AS if any Foreign Secretary doesn’t have enough on his plate – virtually the world – William Hague, Britain’s present incumbent, has been chosen as the mouthpiece of a blunt domestic message from the Government to the people: work harder to pull the country round.

Mr Hague is said to have been picked for this task because he attended a state comprehensive school. This is seen as a better background than Eton or Harrow for a possibly unpalatable lecture on the necessity for hard graft. But he is amply qualified anyway.

Before shouldering the no doubt daunting workload of Foreign Secretary, he succeeded in combining his role as MP for Richmond, England’s largest constituency, with the writing of two deeply researched political biographies.

Witty and affable, he also became a nationwide favourite after-dinner speaker.

Certainly no slacker.

But under scrutiny, his “work harder” message is not quite what the headlines suggested.

It is aimed less at the galley slaves, or those who evade the labour, than business leaders. Mr Hague urges them to stop “complaining”

but instead provide jobs. To underline his target he draws a comparison with Lord Tebbit’s infamous advice to workers thrown on the scrapheap by Margaret Thatcher to “get on their bikes”. “It’s more than that,” says Mr Hague. “It’s ‘Get on the plane. Go and sell things overseas.’”

Outrageous pay packages for some bosses aside, whether business leaders are as neglectful of opportunities as Mr Hague implies is hard to determine. He gets nearer the nub when he says that Britain has suffered decades of declining work ethic, when people believed they could “live on expanded debt forever rather than earn what we spend”.

But even that needs qualifying. My impression today is that while there are far too many people content to enjoy a free ride, those in work are required to put shoulders to the wheel, noses to the grindstone, far harder than previous post-war generations.

Lunch-breaks have vanished. Work-loads have increased. For very many there is the constant threat of redundancy. Work is now far more stressful than for those, like myself, who entered the jobs market in a period of full employment.

Overwork for some; no work for others; an unwillingness to work by not a few. That, I submit, is the full picture today. Certainly Britain’s survival depends on hard work and, largely, living within our means. The task is to get everyone capable of work contributing.

But there will be many business leaders as incandescent over Mr Hague’s “work harder” spur as ordinary citizens working their socks off. A friend who runs a large electrical contracting company is often at his desk at 6.30am. Keeping the contracts coming is no easy task. The role of MP for Richmond, guaranteed for life, must look very inviting.

MR HAGUE’S boss, David Cameron, has my sympathy with his LOL gaffe. Until advised by a grand-daughter, I too thought this abbreviation stood for Lots of Love. It says something about society that it means Laugh Out Loud – usually at someone else’s expense?

NEXT month in Wales there’s a stone skimming championship. For the first time artificial stones, pressed into shape from grit, will be used. This levelling of competitors’ chances should surely bring this great fun sport into the London Olympics.