Britain Can't Afford Moral High Ground

In a hideous suite at the Sheraton Hotel in Taif, Saudi Arabia, in 1980, I was woken at two in the morning by King Khalid’s personal aide, with grave news: the King had heard on the BBC that the ITV film Death of a Princess had been rebroadcast, and the King was angry.

I was there as Lord Carrington’s private secretary. The Foreign Secretary and I had made our peace with Khalid the day before, while being careful not to apologise for something over which the Government had no control, in the hope of reversing a devastating trade ban and other sanctions. And now the drama-documentary about the execution of an Arab princess for adultery had been shown again, in Scotland it appeared.