On 31 July 2015, Tom Fletcher, the outgoing British ambassador to Lebanon, signed off with an open letter on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website to the country he had served in for four years, titled “So . . . Yalla, Bye”. [...] The blog went viral and generated much discussion in Lebanon.

Saying goodbye can take many forms, but none quite like a farewell blog post penned by the United Kingdom’s departing ambassador to Lebanon, Tom Fletcher: “Sorry to write again. But I’m leaving your extraordinary country after four years. Unlike your politicians, I can’t extend my own term.”

Foreign Office brings World War 1 diplomacy to life online with podcasts and live tweets. To mark 100 years to the day that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, on 28 June the FCO will bring the events leading up to the outbreak of war vividly to life online. Known as the ‘July crisis’, the assassination sparked a diplomatic frenzy and, ultimately, led to the outbreak of World War 1 on 28 July 1914, with Great Britain joining the war on 4 August.