7th March 2016
Science and Innovation Network
In December, we supported a visit of UK advanced manufacturing experts to Pune and Bengaluru in India. This included Ben Kitcher, who represented the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and the University of Sheffield. Ben wrote an excellent blog (originally on the University of Sheffield website) capturing why this sort of visit is so important […]
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17th March 2015
Oslo, Norway
A year ago, the Kremlin helped stage an illegal and illegitimate “referendum” in Crimea that culminated in Russia annexing Crimea from Ukraine, redrawing the map of Europe by force, and deepening the burgeoning crisis in east Ukraine. The so-called referendum, hastily prepared in just two weeks, was a mockery of democracy. There were no independent, […]
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11th April 2014
Oslo, Norway
Utenriksminister William Hague lanserte torsdag 10. april Storbritannias årlige rapport om menneskerettigheter og demokrati. Den sammenfatter informasjon fra det britiske diplomatnettverket, andre lands myndigheter, internasjonale organisasjoner og det sivile samfunn for å gi grundige situasjonsbeskrivelser og redegjøre for arbeidet britiske embetsmenn og –kvinner legger ned for å oppnå framgang og resultater. Rapporten fremhever fem temaområder […]
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28th March 2013
London, UK
I must be in hundreds of photos seen by people around the world. Not because I’m some global celebrity, but because I regularly walk or cycle over the bridge by the Houses of Parliament in London. Each time I do, I end up in the photos of tourists lining up to take pictures of the […]
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30th May 2012
Islamabad, Pakistan
It is 6.30 am Saturday morning in Lahore, the room service waiter points at the TV news and says “that’s you”. I agree that it is, as footage plays of a meeting I had the day before with Nawaz Sharif, PML-N political leader and twice former Prime Minister of Pakistan, and, Shabaz Sharif, his brother […]
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28th May 2012
London, UK
You’ve seen the photographs of the Prime Ministers outside the door of Number 10 Downing Street. But after the politicians and cameras have left, what does it add up to? I’m one of the behind-the-scenes people in London and Islamabad. You won’t see any of us in the photos, but we’re the ones who made […]
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24th February 2012
Nairobi, Kenya
In my opinion the London Conference on Somalia yesterday was a great success. In case you missed any of it then you can find full reports and links here. It was the biggest conference on Somalia, involving the greatest number of senior leaders, from as wide a range of countries and international organisations, as seen […]
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27th January 2012
Nairobi, Kenya
Reading all of the comments on my three previous blogs has clearly reminded me (as if I needed reminding) that Somalis around the globe love political debate. That is why I am so glad that this blog is beginning to provide a forum for a large number of people to express their views. Those views […]
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13th October 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
There was encouraging news yesterday, with 200 political prisoners released in Burma. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said: “I welcome the news that a number of political prisoners have been released. … We look forward to the hopes for genuine change coming to fruition, and to seeing news of further releases and progress on other […]
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29th November 2010
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Last week the National School of Government came to Budapest for an extremely useful training session for a group of Embassy staff on what to expect under the Hungarian EU Presidency. They covered for example the EU decision making process; the challenges we will face; how the rotating Presidency fits into the new EU architecture; […]
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