7th March 2014
On Tuesday 11 March a group of officials from different British government departments will be in Rome to meet their Italian opposite numbers, to explain how our benefits system has changed and how it will work for those coming into the UK. On this topic, it is important to underline that we are not trying […]
18th December 2013
So, Australia has won back the Ashes. I was always wary of hubris: I didn’t expect Australia to lightly concede a fourth series defeat in a row. But I don’t think many people anticipated England would perform quite so disappointingly, particularly with the bat. All credit to an Australian team who played outstandingly well. And […]
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11th December 2013 New York, USA
Sometimes it takes seeing your own national customs through the eyes of another to recognise their strangeness. I was honoured to join Mayor Michael A. Nutter of Philadelphia on his trade delegation to London at the start of November, and one night, as we were having dinner at a riverside restaurant, there was a brilliant […]
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30th January 2013 Washington DC, USA
I happened to be in Dublin four years ago when Ireland’s Rugby team won the Six Nation’s Tournament, sending the country into a swirl of excitement culminating in daylong welcome home celebration on the River Liffey, as well as the first I heard of team captain Brian O’Driscoll – nicknamed The BOD – a player […]
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14th December 2012 Washington DC, USA
The following is a guest post by Dame Barbara Hay, British Consul-General in Los Angeles. They used to say Amir Khan was the best thing to happen to race relations in Britain. The son of Pakistani immigrants and a practising Muslim, he made all of Britain proud by winning silver at the 2004 Olympics and […]
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12th November 2012
It’s not often that I meet representatives of a British Company in the morning and read in the afternoon that they are contributing to UK economic success. So I’m intrigued here in Istanbul to meet leading law firm DLA Piper – one of several which have established substantial operations in Turkey – and to read […]
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9th November 2012
As the dramas of the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka unfurled last month, and the England Test series here begins next week, no-one living in India could fail to appreciate the importance of cricket to the nation. T20 Matches against big rival Pakistan, not to mention England and Australia, were watched by millions before […]
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22nd October 2012 Dublin, Ireland
The last week has shown the many facets of our bilateral relationship. It began with an excellent seminar on reducing regulation, which we co-hosted with the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Economy and the Prime Minister’s office. We exchanged experiences with Polish Ministers and experts and agreed that deregulation and reducing burdens on business […]
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19th April 2011
Yesterday afternoon I participated as Patron in the 2011 BBC Entertainment and English Speaking Union (ESU) Public Speaking Awards in Hungary. Along with the Ministry of National Resources and Magyar Telekom, the event was also supported by the British Council, Oxford University Press and the Robert Burns International Foundation. It’s the first time the BBC […]