Complaints about airline food, queries about moving furniture into small flats and a request for a rapper’s phone number are among the more unlikely queries UK diplomatic staff dealt with this year.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has published its annual unofficial top 10 list of trivial inquiries from the 330,000 calls taken by staff in 2019, as a means to draw attention to what consular services can and cannot do to assist Britons overseas.
Among the calls highlighted was a man requesting the FCO change him to a different airline for his return to the UK from a holiday, as the food served on the plane there was unsatisfactory.
One British couple considering moving to Portugal contacted the UK embassy in Lisbon to ask how removal companies were able to shift bulky items of furniture into small flats in the city. A woman in Sweden called to ask what she should wear to an event she was due to attend at Windsor Castle.
Another inquiry from a caller in Nigeria concerned a request for British officials to pass on the telephone number of the New York-born rapper 50 Cent.
Other missives were less unlikely, if similarly ambitious. One person asked whether consular staff in France could call a hotel where they had been staying to retrieve a pair of headphones, while a woman emailed the consulate in Texas asking to buy 30 sheets of A4 paper as she could not find any.
One man rang to seek consular assistance to replace a broken television in the hospital ward where his friend was staying in Australia.
The FCO said the list was issued in the hope of reminding people what embassies and consular services can do, such as issuing emergency passports, helping Britons overseas who are in hospital or jail, or providing details of local services such as lawyers and doctors.
“While we can’t hand out famous rappers’ phone numbers, collect your lost property or advise on Windsor Castle’s dress code, our dedicated consular staff are there to help Brits who run into trouble when they’re abroad,” a spokeswoman said.
