Dontcha Just Miss the Cold War?

I spent a lovely day with James at the National Archive in Kew today. We were researching Foreign Office and "other" documents concerning the visit of a certain East German playwright to the UK in the 1950s. It made very interesting reading. Included in the file was a letter from the Master of Eton to someone in the Foreign Office (ah! the good old boys' network!) saying that he had heard of the suggested visit, and had seen one of the plays performed: he said he found it "one of the finest" he had ever seen and then stated that, under no circumstances, should it therefore be allowed to be performed at the Edinburgh Festival. Apparently, the Master could be trusted to watch the play and not develop Communist tendancies, but the rest of the general theatre-going public could not.

I miss the Cold War. The world of diplomacy is a duller place without it!