16th April 2013
Today, an important vote is taking place in the European Parliament. The British Government has asked all British MEPs to vote for a more competitive EU by supporting a higher price on carbon emissions. A well-functioning market, where it is more expensive to produce carbon emissions is crucial for green growth, and for the UK, […]
12th April 2013
This week, Foreign Ministers from the Group of Eight (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, US and Russia) met in London. They looked at a wide range of issues, including the situation in the Middle East (specifically Syria and Iran), Africa, DPRK and climate change. Two particular issues they addressed illustrate that diplomacy has a […]
28th March 2013
This job takes me to a range of interesting places but it is not often in the space of a few hours that I end up 500 metres underground and then in a bedroom five degrees below freezing! Such was my contrasting experience on my visit to Kiruna this week. As guest of LKAB, which […]
23rd March 2013
Earth hour will take place tonight at 8.30pm. Hundreds of millions of people will turn off their lights for one hour, on the same night, all across the world in a huge, symbolic show of support. The whole of the UK government, and especially the FCO and its embassies around the world, will also mark […]
22nd March 2013
20 March, as well as being the Spring Equinox, was budget day in the UK. As in other European countries, the UK economy has been affected by the chill of the eurozone’s problem and the long winter of the international financial crisis. Against this backdrop, our government has announced several new measures to stimulate recovery. […]
19th March 2013
It was an honour to attend the beautiful and moving funeral service for Princess Lilian, at Slottskyrkan on Saturday. It was a service with a strong British flavour, with the Palace Choir singing Vaughan Williams’ For All the Saints and a wonderful choral arrangement of Parry’s Jerusalem. The congregation sang Abide with Me (in English) […]
13th March 2013
Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt tweeted on 11 March: “Today people on Falkland Islands will express their view on whether they want the islands to remain part of the UK or not. We will listen.” The answer was clear. On a 92% turnout, 99.8% voted to stay a British Overseas Territory. This was not some […]
8th March 2013
To mark International Women’s Day, we are featuring the stories of women who work for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office across our social networks. Vivien Life is the Ambassador to Denmark – she writes about the impressive number of women in Danish politics, bonding over making coffee and the benefits of understanding the concept of […]
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6th March 2013
What an experience! I have been fortunate to attend many events in my career to date, but the Northern Future Forum (NFF) is probably the most inspiring experience I’ve been a part of. To get up close and personal to so many Prime Ministers in such an informal setting as the Museum of Decorative Arts […]
18th February 2013
In last week’s Riksdag debate on foreign policy, Carl Bildt highlighted the progress that the EU has made through the Eastern Partnership – a Sweden/Poland initiative, of which the UK has been a strong supporter. That support will be seen in action this week when British Foreign Secretary Hague makes a joint visit to Moldova […]