4th July 2014
On a Saturday evening in June 2012, as my wife and I stood in our kitchen, the peace was shattered (literally) by a bottle thrown from the street, which broke our window. It was quite a shock. A man was arrested, spent a night in a police cell and has now been fined 1000 BGN. […]
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10th June 2014
Today, I am travelling to Obstina Thompson in Svoge Municipality, in the beautiful Iskar Gorge. I am taking part in a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the death of Major Frank Thompson, executed by the forces of the wartime, pro-Nazi government. Thompson was a member of the British Communist Party. The partisans are of […]
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9th May 2014
As South Africans prepared to go to the polls Wednesday in the Republic’s fifth democratic national election since its first in 1994, I sat here in Chicago – 9,000 miles away and seven hours behind – keeping up with the news over a cup of tea and a heap of quickly-disappearing buttermilk rusks, South Africa’s crunchy pastry perfect […]
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30th April 2014
In recent weeks, I have walked into three very different sorts of buildings and had three very different sets of reactions. With Labour Day approaching, this has got me wondering: are buildings designed to have an impact on those that work in them, those that visit them, or both? Do people behave differently in a […]
28th April 2014
The Tsar Liberator faces the National Assembly. Newly cleaned, with touches of gold, the statue of the Tsar leading his troops in liberation of Bulgaria is impressive. But his watchful stance and position opposite parliament, the symbol of Bulgarian democracy, brings with it some ambiguity, brought into sharper focus by the situation in Ukraine. The […]
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12th April 2014
How do you judge how effective a parliament is? In many professions the answer might be obvious: how many goals does a footballer score? How many shoes does a cobbler make? In December 2013, Parliament Chair Michael Mikov noted that 75 laws and 170 bills had been passed in the 42nd Parliament. And this in a quite disturbed parliament […]
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6th March 2014
by guest blogger Baroness Verma This blogpost follows Baroness Verma’s official visit to Bulgaria, 3-5 March. It was also published in Standart newspaper. I am delighted that I had the chance to visit Bulgaria this week. As European partners, Bulgaria and the UK need to share ideas on the big challenges of our generation: ensuring energy security, tackling […]
25th February 2014
The usual approach of a blogger or commentator to a historical event is to look for modern-day comparisons; to use the event to support a link to a trend of interest or concern. But this approach cannot be adopted on the Holocaust. Because of its horrors, because of its sheer scale, there can be no […]
18th February 2014
Yesterday, I took part with the President in the official launch of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Scheme in Bulgaria. This was not just an offical duty, but a personal pleasure too, because from the age of 14- 18, at school, I participated in the Scheme. The lessons I learned then stay with me now. As […]
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29th January 2014
Although for me the biggest story of 2013 was the way civil society found its voice, the biggest story UK-Bulgaria story was the vexed issue of migration. We should differentiate between actions and words. The British government’s actions have been clear. We have honoured our legal commitment to lift labour restrictions on Bulgarian workers. In […]
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