Goodbye world, see you in a few weeks (for a proper EU dust-up)

With plenty of domestic issues to debate, the election campaign promises to see little intrusion from the outside world – barring Russia invading a small neighbouring country, a terrorist attack or another financial meltdown.

Nor will Britain say much to the world in the next couple of weeks; ministers will be be represented at international meetings, for example in NATO, by senior officials, and Britain’s diplomats have been told to keep quiet.

As soon as the election is over, however, there will be plenty of action. The Cabinet Office is busy planning a quick update of the National Security Strategy, and then will come a slightly longer Security and Defence Review. Early meetings include EU summits, a Foreign Minister’s meeting in Sarajevo, the NPT Review Conference, a NATO Summit, a follow-up to the COP 15 in Mexico and even an OSCE get-together in Kazakhstan. A future Prime Minister is likely to want to travel to at least Washington, Paris, Brussels, Kabul and perhaps somewhere like New Delhi or to the Franco-African Summit – just to differ from the previous government.