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James Barbour

James Barbour

Press Secretary and Head of Communications

Part of UK in USA

14th December 2012 Washington DC, USA

GREAT British boxer Amir Khan in Los Angeles

The following is a guest post by Dame Barbara Hay, British Consul-General in Los Angeles.

Consul-General Dame Barbara Hay and Amir Khan in Los Angeles
Consul-General Dame Barbara Hay and Amir Khan in Los Angeles

They used to say Amir Khan was the best thing to happen to race relations in Britain.

The son of Pakistani immigrants and a practising Muslim, he made all of Britain proud by winning silver at the 2004 Olympics and later as boxing’s super lightweight World Champion. Today, the 26-year-old star is still as popular as ever – and representative of a Britain that is more excitingly diverse than ever before.

Newly released census figures show that London is now, as Americans would say, “majority minority” for the first time; change is also afoot in the Midlands and Northwest England, like Khan’s historic hometown of Bolton.

In Los Angeles as the headliner for a prizefight this weekend, Amir Khan took a few moments out of his training to talk about his Britain, his pride in representing his country and his role in the London Olympics.

Khan was a London 2012 Ambassador, one of 27 British Olympic legends who volunteered to support Team GB’s members and their friends and families.

For Amir, that meant carrying forward the legacy of British sporting success to a new generation of athletes who, in their turn, are inspiring youngsters, in the wake of the Games, to take up sport. And it meant that Amir could finally attend some events, something he was unable to do in 2004.

The 100-metre sprints and football were his favourites; he “I loved every minute of it.

I was delighted to welcome Amir back to LA during his pre-fight press conference and to remind his opponent, LA-native Carlos Molina, that, while he may have a lot of support in the stands, so will Amir Khan – the 250,000 Brits in Southern California can always be counted on to support one of our own.

2012 has been an extraordinary year for the UK.

It’s been thrilling to see how we’ve made our mark here in LA, which always has so much sporting success of which to be proud. First, there was the overwhelming response from our friends here to the London Games. Then the LA Galaxy won a second straight title… with a little help from David Beckham.

And now Amir Khan – Olympic hero and modern Briton – will look to close our GREAT year here in style. I wish him good luck!

About James Barbour

James Barbour is the Press Secretary and Head of Communications at the British Embassy in Washington. He joined the FCO in 1997, having studied Politics at the University of Edinburgh.…

James Barbour is the Press Secretary and Head of Communications at the British Embassy in Washington. He joined the FCO in 1997, having studied Politics at the University of Edinburgh. Roughly half of his career has been spent in London, in a range of jobs covering the OSCE and the Balkans, corporate social responsibility and corporate governance, press work and public relations. From 2000 to 2004 James was posted to the British High Commission in Cape Town, and more recently spent 2007 to 2011 in Moscow. In Washington James is responsible for managing and portraying the Embassy’s – and the British Government’s – public presence in the United States, engaging in debates in the US media environment on policy issues of importance to the UK, and contributing presentational perspectives to the Embassy’s policy discussions. James is keen to help the FCO make the most of social media; this is his third blog, and he often dabbles with Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter. James is joined in Washington by his wife Carrie and their two children.

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