21st March 2024
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
19th March 2024
Russia – 25 years of broken hopes and smashed dreams
8th March 2024
Gender equality is non-negotiable
18th October 2012 Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Medals from London
Last week I visited Uzbekistan’s National Olympic Committee, to meet the President of the Committee and the President of the National Paralympic Association. The Embassy worked with both organisations in preparation for this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in London, including helping to organise a table-tennis tournament for the diplomatic community with Paralympians. President Boboev […]
17th October 2012
Guatemala at the United Nations
October is an historic month for Guatemala. For the first time ever, it is presiding over the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Guatemala is currently a non-permanent member of the UNSC, and will be until the end of 2013. It’s one of 15 members, ten non-permanent and five permanent members, including the UK, who discuss […]
17th October 2012 Yerevan, Armenia
Trusting justice
I’ve been thinking this week about one of the hardest tasks for a young democracy: building a justice system people can trust. This is partly because I was back in the UK last week, meeting with British businesses who are interested in working in Armenia and the wider region. Near the top of the list […]
17th October 2012 Beirut, Lebanon
There’s Nothing Wrong with The Leftovers
I’ve become used to my team suggesting life or career threatening stunts to highlight our priorities. In recent weeks, they got me to teach an English lesson to promote Language Day, read The Gruffalo to bemused non-English speakers to promote the British Council’s Kids Read project, and dress up as Bond to promote British brands. […]
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16th October 2012
Happy Birthday Single Market!
Yesterday, a friend here in Sweden ordered a pram on-line. The best price was from a French company. The site (albeit in French only) helpfully gave a price for delivery to Sweden. But it proved impossible to register as a customer outside France. She put “Sweden” in the comment box and pressed send. And the […]
16th October 2012 Budapest, Hungary
Wedding planners
The Foreign Secretary, William Hague, visited us on 4 October. He was here for a short time – just 5 working hours. But he was able in that time to open the Budapest Cyber Conference, have meetings with PM Orban and Foreign Minister Martonyi, and do a TV interview and a press conference. An impressive […]
16th October 2012
48 hours in Istanbul
It’s after midnight on a Friday and I’m waiting at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport to meet FCO Europe Minister David Lidington off a late flight from London. The airport is packed with people as passengers pour into a city which for over 2,000 years has been a crossroads between Europe and Asia. One of the first […]
16th October 2012 New Delhi, India
Inspiring women in science
Today is Ada Lovelace day. If you’re wondering who Ada Lovelace is, she was a pioneering computer programmer and contemporary of (the potentially better known) Charles Babbage. As Suw Charman-Anderson and Helen Arney write on the Guardian’s science blogs, today is a chance to celebrate the “unsung heroines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)” and so […]
16th October 2012
Supporting business back home
SME exporters in Leeds, big corporates in Canary Wharf, Australian inward investors in Manchester. I’ve spent a busy few days supporting the UK economy, which is the top priority for our overseas network. At an export seminar in Leeds hosted by the big international law firm DLA Piper, I spoke about the many export opportunities […]
15th October 2012
Arriving in the Falkland Islands
May I welcome our guest blogger for this week: Bruce Callow, Communications Officer at the British Embassy in Costa Rica, who along with Edward Smith, Political Officer at the British Embassy in Guatemala, are in the Falkland Islands with a group Central American journalists (including Luis Velasquez of Guatemala’s Prensa Libre) where they have traveled […]