I wonder about the G&M staff sometimes.  The reference to "plum" diplomatic posts is a tad much and really unnecessary in the context of this article.  They could as well have been called "important" (which they are) or just, "diplomatic posts" which they are as well.   The article is about  the by-elections not the writer's opinion of the 'quality' of postings to which these former MP's were assigned.   The adjective is suggestive an adds nothing to the article other than he author's unsupported opinion.

Really, what defines "plum"?  It's not as if they are going to be doing beach time  8 hours every day and spend their days sipping rum from coconut shells.   I h lived and worked in some of those 'plum' offshore locations (not for government) in a seemingly "plum" job for more than a decade and neither is nearly so 'plum' as someone like the author of this article might like to believe.