Office has become increasingly concerned

Rather misleading article by Daniel Boffey in today's Observer about the "crisis" (sic) in foreign language teaching in the United Kingdom. 

Daniel Boffey writes:  "The Foreign Office has become increasingly concerned about the future of its diplomatic corps, with senior figures voicing urgent concerns about the standard of its graduate recruits".

Can this statement be true?

The one thing we know about the Foreign Office is that it is a snooty organisation that almost exclusively recruits privately educated Oxbridge graduates.

It would be interesting to use Freedom of Information requests to assess where Foreign Office personnel were educated.

How many ambassadors come from bog-standard comprehensives in Hull or Peterborough?

Anyway, what has happened to the dazzling education standards we are supposed to have seen in inner London?  Presumably it's not so dazzling when it comes to languages.  Or perhaps it is not dazzling at all, but has been artificially manipulated to favourably endorse the ideology of diversity and multiculturalism.

I suspect that we will see the Foreign Office continue to recruit public school Oxbridge types, with a few high-profile "diverse" appointments to provide the necessary inclusive window dressing.

Whatever the truth of the matter, Daniel Boffey is not a reliable source of information on this subject.