Tag: Scotland

16th August 2018

Scott Wightman

British High Commissioner to Singapore

The greatest show on earth

I was in my home town of Edinburgh last week.  August is a great time to be in Scotland’s capital city. The Edinburgh International Festival was born out of the destruction of the Second World War, its creators conceiving it as a “platform for the flowering of the human spirit”.   From modest beginnings in 1947, […]

Read more on The greatest show on earth | Reply

9th February 2017 Vientiane, Laos

Avatar photo

by Hugh Evans

British Ambassador to Laos

“Dare to be Honest and Fear no Labour” (Robert Burns)

I was recently delighted to host my first Burns Supper in Vientiane.  It was a wonderful evening of poetry, food and dance for which the organizational credit must go to Scottish community stalwart, Clare Hepburn, ably supported by her husband Alistair and others.  As someone who grew up in the southern Scottish town of Dumfries. […]

Read more on “Dare to be Honest and Fear no Labour” (Robert Burns) | Reply (1)

30th November 2016 Vienna, Austria

Avatar photo

by Leigh Turner

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

What connects St Andrew’s Day and a cricket-ball death?

30 November is St Andrew’s Day, named after the Patron Saint of Scotland. St Andrew offers continuity across cultures: he was crucified at Patras, in modern-day Greece, and his body was taken to Constantinople before being transferred to Amalfi in Italy in the 13th Century. Language Teaching Assistant Dan explains St Andrew’s Day The official […]

Read more on What connects St Andrew’s Day and a cricket-ball death? | Reply (1)

21st October 2016 Kolkata, India

Avatar photo

by Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

Another football

One of the surprises of Kolkata for me has been to discover how keen Kolkatans are on sport, and how many sports are played in and around the city. I knew that Kolkata is the home of one of the world’s great cricket grounds – Eden Gardens. As I expected, there is huge interest in […]

Read more on Another football | Reply

16th September 2015

Lord Patten of Barnes

Government co-ordinator of Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom in 2010

The Papal Visit, five years on

It is already five years since the historic visit of Emeritus Pope Benedict to England and Scotland. Shortly after David Cameron won the 2010 General Election, he asked me if I would co-ordinate government support for this visit. I agree on three conditions to which he readily acceded. First, I said that the Catholic hierarchy […]

Read more on The Papal Visit, five years on | Reply (2)

25th January 2015

Avatar photo

by Greg Dorey

Diplomat

The Immortal Memory

There aren’t enough Scots in Ethiopia. Strange, because they seem to get everywhere else. Even when we organised a Burns Evening in Addis Ababa last year with the help of Diageo, there weren’t that many Scots there. This 25th January, we will have to mark the 255th Anniversary of Robert Burns’ birth in 1759 virtually, […]

Read more on The Immortal Memory | Reply (1)

23rd January 2015 Budapest, Hungary

by Jonathan Knott

Former British ambassador to Hungary, Budapest

Celebrating Robert Burns

Guest blog on the occasion of Burns Night (25 January), written by Deborah Moss, Organising Committee member of “Wee Burns” It is a tribute to the poet, Robert Burns, that Scots have held Burns Suppers for over 250 years to remember a man whom many consider to be Scotland’s most famous son. According to the Johnnie […]

Read more on Celebrating Robert Burns | Reply