Should Kim Darroch be rewarded with a plum posting or left to retire?

Sir Kim Darroch, the now departing British ambassador in Washington and the man at the centre of what will be called The Darroch Affair, is 65 and probably happy to take on some academic posting or a think-tank role. But if the British government, whether led by Theresa May or from July 24 by Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt, has any guts they might consider handing Sir Kim a fancy appointment to honour his diplomatic career, like a governor of some far-flung British territory. He'd probably be wise to turn it down but somehow for him to retire into obscurity would mean Trump has won hands down. In the meantime what is happening with the investigation into the betrayer leaker who started all of this? Sir Simon McDonald, the head of the Foreign Office, told the Foreign Affairs Select Committee yesterday that the police are involved. This was the first confirmation that the Metropolitan Police has been called in to investigate a potential criminal offence. McDonald also revealed that only five to ten people would have seen the really relevant letters from Sir Kim which talked of Trump's ineptness. So they will have to be given the third degree, although it seems most unlikely that people on such an exclusive list would be so foolish as to leak anything to the Mail on Sunday. But they will all be quaking in their boots. More likely that a member of their staff took copies of these controversial views of the ambassador and stored them away for some future use. Sir Kim is an avid Europhile and perhaps the perpetrator of this disaster decided he wanted a replacement ambassador in Washington who is a Brexiteer. If that's true, how arrogant is that? This individual has got to be found and his career, like Sir Kim's, brought to an abrupt end.