10th January 2018
Vienna, Austria
A corrupt official takes an illegal bribe. Why does matter? And if it does matter, what can we do about it? This isn’t just about morality. Research shows that corruption raises the cost of doing business and reduces economic growth. A 1% reduction in corruption perception scores can raise growth by 0.57% in developed economies […]
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16th May 2016
Skopje, North Macedonia
Name me one country where corruption doesn’t exist. You can’t, I know. Corruption exists, to a greater or lesser extent, in every country. And that global reach is one of the reasons behind the Anti-Corruption Summit hosted by Prime Minister David Cameron in London on 12 May. This was no conventional summit limited to Heads […]
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12th May 2016
Washington DC, USA
Corruption is the cancer at the heart of so many of the world’s problems. It erodes trust, undermines stability, and breeds injustice. It’s costly in so many ways — estimates by the World Economic Forum show that corruption sets the global economy back by $2.6 trillion. And the World Bank has estimated that corruption adds to global […]
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7th July 2015
Geneva, Switzerland
UN diplomats spend much of their lives fretting about securing exactly the right words in international documents. I’ve seen a whole day of negotiations conclude with only a comma added, to mutual back-slapping and a general sense of a job well done, and have spent weeks painfully debating the insertion of a footnote or an […]
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23rd March 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Pope Francis is a powerful campaigner against corruption; the exploitation by the powerful of the vulnerable, the poor and the weak. He returned to this theme again on his recent visit to Naples, a city blighted by the corrupting influence of organised crime. “Corruption stinks”, he said, “corrupt society stinks and a Christian who lets […]
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9th March 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Over the next two days, the GREAT Mega Mission – a trade delegation of around 50 British businesses – will pitch camp in Bucharest for an intensive round of seminars, meetings and networking opportunities, before moving on to Bulgaria for the second and final leg. The Mission is a milestone event: the largest UK commercial […]
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11th December 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
As British Ambassador I am asked almost as often by Bulgarians what I say about their country to investors, as I am asked by investors what I think about Bulgaria. I answer the same to both: a wonderful country, with real potential and excellent people, but some big problems, particularly in the rule of law […]
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13th November 2014
Brasilia, Brazil
This weekend, on 15-16 November, heads of government from 19 countries and the EU will meet in Brisbane, Australia for the G20 Leaders’ Summit. This gathering of the ‘Group of 20’, the world’s major developed and emerging economies, took on force after the Global Financial Crisis and is now arguably the most important global forum […]
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23rd July 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
There are many definitions of “the common good”. It is an idea born from early Christian thought, especially the writing of St Augustine, and a key concept of Catholic Social Teaching. As a phrase, it is used regularly by successive Popes, including Pope Francis, to describe a worthy objective of man’s strivings in society. A […]
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22nd August 2012
Nairobi, Kenya
On Monday, Somalia marked a significant milestone in its history. Twenty years after the country fell into conflict, a new Federal Parliament was inaugurated – paving the way to end the Transition in the next few days, and opening the first legislature to be formed inside Somalia since 1991. This is a huge achievement, both for the […]
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