Part of UK in USA [New York]
29th October 2010 New York, USA
Celebrating British talent in the States
Congratulations
to Glenda
Bailey OBE and Tony Walton who became the first recipients
of the St
George‘s Society Anglo-American Cultural
Awards this
week. The
glittering event, on October 25,
began with the first US performance of Stephen
Sondheim’s Evening Primrose, starring celebrated
British actress Angela Lansbury
CBE. The night also featured performances from
Alan
Cumming OBE and Jim Dale MBE. It was
poignant that the awards were held at Hearst Towers – a wonderful new New York
building designed by British architect,
Norman Foster.
Earlier that day, the
British Consulate-General had the
opportunity to again work closely with the US Military Academy at
West
Point, which is on the Hudson River
in NY, and
is a training ground for some of the US’ future leaders. We
hosted 23 West Point cadets for a round-table discussion and, as
always,
they asked some astute and tough questions about international
issues. In fact today, Ambassador Nigel Sheinwald is
lecturing to students at the West Point Academy where
he will outline shared
international goals and military partnerships while emphasizing how US
and
UK citizens are more secure because of the strong relationship between
our two
nations. Click to read about his visit – ("Why the UK/US relationship still matters").
It is interesting to
note that it is not simply British
politics we keep a keen eye on here in the US but we also think
about the politics in the states we cover. My colleague Matthew Windrum
spent a couple of days in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, taking
the temperature ahead of
some interesting and apparently close elections on November 2. And
not
that we would anyway, but these elections seem too close to call.
Finally, I’d
like to commend a couple of colleagues who are running the NYC Marathon
on 7
November. There’s just over a week to go now
until the big race and Sarah Macphee and Mike Niles are running
to raise
money for Team Continuum, a charity
which helps cancer patients and their families. If you’d like to help
them (and
the charity), click on their names above to
get to their donations page.