My apologies, I think are are correct on that point.
BTW do you think it is true, that C.Mitchell was assigned to this case on 6th May 2007, as claimed in the film?
Or do you think the film has got it wrong, and he was not assigned to the case until much later, after Ms Dodd left?
I still haven't got to the end of Part I yet.
According to Kate's book (and which seems corroborated by news clips), Alex Woolfall from Bell Pottinger was the first to help out, albeit within the context of crisis management for Mark Warner. Sheree Dodd (an independent consultant) was appointed by the Foreign Office temporarily to help with the campaign and arrived on 15 May. P 138.
Clarence was then seconded to the Foreign Office to assist with the media frenzy. The first time Gerry met Clarence was on 20 May when Gerry had gone over over to the UK. When exactly that
decision was made between the MMU and the Foreign Office was made isn't clear from the book. It's quite possible that the decision was made fairly early on and Clarence may have needed a week or two to get organised, hence the interim assistance from Sheree.
I haven't checked whether Clarence explained how / when he got involved in a presentation he made at some point. I'll add it if I come across it.
In other words, the
decision by the FO to seek a secondment seems likely to have been taken earlier than when he actually appeared on the scene in a working capacity. Later, of course, he was replaced by Justine, hired by the Fund (I believe - to check), and then was privately appointed after Justine had left.
From memory, it's not the first time that someone from the FCO has been sent out to a foreign country to assist with media frenzies. I'm not sure if I could find the reference without recalling the country and / or name of who it was. The basic situation was chaos caused by the media that had descended like a swarm of bees and sending someone out to provide assistance was a diplomatic gesture to help the overwhelmed country in question.