When is she going to fire him? (Boris)

I didn't know the background of the Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe arrest. There's an interesting article in the Guardian from last month, where they used a letter from David Cameron asking for her release as 'proof she has links to the government'.
www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/17/letter-from-ex-pm-about-jailed-british-iranian-woman-proves-government-links
I have a suspicion that whatever any politician said, it will be used against her as that's the Iranian modus operandi.

Wikipedia is not regarded as a reliable source of information, as its posts are not checked or verified rigorously, and can be altered. People do try to check things by accessing a variety of sources, most of which have their own particular bias, which is why people are entitled to express doubts, based on their own judgement.

Of course it all depends on what is meant by ‘intelligence’

Call me naïve, but I always thought the exercise of “diplomacy” was meant to involve being diplomatic.
FIL was a senior member of the Foreign Office for much of his adult life and you chose your language carefully, taking great care to observe “conditions on the ground”. You were expected to promote the interests of HM government, but where innocent UK citizens were caught up, a delicate juggling act came into force including, like doctors “first do no harm”.
Boris is a highly intelligent man - hard as that may seem to believe these days - but his blundering tactlessness is entirely inappropriate and downright dangerous.
Loose cannons in a battle can end up wreaking devastation on both sides.
Oh for a return of the likes of Sir Humphrey Appleby - a devious bastard but one who rarely let thee others get the better of him. (I know he’s a Civil Servant, but you know what I mean)

What a mess it all is. I even feel a bit sorry for TM, made a huge mistake in calling an election, even bigger mistake in the way she led her campaign and with a group of Ministers it seems she daren't get rid of.
Boris may well have a big brain but he doesn't seem able to use it effectively in the course of his work. Iran is a very different place to countries in Europe. We need a Foreign Secretary who has a big brain, knows how to use it diplomatically. That wouldn't be Boris then.

Priti has probably saved his sorry skin hasn’t she?

The truth is lemon that anyone with a modicum of judgement would realise as was reported on 4 this morning that Johnson is the least distinguished Foreign Secretary since WWII, and is unable to do the job.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the Canadian news agency Thomson Reuters's charitable arm, travelled to Iran on 17 March 2016 to visit her family for Nowruz (Persian New Year) with her 22-month-old daughter Gabriella. On 3 April 2016, members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard arrested her at the Imam Khomeini Airport as she and daughter were about to board a flight back to the UK. Her daughter's British passport was confiscated during the arrest, and the 3-year-old remains in Iran under the care of her maternal grandparents.

The exact reason for her arrest are unclear, though according to Amnesty International it is believed related to the 2014 imprisonment of several Iranian technology news website employees. Zaghari-Ratcliffe used to work for the BBC Media Action international charitable project, which is linked to a BBC training course offered to Iranian journalists, some of who were convicted for participating in the foreign training course in 2014

This is from Wikipedia. Do you know Lemons, it is possible to check these things before doubting the woman in an Iranian prison and, as Boris does himself, excusing his poor judgement and incompetence.

If a minister makes a mistake of this kind, the first response ought to be to correct it. Yet it took six days, and pressure from the British woman’s husband, to get Mr Johnson to do this. When he did it, his words then fell short. On Tuesday, Mr Johnson phoned his Iranian counterpart to correct his remarks. Yet in the Commons later he found ways of saying everything except sorry.

The Guardian view on Boris Johnson and Priti Patel: incompetent, insubordinate and still in office

I couldnt help wondering why Liam Fox, being interviewed this morning on Radio 4's Today program, refused to agree with John Humphys that Boris needs to say, to make it crystal clear, that what he had said was wrong. Fox repeatedly dodged the issue every single time Humphrys put it to him. Why was that?
Rightly or wrongly, I was left with the distinct impression that Fox does not believe Boris to have been wrong!

Quote from the Newstatesman; 'this government has successfully normalised complete bloody incompetence' ,,,

Boris has always been perfectly capable of making up his own lies - he’s been sacked twice because of lying so the odds are pretty good that he just made this comment up as well.

So it's not his fault; he was just regurgitating something he had been told without a] checking that it was correct and b] not considering the fact that it might make the case against this woman even worse. Phew; that's ok then.

Always a possibility Gill but there must be a reason I think, this comment about teaching journalism, it must have come from whoever briefed him, but we may never know.

Maybe, lemongrove the statement of incorrect facts was because he is an inconsiderate, lazy arse who could not be bothered to find out about this case, a case which as Foreign Secretary is part of his remit.

Could it be that teaching journalism is her job ( in the UK) and he got it mixed up? He does find it hard to stay out of trouble.

To be correct, he said that she was ‘teaching journalism’
And not ‘training journalists’ and yes, I too thought this must have been on his briefing notes. Now, it is either true,
Or she was really on holiday.If it wasn’t what he had been told, why would he say it?If she had really only been on holiday, why would he have thought otherwise?Bit of a mystery, but seems he is working with his counterpart in
Iran to get her released.

Whitewave I suggested the same; do a straight swap and leave the fool there. He is a disgrace to his office and disgrace to the country he purports to represent.

Perhaps it is a case of 'all brains and no common sense' Gracesgran - which is very worrying.

Lord Buckethead on twitter suggested we do a straight swap with Nazanin and Johnson - seems a good idea to me. Solve two problems at a stroke.

Good post niggly and I also believe that because Iran doesn’t recognise dual nationality, British consular staff can’t visit her. I’m very surprised that some people thought they could comment on this thread when they had no idea about the fact she was visiting family and had done so several times before

she can't sack either, because her majority is so so thin and her GVT so divided- which is massively worrying. The know they can get away with more or less anything

I saw BJ's usual rumpled appearance on early BBC Breakfast news (no sound, don't ask!) and thought, another sexual harrassment accusation, at last his womanising has caught up with him. But no, it was another kind of clumsy mistake on his part.
How does he get away with it all?

We keep being told how intelligent he is but I have yet to see any signs of this. He is obviously well schooled but so are horses and that does not equate to intelligence.

She was, apparently, taking her baby daughter to visit her parents in Iran. The baby is, I understand, being cared for by the grandparents. Iran doesn't recognise dual nationality which this lady has, whether little girl has or not I don't know. Even if Boris's brief did say she was training journalists, surely he would have had the wit not to repeat it bearing in mind the country in which she's accused. It's very strange, and makes you wonder if there is a hidden agenda - somewhere!

This lady is a British Citizen.She was visiting her family with her baby daughter, something they had done several times since the child was born. She was arrested in suspicion of spying and plotting the downfall of the regime. Her daughter is with maternal grandparents and the Father is worried sick about the health is his wife, imprisoned in a country with a very low disregard for women. What they and the diplomats working patiently behind the scenes do not need is that bloody slack mouthed buffoon Boris, the man in charge of the Foreign Office for heavens sake, making things dangerously worse.