Ambassador to France from February 2012 to January 2016.
6th March 2013 Paris, France
This week on the 8th of March, it’s International Women’s Day, and we are very active in the Embassy in celebrating it. There are two events in particular that I’ve been personally engaged with – and I bring to this a very passionate belief that organisations are better when we have more women in senior […]
18th February 2013 Paris, France
All of us are looking for growth in our economies and the creation of jobs. From that point of view, it was very good news that President Barack Obama, in his State of the Union message, said that he was clearly in favour now of completing the work for a free trade commercial agreement between […]
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8th February 2013 Paris, France
One of the striking things about Britain and France is that our two societies are often dealing with very similar issues at the same time. There is a clear example of that this week where, in both the British Parliament and in the French National Assembly, the issue of gay marriage (or “mariage pour tous” […]
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24th January 2013 Paris, France
There is a lot happening in the world, and I wanted to talk today a bit about our support to France on Mali, and then a bit about Britain and Europe. Britain has fully supported the French military operation in Mali from the start. We entirely share France’s analysis that we can not allow Mali […]
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14th January 2013 Paris, France
I want to talk today about the events of the last few days in Africa, starting by saying that our thoughts go to the families of the French soldiers and the hostage who have lost their lives in Mali and in Somalia.
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21st December 2012 Paris, France
Christmas is a time to look back at the year and also forward to the next year, and this has been an exceptional year for the UK in many ways. For me it finished on a high note because I was able to be in the Foreign Office in London when The Queen came for […]
6th December 2012 Paris, France
I’m talking to you this morning in the middle of a big conference that we are holding in the Embassy on wind energy. We have about 200 business people, about 50/50 French and British, who are first of all learning about the opportunities in the British energy market.
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26th November 2012 Paris, France
I want to talk to you about two things this week. First of all, the European Union budget. You may have seen in the press last week, in the run up to the European Council at the end of the week, a lot of stories suggesting that Britain was isolated. I saw one headline in […]
20th November 2012 Paris, France
I said last week that I would talk to you about our Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s visit on 14 November. Nick is the leader of the Liberal Democrat Party in the UK. He is a former member of the European Parliament, speaks fluent French and so is able to have his lunchtime discussions with […]
12th November 2012 Paris, France
I’m speaking to you just after the commemorations here of 11 November, when we look back and remember those killed in all the wars in the last hundred years. This was my first time in Paris attending these commemorations and it was the privilege to be at the Arc de Triomphe where the Président de […]