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Leigh Turner

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

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13th July 2018 Vienna, Austria

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by Leigh Turner

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

Brexit and the rights of UK citizens in Austria Q&A

Update: for the UK Government’s guidance on Living in Austria as a UK national, see Living in Austria. Please sign up for email updates on that page to get the latest information as and when anything changes.  A team from the Department for Exiting the EU visited Vienna recently to talk to UK ex-pats and […]

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6th July 2018 Vienna, Austria

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by Leigh Turner

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

#Diplomatsforequality – LGBTI rights are human rights

A vast parade of colourful floats and marchers streams around the Ringstrasse in Vienna.  More than 200,000 people watch and participate. Towards the front of the spectacle, 200 people – including 15 ambassadors – wave flags, dance and sing, marching behind a banner reading #diplomatsforequality. Welcome to #ViennaPride 2018. The three British Vienna diplomatic missions […]

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3rd July 2018 Vienna, Austria

Jeremy Wilmshurst

Second Secretary (Political), British Embassy Vienna

Prince Metternich, the UK, Austria and the Western Balkans

Guest blog by Jeremy Wilmshurst, Second Secretary (Political) There’s a saying in Vienna, ascribed to 19th Century Austrian statesman Prince Metternich, that ‘the Balkans begins on Rennweg’. The latter is the road running south-east out of Vienna in the direction of Belgrade and beyond. Close to the top of Rennweg stands the British Embassy (reached, […]

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29th June 2018 Vienna, Austria

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by Leigh Turner

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

Horse-punching not required: a Viennese salon at the Jewish Museum

My blog of last September described the “Charles Stewart Conversations”, our regular series of salons here at the British Embassy in Vienna.  I wrote how we decided to name the salon after Lord Charles Vane-Stewart, Third Marquess of Londonderry, the first British Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Emperor of Austria, from 1814-1823 (there’s a […]

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28th June 2018 Vienna, Austria

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by Leigh Turner

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

Austrian EU Presidency: Service Announcement

A medium-sized1 EU country takes on the Presidency of the Council of the European Union during a busy period in Europe.  In addition to Brexit, migration and asylum policy are at the forefront, along with tense long-term EU budget negotiations.  Although people in this country are famously modest, everyone knows that they have run two […]

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15th June 2018 Vienna, Austria

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by Leigh Turner

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

Meeting Hugo Portisch – again

The guest of honour takes up his place at the podium.  The room is hushed.  He begins to speak. I was recently invited to attend the award of the honorary citizenship of the city of Vienna to Dr Hugo Portisch, at the splendid Vienna town hall.  I had met Dr Portisch briefly when I was […]

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5th June 2018 Vienna, Austria

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by Leigh Turner

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

Motor City UK, Motor City Austria and the Jaguar i-Pace

The car is bright red – and silent.  It is, perhaps, the best electric car in the world. I recently had the privilege to attend the launch of the new Jaguar i-Pace in Graz, a couple of hours south of Vienna. Graz is one of my favourite Austrian cities, with a huge student population, a […]

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23rd May 2018 Vienna, Austria

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by Leigh Turner

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

What a drug lab looks like – in Vienna

The crystals are colourless and brittle.  They could be an illegal narcotic substance. How to find out? Here at the UK Mission to the United Nations in Vienna we work closely with the UN office on Drugs and Crime.  Policy on drugs, which are produced and consumed in countries across the world, is a classic […]

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9th May 2018 Vienna, Austria

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by Leigh Turner

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

Four future women ambassadors?

‘So,’ I say, ‘what do you think you might to do for a career?’ ‘Diplomat,’ says the first young woman. ‘Yeah, diplomat,’ the second says. ‘Us, too,’ say the third and fourth members of the group. As part of #girlsday, or #toechtertag, the British Embassy in Vienna this year invited young women to apply to […]

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3rd May 2018 Vienna, Austria

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by Leigh Turner

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

#ViennaMemories #7: the “Robox” blotter

If you watch period dramas such as “The Crown”, where characters write letters with fountain pens, you may see on desks a lozenge-shaped or a semi-circular blotter. Their purpose was to absorb excess ink, particularly from signatures, so that it would not smudge if the paper came into contact with something else. I like fountain […]

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About Leigh Turner

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of…

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of the UN and other organisations; stories here will reflect that.

About me: I arrived in Vienna in August 2016 for my second posting in this wonderful city, having first served here in the mid-1980s. My previous job was as HM Consul-General and Director-General for Trade and Investment for Turkey, Central Asia and South Caucasus based in Istanbul.

Further back: I grew up in Nigeria, Exeter, Lesotho, Swaziland and Manchester before attending Cambridge University 1976-79. I worked in several government departments before joining the Foreign Office in 1983.

Keen to go to Africa and South America, I’ve had postings in Vienna (twice), Moscow, Bonn, Berlin, Kyiv and Istanbul, plus jobs in London ranging from the EU Budget to the British Overseas Territories.

2002-6 I was lucky enough to spend four years in Berlin running the house, looking after the children (born 1992 and 1994) and doing some writing and journalism.

To return to Vienna as ambassador is a privilege and a pleasure. I hope this blog reflects that.