Cook's tour of duty

The winds of change are already blowing through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), a week after Robin Cook became Britain's new Foreign Secretary. An FCO high-flyer comments that Cook and his team will being some badly-needed fizz to a ministry which is possibly the most cautious in Whitehall. Cook's plans, to be revealed in a mission statement delivered at a press conference on May 12, 1997, include making Britain a key player in Europe. Labour has also promised to place a greater emphasis on human rights and to scrutinise arms sales to suspect regimes more closely.