Scotland votes today on breakaway. What does (former) Ambassador Foley say?

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Sure, Tom Foley of Greenwich is still campaigning for his first elective office, but he sure knows how to talk like a politician. And why shouldn’t he? A big fundraiser for national Republicans, the Harvard-trained economist and businessman was director of Private Sector Development for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad from the summer of 2003 into the spring of 2004. Then President George W. Bush named him ambassador to Ireland, where he served from October 2006 until Barack Obama took office in 2009.

Since Dublin is only about 275 miles from Edinburgh, about seven hours by car and ferry, it makes sense to ask the former ambassador his opinion on today’s historic vote in Scotland on breaking away from Great Britain. Besides having U2’s The Edge (left, Getty Images) at his 2009 wedding to Leslie Fahrenkopf (below, Helen Neafsey, Hearst), Foley worked with U.S. diplomats to re-establish a new government in Northern Ireland in May 2007 under the so-called Good Friday Accord. Foley also encouraged investment and cultural exchanges.

“It’s a tough one,” Foley said the other day when asked about Scotland. “There are benefits from their being combined, but sometimes local interests overwhelm those benefits. I think it’s a good thing that the Scottish people have a choice.” He noted that the same potential breakaway can finally occur in Northern Ireland within the next decade or so, predicting that such a vote would most likely go against Great Britain, or, if Scotland does pull away – we will find out Friday morning – Lesser Britain.

tomleslie