Ambassador to France from February 2012 to January 2016.
20th January 2014 Paris, France
I was extremely pleased and very proud to receive a New Year’s Honour for my contribution to consular services in France, a career which spans over more than 25 years! I didn’t know anything about the nomination until a few weeks before the official publication so it also came as a huge surprise.
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20th January 2014 Paris, France
A very Happy New Year to everyone, and I wish you the best of good fortune in 2014. This is going to be a year of commemorations: we shall have the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Channel tunnel by President Mitterrand and Her Majesty the Queen ; the 70th anniversary of D-Day, with […]
13th January 2014 Paris, France
We’ve just had in Paris a meeting of a group of countries who are trying to help move forward the Syrian problem which William Hague, our Foreign Minister, was here to attend.
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18th December 2013 Paris, France
This Christmas time I’ve been thinking about what was achieved in 2013 and what we have to look forward to in 2014. When I look back at 2013, it was a bumper year for UK-French relations.
9th December 2013 Paris, France
France has taken the decision to increase its force levels in the Central African Republic to deal with the awful outbreak of killing between the communities there. Personally I have had a lot of experience over the years of dealing with this kind of chaos and violence, I think of the Balkans for example.
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19th November 2013 Paris, France
As part of Britain’s chairmanship of the G8 group of countries, we thought it would be interesting here in France to ask young, secondary school pupils what they thought were the really big issues facing our world.
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21st October 2013 Paris, France
This week is a very important moment for our two countries in terms of our commercial cooperation. We’re going to be making an agreement in principle between the government in London, EDF and Areva for the construction of a new nuclear power station site at Hinkley point in Somerset.
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30th September 2013 Paris, France
We’ve just finished one of the most important meetings of Foreign ministers in New York that I can remember in a long time. So many different subjects in one week of intense diplomatic activity.
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20th September 2013 Paris, France
Everyone is working incredibly hard at the moment to deal with the conflict in Syria. This conflict reminds us all again that all too often we find that rape and sexual violence is used as an instrument of war, particularly against women.
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5th August 2013 Paris, France
We are now in the summer holiday season, and an amazing 17 million British people come to France every year. We want everyone to have a happy, successful, relaxing holiday. And for that there are one or two tips which I would offer to everyone planning a holiday in France this summer.
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