Simon Kuper, one of my favourite columnists, has a nice piece in the FT Magazine (sadly, behind a paywall) about what states (and their diplomats) say about others in private.

I particularly like this transcript of a 1971 conversation between Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger analysing a recent visit by the Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi:

Kissinger Well, the Indians are bastards anyway… While she was a bitch, we got what we wanted too…”

Nixon “We really slobbered over the old witch.”

Or how about this 2011 exchange between Nicholas Sarkozy (then President of France) and Barack Obama about the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu?

Sarkozy “I can’t stand him. He’s a liar.”

Obama “You’re tired of him? What about me? I have to deal with him every day.”

In recent times, Britain’s new Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, is having to live down some of the things he’s said. For example:

“The only reason I wouldn’t visit some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump.”

Johnson also compared Hillary Clinton to “a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital”.

Well, at least that gets the niceties out of the way, whoever wins the election.